The Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust has provided the Rural Policy Research Institute (RUPRI) Health Panel with a three-year, $600,000 award to continue its work providing science-based, objective policy analysis to federal and state health policy makers in the area of rural health.

“This award ensures that the panel will continue to be actively engaged in rural health policy dialogue on a national level,” says Keith Mueller, chair of the panel and head of the Department of Health Management and Policy in the University of Iowa College of Public Health. “In the midst of this dramatic transformation that’s taking place in rural health care delivery and finance, policy makers and stakeholders will need RUPRI’s unbiased, evidence-based analysis of rural implications of the choices they face.”

Keith Mueller

Mueller refers to the comprehensive approach to reform embedded in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) as a policy area for which the panel’s advice will be crucial.

“Regardless of the outcomes of challenges to the ACA, major changes in health care delivery and finance already underway will not be reversed, and the panel must be ready to provide policy documents, briefings, and consultations on specific policy decisions to ensure the health of our rural population is well protected,” says Mueller.

“The Helmsley Charitable Trust is doing fabulous work in supporting health care innovation, especially in the area of rural health,” concludes Mueller. “Their support allows us to continue the work that the RUPRI Health Panel does best: translating knowledge into action in the policy arena.”

About the RUPRI Health Panel

The RUPRI Health Panel was established in 1993 to provide science-based, objective policy analysis to federal policy makers. Recent documents from the panel include “ The High Performance Rural Health Care System of the Future,” and additional documents on high profile issues such as Medicare, Medicaid, and accountable care organizations.

About The Helmsley Charitable Trust

The Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust aspires to improve lives by supporting effective nonprofits in a variety of selected areas. Since 2008, when the Trust began its active grant-making, it has committed more than $700 million to a wide range of charitable organizations. For more information on the Trust and its programs visit www.helmsleytrust.org.

The Rural Healthcare Program of The Trust provides funding for innovative projects that use information technologies to connect rural patients to specialty medical care, provide the latest medical therapies, and facilitate programs for underserved populations that place particular stress on existing health care facilities and local governments. The RUPRI Health Panel funding is part of The Trust’s Rural Healthcare Program, which has awarded a total of more than $148 million in grants to institutions and organizations in the upper Midwest.