{"id":9725,"date":"2013-10-23T19:17:26","date_gmt":"2013-10-23T23:17:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.poweryourpractice.com\/?p=9725"},"modified":"2025-07-01T11:57:07","modified_gmt":"2025-07-01T11:57:07","slug":"health-technology-rural-physicians","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/carecloud.com\/continuum\/health-technology-rural-physicians\/","title":{"rendered":"Is Health Technology a Boon For Rural Physicians?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rural physicians face a set of challenges different from their urban-based counterparts. Issues like lower-income patient bases, glaring physician and registered nurse shortages and geographically disconnected patients all contribute to the difficulty of practicing in a rural setting.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, their distinct needs are often overlooked<\/strong> when discussing the impact health technology<\/a> has on physician practices. Most pundits instead focus on practices under a broad umbrella.<\/p>\n

Below we give you tips to rectify this by exploring how health technology can help rural physicians with the three aforementioned issues.<\/p>\n

Higher Profit Margins<\/strong><\/h3>\n

According to the 2012 U.S. Census<\/a>, the median income for households inside metropolitan statistical areas is $52,988, compared to $41,198 for households outside of metropolitan areas. The lower income of rural patient bases means rural physicians often treat more Medicaid patients than urban doctors.<\/p>\n

Seeing how Medicaid typically reimburses only 56% of what private insurers pay out<\/strong>, rural physicians need to secure maximum reimbursements from each patient.<\/p>\n

EHRs<\/a> help in this regard by letting doctors record every aspect of the patient visit. More extensive documentation reduces the occurrence of wrongfully \u201cdown coded\u201d claims, which adversely affect profitability.<\/p>\n

Practice management (PM) software also helps ensure full reimbursement with features like code scrubbing, rule-based intelligence and patient eligibility checks.<\/p>\n

Making Up for the Physician\/RN Shortage<\/strong><\/h3>\n

While 19% of the nation\u2019s population lives in rural areas, only 11% of the nation\u2019s physicians practice in these communities, meaning they\u2019re feeling the premature effects of the prognosticated physician shortage of 2020<\/a>. There is a rural shortage of RNs as well, but they\u2019re nowhere near as severe.<\/p>\n

In terms of reduced competition, the shortage is a good thing, but it\u2019s not beneficial for rural physicians who\u2019d like to bring another physician or RN on board for help. Therefore, rural physicians should use health technology to spread themselves out as efficiently as much as possible, without risking physician fatigue<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Thankfully, EHRs streamline operations by allowing physicians to chart rapidly<\/strong> during the patient encounter, and ePrescribing functionality reduces prescription writing to a few clicks of the mouse. In addition, PM systems, streamline patient flows to get patients through the office quicker.<\/p>\n

Reaching Remote Patients<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Rural communities aren\u2019t as centralized as urban settlements so patients may have to travel into an entirely other towns to reach the nearest physician.<\/p>\n

Patient portals come in handy when dealing with geographically distant patients. Rural patients can access lab results electronically through the portal rather than making oft-long voyages to their primary care providers. Some portals also have secure messaging capabilities, so patients can communicate directly with their physicians online<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Telemedicine is another health technology<\/a> that helps physicians overcome the challenge of dealing with distant patients. It involves using voice conferencing and streaming media to provide long-distance patient care, a development that has prompted companies like Skype to boost security settings. The costs of telemedicine can be less than the cost of actually seeing a patient in the office.<\/p>\n

Adopting health technology can help rural physicians reduce some of the problems they encounter on a daily basis. As hospitals and large healthcare organizations become more pervasive, it may be the key to the future viability of rural physicians.<\/p>\n

Looking for more information about how health technology can help your practice? Sign up for our email list below.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rural physicians face a set of challenges different from their urban-based counterparts. Issues like lower-income patient bases, glaring physician and registered nurse shortages and geographically disconnected patients all contribute to the difficulty of practicing in a rural setting. Unfortunately, their distinct needs are often overlooked when discussing the impact health technology has on physician practices. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":32786,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9725","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-trends"],"yoast_head":"\nHealth Tech for Rural Physicians - CareCloud<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Here we give you tips to rectify this by exploring how health technology can help rural physicians with the three aforementioned issues. Read more.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/carecloud.com\/continuum\/health-technology-rural-physicians\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Health Tech for Rural Physicians - CareCloud\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Here we give you tips to rectify this by exploring how health technology can help rural physicians with the three aforementioned issues. Read more.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/carecloud.com\/continuum\/health-technology-rural-physicians\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Continuum\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-10-23T23:17:26+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-07-01T11:57:07+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/carecloud.com\/continuum\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/dummy-5-paigl6zusafxfmk55j3mhrce0nfw5zrnw9chmopqcs.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"400\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"350\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cc_continuum\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cc_continuum\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/carecloud.com\\\/continuum\\\/health-technology-rural-physicians\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/carecloud.com\\\/continuum\\\/health-technology-rural-physicians\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cc_continuum\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/carecloud.com\\\/continuum\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/6af17e75a684cc5cd23741e014351348\"},\"headline\":\"Is Health Technology a Boon For Rural Physicians?\",\"datePublished\":\"2013-10-23T23:17:26+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-07-01T11:57:07+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/carecloud.com\\\/continuum\\\/health-technology-rural-physicians\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":554,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/carecloud.com\\\/continuum\\\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/carecloud.com\\\/continuum\\\/health-technology-rural-physicians\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/carecloud.com\\\/continuum\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2015\\\/10\\\/dummy-5-paigl6zusafxfmk55j3mhrce0nfw5zrnw9chmopqcs.png\",\"articleSection\":[\"Trends\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/carecloud.com\\\/continuum\\\/health-technology-rural-physicians\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/carecloud.com\\\/continuum\\\/health-technology-rural-physicians\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/carecloud.com\\\/continuum\\\/health-technology-rural-physicians\\\/\",\"name\":\"Health Tech for Rural Physicians - CareCloud\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/carecloud.com\\\/continuum\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/carecloud.com\\\/continuum\\\/health-technology-rural-physicians\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/carecloud.com\\\/continuum\\\/health-technology-rural-physicians\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/carecloud.com\\\/continuum\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2015\\\/10\\\/dummy-5-paigl6zusafxfmk55j3mhrce0nfw5zrnw9chmopqcs.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2013-10-23T23:17:26+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-07-01T11:57:07+00:00\",\"description\":\"Here we give you tips to rectify this by exploring how health technology can help rural physicians with the three aforementioned issues. Read more.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/carecloud.com\\\/continuum\\\/health-technology-rural-physicians\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/carecloud.com\\\/continuum\\\/health-technology-rural-physicians\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/carecloud.com\\\/continuum\\\/health-technology-rural-physicians\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/carecloud.com\\\/continuum\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2015\\\/10\\\/dummy-5-paigl6zusafxfmk55j3mhrce0nfw5zrnw9chmopqcs.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/carecloud.com\\\/continuum\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2015\\\/10\\\/dummy-5-paigl6zusafxfmk55j3mhrce0nfw5zrnw9chmopqcs.png\",\"width\":400,\"height\":350},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/carecloud.com\\\/continuum\\\/health-technology-rural-physicians\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/carecloud.com\\\/continuum\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Is Health Technology a Boon For Rural Physicians?\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/carecloud.com\\\/continuum\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/carecloud.com\\\/continuum\\\/\",\"name\":\"Continuum\",\"description\":\"\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/carecloud.com\\\/continuum\\\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/carecloud.com\\\/continuum\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/carecloud.com\\\/continuum\\\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Continuum\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/carecloud.com\\\/continuum\\\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/carecloud.com\\\/continuum\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/logo\\\/image\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/carecloud.com\\\/continuum\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2025\\\/03\\\/cc-logo-header-2021-1-2.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/carecloud.com\\\/continuum\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2025\\\/03\\\/cc-logo-header-2021-1-2.png\",\"width\":218,\"height\":57,\"caption\":\"Continuum\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/carecloud.com\\\/continuum\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/logo\\\/image\\\/\"}},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/carecloud.com\\\/continuum\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/6af17e75a684cc5cd23741e014351348\",\"name\":\"cc_continuum\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/8b6d796be6337a9688b6e065532f1be27bf69a98f06ddc7a6dda2c9cbbcf4078?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/8b6d796be6337a9688b6e065532f1be27bf69a98f06ddc7a6dda2c9cbbcf4078?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/8b6d796be6337a9688b6e065532f1be27bf69a98f06ddc7a6dda2c9cbbcf4078?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"cc_continuum\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/carecloud.com\\\/continuum\"]}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Health Tech for Rural Physicians - CareCloud","description":"Here we give you tips to rectify this by exploring how health technology can help rural physicians with the three aforementioned issues. Read more.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/carecloud.com\/continuum\/health-technology-rural-physicians\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Health Tech for Rural Physicians - CareCloud","og_description":"Here we give you tips to rectify this by exploring how health technology can help rural physicians with the three aforementioned issues. Read more.","og_url":"https:\/\/carecloud.com\/continuum\/health-technology-rural-physicians\/","og_site_name":"Continuum","article_published_time":"2013-10-23T23:17:26+00:00","article_modified_time":"2025-07-01T11:57:07+00:00","og_image":[{"width":400,"height":350,"url":"https:\/\/carecloud.com\/continuum\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/dummy-5-paigl6zusafxfmk55j3mhrce0nfw5zrnw9chmopqcs.png","type":"image\/png"}],"author":"cc_continuum","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"cc_continuum","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/carecloud.com\/continuum\/health-technology-rural-physicians\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/carecloud.com\/continuum\/health-technology-rural-physicians\/"},"author":{"name":"cc_continuum","@id":"https:\/\/carecloud.com\/continuum\/#\/schema\/person\/6af17e75a684cc5cd23741e014351348"},"headline":"Is Health Technology a Boon For Rural Physicians?","datePublished":"2013-10-23T23:17:26+00:00","dateModified":"2025-07-01T11:57:07+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/carecloud.com\/continuum\/health-technology-rural-physicians\/"},"wordCount":554,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/carecloud.com\/continuum\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/carecloud.com\/continuum\/health-technology-rural-physicians\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/carecloud.com\/continuum\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/dummy-5-paigl6zusafxfmk55j3mhrce0nfw5zrnw9chmopqcs.png","articleSection":["Trends"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/carecloud.com\/continuum\/health-technology-rural-physicians\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/carecloud.com\/continuum\/health-technology-rural-physicians\/","url":"https:\/\/carecloud.com\/continuum\/health-technology-rural-physicians\/","name":"Health Tech for Rural Physicians - CareCloud","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/carecloud.com\/continuum\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/carecloud.com\/continuum\/health-technology-rural-physicians\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/carecloud.com\/continuum\/health-technology-rural-physicians\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/carecloud.com\/continuum\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/dummy-5-paigl6zusafxfmk55j3mhrce0nfw5zrnw9chmopqcs.png","datePublished":"2013-10-23T23:17:26+00:00","dateModified":"2025-07-01T11:57:07+00:00","description":"Here we give you tips to rectify this by exploring how health technology can help rural physicians with the three aforementioned issues. Read more.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/carecloud.com\/continuum\/health-technology-rural-physicians\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/carecloud.com\/continuum\/health-technology-rural-physicians\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/carecloud.com\/continuum\/health-technology-rural-physicians\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/carecloud.com\/continuum\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/dummy-5-paigl6zusafxfmk55j3mhrce0nfw5zrnw9chmopqcs.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/carecloud.com\/continuum\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/dummy-5-paigl6zusafxfmk55j3mhrce0nfw5zrnw9chmopqcs.png","width":400,"height":350},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/carecloud.com\/continuum\/health-technology-rural-physicians\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/carecloud.com\/continuum\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Is Health Technology a Boon For Rural Physicians?"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/carecloud.com\/continuum\/#website","url":"https:\/\/carecloud.com\/continuum\/","name":"Continuum","description":"","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/carecloud.com\/continuum\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/carecloud.com\/continuum\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/carecloud.com\/continuum\/#organization","name":"Continuum","url":"https:\/\/carecloud.com\/continuum\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/carecloud.com\/continuum\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/carecloud.com\/continuum\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/cc-logo-header-2021-1-2.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/carecloud.com\/continuum\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/cc-logo-header-2021-1-2.png","width":218,"height":57,"caption":"Continuum"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/carecloud.com\/continuum\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"}},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/carecloud.com\/continuum\/#\/schema\/person\/6af17e75a684cc5cd23741e014351348","name":"cc_continuum","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8b6d796be6337a9688b6e065532f1be27bf69a98f06ddc7a6dda2c9cbbcf4078?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8b6d796be6337a9688b6e065532f1be27bf69a98f06ddc7a6dda2c9cbbcf4078?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8b6d796be6337a9688b6e065532f1be27bf69a98f06ddc7a6dda2c9cbbcf4078?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"cc_continuum"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/carecloud.com\/continuum"]}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/carecloud.com\/continuum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9725","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/carecloud.com\/continuum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/carecloud.com\/continuum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carecloud.com\/continuum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carecloud.com\/continuum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9725"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/carecloud.com\/continuum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9725\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":42771,"href":"https:\/\/carecloud.com\/continuum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9725\/revisions\/42771"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carecloud.com\/continuum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32786"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/carecloud.com\/continuum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9725"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carecloud.com\/continuum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9725"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carecloud.com\/continuum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9725"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}