AHCPR-funded rural managed care centers: report from the field

In 1994, the Agency for Health Care Policy and Research awarded cooperative agreements to five University-based groups to promote the establishment of managed care institutions and development of rural health networks. This paper summarizes the experiences of these rural managed care centers in the first three years of this initiative. Key ingredients for achieving the project's goals that are identified by the project directors are reported as "foundations" that must be in place from the outset, or "building blocks" that can be developed along the way. The development of information systems and efforts to foster leadership in the medical community are areas in which grant funding of this type can be most effective.