Penn Highlands Rural Clinics Among Top 50 Rural Health Centers

New Bethlehem Rural Health Center and Moshannon Valley Rural Health Center Recognized

New Bethlehem Rural Health Center and Moshannon Valley Rural Health Center have each received a Lilypad Award for being among the top 50 Rural Health Centers in the United States for 2021. The Lilypad Awards recognize the Rural Health Clinics that outperform their rural primary care practice peers in terms of efficiency and operational excellence.

Utilizing data from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid program to calculate rural-relevant metrics across five domains, the Lilypad Awards provide a comprehensive and objective assessment of rural health clinic performance. The Lilypad Awards and Lilypad’s Practice Operations National Database (POND) programs are used nationally by rural clinics, State Offices of Rural Health, regional healthcare systems and rural hospitals to measure and monitor rural primary care practice performance. They serve as the foundation for several state and national rural primary care performance improvement initiatives.

In many cases Rural Health Clinics receive enhanced reimbursement from government payers such as Medicare and Medicaid as a means of sustaining financial solvency. Rural Health Clinics must meet one or more healthcare shortage designations to be eligible for the program and generally are categorized as either provider-based (hospital-owned) or independent. The Lilypad Awards evaluate both provider types to produce a comprehensive ranking system for every Rural Health Clinic in the nation. The Top Five organizations in each of five geographic regions have earned the 2021 Lilypad Award Top Clinic recognition.

“The COVID-19 pandemic underscores the importance of primary care in rural America, and Rural Health Clinics are an essential component of our healthcare safety net,” said Gregory Wolf, founder and President of Lilypad, LLC. “The Lilypad Awards seek to both inform the industry and public about the importance of Rural Health Clinics as well as recognize excellence among this group of providers. Our rural communities rely on affordable access to high quality primary care services and Rural Health Clinics play a vital role in strengthening our healthcare delivery systems, especially in the context of the pandemic.”