In the first year of the Rural Health Transformation Program (RHTP), states have homed in on a few core themes designed to improve the nation’s rural health infrastructure.
[…]
Comprehensive primary care promises to transform the U.S. health care system by unlocking powerful health improvements and cost savings for patients and taxpayers. By investing in primary care, lawmakers can improve the health and wellbeing of all Americans.
The package of fact sheets below examines the state of primary care in all 50 states and the District of Columbia.
Comprehensive primary care promises to transform the U.S. health care system by unlocking powerful health improvements and cost savings for patients and taxpayers. By investing in primary care, lawmakers can improve the health and wellbeing of all Americans.
The fact sheet below examines the state of primary care in Virginia.
Taken from the Primary Care Collaborative’s 2025 Evidence Report: Closing the Distance in Rural Primary Care, these five case studies highlight how rural primary care practices are innovating to meet local needs despite ongoing workforce shortages, financial pressures, and access challenges.
This case study focuses on Smyth County, Virginia, where local leaders are strengthening the health care workforce by investing in homegrown training pathways, scholarships and community partnerships. This demonstrates how recruiting and retaining clinicians who train locally—while integrating social services and behavioral health support—can improve access, continuity and trust in rural communities.
Taken from the Primary Care Collaborative’s 2025 Evidence Report: Closing the Distance in Rural Primary Care, these five case studies highlight how primary care practices across rural communities are innovating to meet local needs despite facing consistent workforce shortages, growing financial pressures and access challenges.
Drawing from diverse models—including FQHCs, direct primary care practices, independent rural clinics and teaching health centers—these various stories illustrate how comprehensive, community-rooted primary care strengthens access, supports clinicians and improves health outcomes in rural communities that need it.
Nearly half of Virginia’s neighborhoods don’t have enough nearby primary care physicians for their residents, with rural communities being hit hardest by workforce shortages, according to a new study led by researchers at Virginia Commonwealth University.
The researchers leading this study were supported by funds from the National Institutes of Health.
Doctors are urging community members to make regular primary care appointments on the heels of the pandemic.
Richmond-Henrico Health District Director Dr. Elaine Perry reminds the public of the importance of regularly seeing a primary care physician. She said a lot of attention was previously on preventing the spread of COVID-19, but now they can focus on the basics.
This bill required the state Department of Health and Human Resources to contract with the Virginia Center for Health Innovation for actions necessary to facilitate and continue the work of the Virginia Task Force on Primary Care. The purpose of the task force is to enhance the financing, quality and delivery of primary care in the Commonwealth.