WWAMI Rural Health Research Center

ICYMI, we’re presenting a webinar this Wednesday on the Rural Health Research Gateway: A Tour of the Youth Behavioral Health Services Landscape

🗓 June 17 | ⏰ 10 AM PT / 1 PM ET
🔗Register: https://ow.ly/Yi5q50Z6iRc

New Policy Report!
Effective January 1, 2024, marriage and family therapists (MFTs) and mental health counselors (MHCs) can now independently bill Medicare for mental health services. Our latest policy report examines the MFT and MHC workforces changed before and after this new policy was implemented. We also describe the perspectives of rural health system leaders on the barriers and facilitators of utilizing this new policy to expand rural mental health services.

What we found:
-- From before to after this policy change, both the Medicare-enrolled MFT and MHC workforces grew in urban and rural counties.
-- Following the policy change, about half (43.6%) of rural counties had at least 1 Medicare-enrolled MHC and a13.9% had at least one enrolled MFT, compared with over half of urban counties that had at least one enrolled MHC (76.4%) and MFTs (47.9%) respectively (Q4 2024).
-- Workforce shortages, low reimbursement rates, and administrative burdens may limit the impact of Medicare’s recent coverage expansion for MHCs and MFTs on rural behavioral health services.

📊 Read the full report here: https://bit.ly/3RSbnh6

On Monday, WWAMI Rural Health Research Center Director Janessa M. Graves joined the National Rural Health Association on Capitol Hill to highlight how rural health research centers across the country are advancing understanding of rural health challenges. Together with researchers from across the country, they shared how rural health research is driving better understanding—and better solutions—for rural communities.

Join us for an upcoming webinar hosted by the Rural Health Research Gateway:
“A Tour of the Youth Behavioral Health Services Landscape: Prevalence, Treatment, and the Workforce”
🗓 June 17, 2026
⏰ 10:00 AM PT | 1:00 PM ET
In this session, we’ll share findings from our recent report, Access to and Provision of Child and Youth Behavioral Health Services in the Rural and Urban U.S.
Topics include:
• Differences in the prevalence of mental health conditions and substance use disorders among rural and urban youth
• Variation in treatment patterns and travel burden for youth with opioid use disorder, including differences by Medicaid and commercial insurance
• Availability of the youth behavioral health workforce across rural and urban counties
• Licensure and reimbursement factors shaping access to mental health care for rural youth
Register here: https://ow.ly/Yi5q50Z6iRc
Read the report here: https://bit.ly/436SWaM

📢 New journal article!

Our latest study in The Journal of Rural Health examines how recent Medicare policy changes that allow marriage & family therapists (MFTs) and mental health counselors (MHCs) to bill independently may impact access to mental health care in rural communities.

In this quantitative analysis, we explored the perspectives of leaders from rural health systems and mental health organizations about how this policy may impact the accessibility of mental health services for rural Medicare beneficiaries and their communities, and identify facilitators and barriers to utilizing MFTs and MHCs in the rural behavioral health workforce.

🔗 Read more: https://doi.org/10.1111/jrh.70162

Grateful to Garth Miller and Cassia Smith of WhidbeyHealth and Anna Swanson of the Federal Office of Rural Health Policy for partnering with us to present at the National Rural Health Conference. Our panel highlighted practical strategies for implementing and integrating family therapists and counselors into rural health clinics. Thanks for an insightful discussion on advancing this care model!

🚨 New Policy Report: Youth Behavioral Health in the Rural U.S. 🚨

We’ve published a new policy report synthesizing findings from nine briefs on the state of child and youth behavioral health in the rural U.S. The report covers topics including the prevalence of behavioral health conditions and substance use disorder among youth, the youth behavioral health workforce, the behavioral health licensure and reimbursement policy landscape, and the provision of youth behavioral health services.

Together these findings help build a comprehensive picture of rural youth mental and behavioral health.

📊 We’ll also be presenting these findings in an upcoming June webinar hosted on the Rural Health Research Gateway—details coming soon!

Read the full report on our website and stay tuned for the webinar announcement: https://bit.ly/436SWaM

⏰ One week to go until NRHA 2026!

The WWAMI Rural Health Research Center is looking forward to joining colleagues from across the rural health community next week in San Diego for the National Rural Health Association Annual Conference (May 19–22).

📣 If you’re attending, we hope you’ll join us for our sessions, where we’ll be sharing research on:
• Policy and Implementation Strategies for Marriage and Family Therapist (MFT) and Mental Health Counselor (MHC) Integration (Wed at 4pm📍in Coronado A)
• Trends in Medication Treatment for Opioid Use Disorder (Thurs at 9am📍in Balboa ABC)
• Rural Clinical Training Trends: Challenges and Solutions(Thurs at 10:45am 📍in La Jolla AB)
• Geographic Variation in Health Care Spending Across Rurality ( Thurs at 3:30pm📍in Coronado B)

Let’s meet up, exchange ideas, and keep the conversations going—at our sessions or in the hallways! See you soon, San Diego 🌴

📍 Headed to NRHA 2026 in San Diego!
In just two weeks, several of our team from the WWAMI Rural Health Research Center will be traveling to San Diego for the National Rural Health Association Annual Conference (May 19–22, 2026).
We’re excited to connect with rural health researchers, practitioners, and policymakers from across the country; and share our latest work.

✨ Our team will be presenting during the conference, including sessions on:
• Policy and Implementation Strategies for Marriage and Family Therapist (MFT) and Mental Health Counselor (MHC) Integration
• Trends in Medication Treatment for Opioid Use Disorder
• Rural Clinical Training Trends: Challenges and Solutions
• Geographic Variation in Health Care Spending Across Rurality

If you’ll be attending NRHA this year, we’d love to connect—stop by our sessions or reach out to say hello. Looking forward to rich conversations and shared learning in San Diego!

Janessa Graves recently presented a poster on the rural and urban distribution of Medicare‑enrolled opioid treatment programs at the Society for Advancement of Violence and Injury Research (SAVIR) Conference. This project was a collaborative effort with the Harborview Injury Prevention & Research Center (HIPRC), alongside Brittany Blanchard, Megan Moore, Claire Simon, and Sara Woolcock. We appreciate the opportunity to share this work and engage with others committed to advancing violence and injury prevention research.

We will also be presenting this work & some of our other recent research projects in 2.5 weeks at the National Rural Health Association Annual Conference in San Diego. We look forward to seeing you there!