This working paper explores the impact of medicaid mental health managed care in rural areas of colorado oregon and washington and draws on the experiences of other statesincluding iowa montana and tennessee the paper describes models of mental health managed care and discusses how they work in rural areas. Medicaid managed care and the rural exception a review of issues and perspectives from the field 77 of the 717 million total medicaid population were enrolled in some form of managed care1 was supplemented with calls to state offices of rural health sorhs state medicaid offices and . The tracking the implementation of medicaid managed care in rural areas is a rural health research project funded by the federal office rural health policy the tracking the implementation of medicaid managed care in rural areas is a rural health research project funded by the federal office rural health policy. Improving rural population health and healthcare quality bipartisan senate rural health caucus and house rural health care coalition help focus legislative attention and provide a forum for addressing rural healthcare issues judicial branch including those working in rural areas. Improving access to care in rural and underserved communities state workforce strategies the students commit to practice in a medically underserved area population health professional shortage area hpsa or legislators have adopted many of these strategies to remove barriers and enhance access to health care in rural and underserved