September 12, 2025 •Anthony Curcio
Rural communities continue to seek innovative and transformative solutions to improve health care access, quality, and outcomes.
Summit is well-positioned to transform the rural health system. We help clients identify system needs, evaluate the effectiveness of interventions, and design data-driven strategies that ensure sustainable improvements in access, affordability, and health outcomes for rural communities.
Summit has a long history of supporting numerous public and private programs that invest in health care infrastructure:
Evaluating Rural Healthcare for Maternal Health at the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA). Impact investment and grants programs can be an effective tool to stimulate change and improve outcomes for expectant mothers and children, so long as the funding is backed by data-driven decision-making and technical support. Summit supported HRSA’s Rural Maternity and Obstetrics Management Strategies (RMOMS) grant program to use a data-centric approach to evaluate the program’s efficacy and health outcomes among participants across the country who need prenatal care. Specifically, we developed in-depth interview guides with independent review boards (IRBs) and state program awardees to collect primary data into the program’s nuances. We conducted interviews for two of the three states selected for evaluation, including (1) program identification, planning, and use case; (2) data access and use agreements; and (3) avenues for deeper analytical focus.
Supporting Rural America: Summit's Experience with Rural Health, Finance, and Access to Critical Services. Summit’s team of experts support a variety of programs that strengthen rural America, including health initiatives. For these health projects, we support hospital and health care personnel, policies, and objectives. Through our rigorous evaluation frameworks, statistical methodologies, and data analysis capabilities, we analyze policies and develop programs to mitigate adverse issues: https://www.summitllc.us/blog/summits-role-in-rural-health
[Case study] Risk Management Analysis Services for the Office of Hospital Facilities (OHF) at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). Summit implemented a modern risk management and forecasting system for OHF’s hospital mortgage portfolio: https://www.summitllc.us/en/case-studies/risk-management-analysis-services-for-the-office-of-hospital-facilities-at-hud
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) Medical Expenditure Panel Survey–Medical Provider Component (MEPS-MPC) Evaluation. Summit was chosen by HHS AHRQ to evaluate the data collection procedures used by AHRQ’s Medical Expenditure Panel Survey: https://www.summitllc.us/blog/summit-westat-team-selected-by-hhs-for-meps-mpc-evaluation-award
[Case study] U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA) Medical Claims Analysis. Summit provided analytics oversights to EBSA, a federal department that safeguards employer-sponsored health plans covering over 140 million Americans. Our team analyzed, sampled, and tested millions of health claims for validity and enforcement and created tools to empower EBSA investigators to independently analyze claims and secure damages: https://www.summitllc.us/en/case-studies/dol-ebsa-medical-claims-analysis
