Montana Health Research and Education Foundation
(MHREF)
The Montana Health Research and Education Foundation (MHREF) was
established by MHA as a not-for-profit 501(c)(3) organization to
provide education and research for today' changing health care market.
MHREF is best known as the agency that administered the Medical
Assistance Facility (MAF) Demonstration Project for eleven years,
the nation's first - and recognized as its most successful - limited
service rural hospital model. The project was created to ensure
access to health care services in frontier areas that otherwise
could not maintain acute care services. The Critical
Access Hospital (CAH) program authorized by the Balanced
Budget Act of 1997 is based on Montana's MAFs. MHREF administers
major portions of the federal Rural Hospital Flexibility Grant to
support CAH facilities at the request of the Department of Public
Health and Human Services (DPHHS).
MHREF also administers the Comfort One
Program for the DPHHS. In 1989 and 1991, several laws were adopted
in Montana to implement a pre-hospital Do-Not-Resuscitate program
entitled Comfort One. Designed for the seriously ill patient who
is not in the hospital, Comfort One provides on-the-spot identification
to EMS personnel that the patient wishes not to be resuscitated.
MHREF designed and distributes program forms, brochures, and bracelets.
In addition, MHREF also administers the Montana Capital Assistance
Program, a joint venture with the Montana Facility Financing Authority,
and
assists hospitals with rural health clinic conversions.
|
MEMBERS CONTENT
