Portland, ME, January 5, 2021 – Lilypad, a leading healthcare analytics firm, is proud to announce the 2021 Lilypad Awards, the first and only ranking program for our nation’s 4,600+ rural health clinics. The Lilypad Awards recognize the Rural Health Clinics that outperform their rural primary care practice peers in terms of efficiency and operational excellence. The Sikeston Health Care for All in Sikeston, Saint Francis Healthcare in Dexter, and The Clinic at Walmart in Dexter each earned Top 50 status.
Utilizing data from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid program to calculate rural-relevant metrics across five domains, the Lilypad Awards provide a comprehensive and objective assessment of rural health clinic performance. The Lilypad Awards and Lilypad’s Practice Operations National Database (POND) programs are used nationally by rural clinics, State Offices of Rural Health, regional healthcare systems and rural hospitals to measure and monitor rural primary care practice performance. They serve as the foundation for several state and national rural primary care performance improvement initiatives.
In many cases Rural Health Clinics receive enhanced reimbursement from government payers such as Medicare and Medicaid as a means of sustaining financial solvency. Rural Health Clinics must meet one or more healthcare shortage designations to be eligible for the program and generally are categorized as either provider-based (hospital-owned) or independent. The Lilypad Awards evaluate both provider types to produce a comprehensive ranking system for every Rural Health Clinic in the nation. The Top Five organizations in each of five geographic regions have earned the 2021 Lilypad Award Top Clinic recognition. The full list of clinics that have earned 2021 “Lilies” is available at the Lilypad website and are listed in the Addendum to this press release.
“The COVID-19 pandemic underscores the importance of primary care in rural America, and Rural Health Clinics are an essential component of our healthcare safety net,” said Gregory Wolf, founder and President of Lilypad, LLC. “The Lilypad Awards seek to both inform the industry and public about the importance of Rural Health Clinics as well as recognize excellence among this group of providers. Our rural communities rely on affordable access to high quality primary care services and Rural Health Clinics play a vital role in strengthening our healthcare delivery systems, especially in the context of the pandemic.”
About Lilypad: Lilypad is a Maine-based analytics firm founded in 2011 to provide mobile and web-based performance improvement applications for healthcare provider organizations and State Offices of Rural Health. We adhere to a core business principle that accountable leaders require sound data and simple, innovative tools to be successful in their roles within the emerging value-based care delivery environment.