If you could hit the reset button on healthcare policy, what would you change? In this week’s episode, Dr. Keith Mueller shares his thoughts on what he would improve given the chance to hit the policy reset button, particularly in rural healthcare.

“The pandemic taught us we need flexibility to move resources quickly to where they’re needed. We can’t do that if your payment system is based on volume of predefined services.”

~Dr. Keith Mueller

Keith J. Mueller, Ph.D., is Head of the Department of Health Management and Policy, College of Public Health, and Gerhard Hartman Professor in Health Management and Policy, University of Iowa. He is also the Director of the Rural Policy Research Institute (RUPRI) and its Center for Rural Health Policy Analysis, and Chair of the RUPRI Health Panel. Dr. Mueller currently serves on the Rural Health Advisory Committee in the Department of Veterans Affairs. He has served as President of the National Rural Health Association (NRHA) and as a member of the National Advisory Committee on Rural Health and Human Services. 

He has also served on national advisory committees to the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. He has published more than 240 scholarly articles and policy papers, and received awards recognizing his research contributions from NRHA, RUPRI, and the University of Nebraska. In 2016, he received the University of Iowa Regents Award for Faculty Excellence. His PhD is in Political Science from The University of Arizona, and he completed a Robert Wood Johnson Faculty Fellowship with Johns Hopkins University.