Patients in rural communities often lack timely access to innovative infectious disease testing because diagnostic laboratories are located far away. Long transport times and logistical barriers delay results—driving repeat visits, misdiagnosis, and unnecessary empiric antibiotic use. The result is higher costs, growing antimicrobial resistance, and widening health inequities among patient populations most in need of better diagnostics.i
Strengthening healthcare in rural areas is essential, but policy must move beyond simple urban-to-rural comparisons.ii Tailored, collaborative approaches that reflect the realities of rural communities are needed. Access to faster, more accurate diagnostics should be the standard of care across America.
A Nationwide Model: HealthTrackRx Delivers Next-Morning PCR Testing to Rural America
HealthTrackRx is closing the diagnostic divide, recently opening a lab on the UPS Healthcare campus in Louisville, Kentucky, enabling next-morning PCR testing nationwide.iii Specimens collected across the country start arriving at the lab around 1:00am, are processed overnight, and results are delivered to clinicians as they start the business day. From Miami to Seattle and rural clinics in between, providers can access comprehensive molecular reports within hours of collection.
Geography no longer dictates access. Every urgent care and Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC) in rural towns can connect patients to gold-standard testing. Scalable to 5 million tests annually, technological advancements now enable these superior tests to be available at costs often comparable to traditional cultures or limited point-of-care devices, expanding access while easing pressure on state budgets and rural health systems.
“This is now the world’s most advanced, automated, and scalable molecular testing lab, ensuring that whether you live in a major city or a rural community, you have access to the same high-quality diagnostics once reserved for academic medical centers,” said Martin Price, CEO of HealthTrackRx.
Transforming Rural Care with Next-Morning Diagnostics
Overnight delivery of targeted molecular tests, including respiratory, urinary tract, and gastrointestinal, gives clinicians actionable results within hours, empowering timely, confident treatment decisions. Nearly 98% of surveyed providers report using HealthTrackRx PCR results to guide patient-specific prescribing, underscoring the critical role of timely diagnostics in rural practice.iv
A recent American Journal of Managed Care study found that targeted syndromic real-time PCR testing with next morning results cut outpatient costs by hundreds of dollars per patient compared with culture tests, while also reducing emergency department and physician visit expenses.v Savings that have an outsized impact in rural communities.
For urgent care centers, FQHCs, and pediatric practices, the benefits are immediate. Sending out PCR testing with next-morning results reduces follow-up outpatient visits, supports antibiotic stewardship, and can be accomplished with easy-to-use sample collection devices, an important advantage in understaffed rural settings, where reaching a clinic can take hours. Faster results strengthen care coordination, allowing providers to engage patients in shared decision-making and deliver supportive care.
For families, fast, accurate results bring peace of mind and reduce unnecessary prescriptions, making rural care as responsive as urban care. Research shows that 48% of providers forgo empiric therapy when using HealthTrackRx diagnostics, challenging the entrenched practice of reflexive antibiotic prescribing without testing that has long been the standard in rural communities.vi
Inappropriate prescribing remains widespread: up to 46% of antibiotics prescribed to women for urinary tract infections are ineffective, and many women in rural areas receive unnecessarily long-course medicines.vii Next-morning PCR diagnostics directly address these gaps, helping providers choose the right therapy the first time.
Rural Provider Perspectives: Real-World Impact of Next-Morning PCR Results
Rural provider perspectives reinforce the impact. “We are in the rural areas, we need next-day testing and results…” said Dr. Sarika Aggarwal, Chief Medical Officer of Fast Pace Health, the nation’s largest independent urgent care provider serving rural markets.
A recent case illustrates the stakes: A 69-year-old patient visited several rural urgent care clinics with a recurrent infection. Because her antibiotic resistance history wasn’t known, the provider prescribed a standard antibiotic. By the next day, her fever had worsened and she was preparing to go to the emergency room (ER). However, fast, accurate PCR testing returned a comprehensive susceptibility profile, allowing the provider to adjust treatment immediately and avoid an unnecessary ER visit.
Removing Coverage Barriers to Keep Pace with Innovation
Next-morning diagnostic results should be the standard of care across America and already are for millions of patients with private health insurance. Yet many Medicare beneficiaries, who more often present with comorbidities or complex infectious diseases, are denied access to fast, accurate PCR testing because of coverage policies that favor healthcare treatment decisions determined by bureaucratic process rather than the professional medical judgment of clinicians who actually treat the patients.
Reform is particularly critical for rural beneficiaries, who already face barriers to care. Making affordable, next-morning PCR the baseline model for community care would close gaps in rural access, improve patient outcomes, and strengthen readiness for future outbreaks.
HealthTrackRx and other leading laboratories are advancing this model, but without sensible coverage policies for next-morning molecular infectious disease testing, access will continue to lag innovation.
To learn more visit healthtrackrx.com.
i Alexander BD, Irish WD, Rosato AE, Goldberg S, et al. Is Pathogen Molecular Testing Reshaping Outpatient Antibiotic Prescribing? Am J Med Qual. Jan-Feb 01 2025;40(1):21-23. https://journals.lww.com/ajmqonline/fulltext/2025/01000/is_pathogen_molecular_testing_reshaping_outpatient.4.aspx.
ii Matthews KA, Spears KS, Anderson-Lewis C. Rural Health Disparities: Contemporary Solutions for Persistent Rural Public Health Challenges. Prev Chronic Dis 2025;22:250202 https://www.cdc.gov/pcd/issues/2025/25_0202.htm.
iii HealthTrackRx Opens New State-of-the-Art Facility to Expand Nationwide Access to Next-Morning Infectious Disease Results. https://www.healthtrackrx.com/press-releases/healthtrackrx-new-facility-nationwide-next-morning-infectious-disease-results.
iv Alexander BD, Irish WD, Rosato AE, Goldberg S, et al. Is Pathogen Molecular Testing Reshaping Outpatient Antibiotic Prescribing? Am J Med Qual. Jan-Feb 01 2025;40(1):21-23. https://journals.lww.com/ajmqonline/fulltext/2025/01000/is_pathogen_molecular_testing_reshaping_outpatient.4.aspx
v Healthcare resource utilization and costs among patients receiving diagnostic tests for respiratory infections. American Journal of Managed Care. https://www.ajmc.com/view/health-care-utilization-and-cost-of-diagnostic-testing-for-respiratory-infections.
vi https://www.healthtrackrx.com/press-releases/healthtrackrx-next-morning-results-impacted-antibiotic-prescribing-80-of-the-time.
vii Clark AW, Durkin MJ, Olsen MA, et al. Rural–urban differences in antibiotic prescribing for uncomplicated urinary tract infection. Infection Control & Hospital Epidemiology. 2021;42(12):1437-1444. doi:10.1017/ice.2021.21.
