In 2019, more than 40 states introduced legislation describing the procedures, actions, and processes that a health care practitioner is permitted to undertake in keeping with the terms of their professional licensure.  This new interactive map shows recent scope of practice legislation by state.  The map was created by the National Conference of State Legislatures, supported by cooperative agreement between the Health Resources and Services Administration and the National Organizations of State and Local Health Officials. Read more here.

The Department of Health and Human Services, led by the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology, released the draft 2020-2025 Federal Health IT Strategic Plan for public comment. This plan, which was developed in collaboration with over 25 federal organizations, is intended to guide federal health information technology (IT) activities. Read more here.

In January 2020, Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf announced a focused all-agency effort and anti-stigma campaign, ‘Reach Out PA: Your Mental Health Matters,’ aimed at expanding resources and the state’s comprehensive support of mental health and related health care priorities in Pennsylvania.

The governor announced several initiatives and reviews the administration will undertake for commonwealth agencies to bolster the effort. Furthermore, over the coming weeks, agencies will announce additional initiatives. The governor was joined by mental health advocates, social workers, educators, military veterans, and cabinet secretaries in making the announcement.

“For those struggling with their mental health, we have one message: Your mental health matters and it’s okay to reach out for help,” Gov. Wolf said. “We are stepping up our efforts to ensure every Pennsylvanian can access mental health care and more agencies can respond to the challenges facing Pennsylvanians struggling with their mental health. The act of reaching out for help – or to help – can make a huge difference for someone struggling.”

According to a 2017 study from the University of Southern California, approximately 1 million adult Pennsylvanians struggled with serious psychological distress at least once in 2015. Of those adults, more than 27 percent had an unmet need for mental health care. That population includes 42 percent who did not receive mental health care because they could not afford it.

Strengthening Mental Health Care Access

The Department of Human Services will take steps to incentivize the integration of physical and behavioral health services to remove barriers to coordinating care and treatment. DHS will create financial incentives to encourage managed care organizations that provide Medical Assistance benefits to create, maintain, and continuously improve collaboration between the entities and providers that coordinate and deliver physical health benefits and mental health benefits.

These steps will mark the beginning of a large-scale effort to combat mental health issues in Pennsylvania. Reach Out PA, the Suicide Prevention Task Force, and other Wolf Administration focuses will continue to bust the stigma surrounding mental health, and work together in a multi-pronged push.

The Family First Transition Act (FFTA), which was signed into law on December 20, 2019, aids states in implementing the Family First Prevention Services Act of 2018 (FFPSA). The FFPSA is landmark legislation, so implementing its changes at the state level have and will continue to be a heavy lift for administrators. With the magnitude of those changes in mind, the recently passed FFTA provides new reforms to promote services for children at imminent risk of out-of-home placement and family-based placement for those children who do enter foster care. It helps states, tribes and territories take advantage of the opportunities contained in FFPSA, so that every child has the opportunity to grow up in a safe and loving family. PPC is proud to have joined other local and national organizations in support of this legislation.

FFTA also provides transition funding to states for the implementation of the FFPSA in three very important ways:

1. Provide one-time, flexible funding to support implementation and reduce adverse fiscal impacts.
2. Delay the phase-in of the FFPSA’s 50 percent “well-supported requirement” for prevention services funding.
3. Provide short-term funding for states with expiring waivers.

The FFTA also contains funding for kinship navigator programs, like Pennsylvania’s Kin Connector Program. As the commonwealth plans to opt-in to the FFPSA by October 2020, PPC continues to take an active role in Pennsylvania’s implementation of the federal law and will continue to provide updates.

Harrisburg, PA – Governor Tom Wolf announced in December 2019 that eight more hospitals and one additional payer have agreed to participate in the Pennsylvania Rural Health Model, aimed at ensuring the financial viability of hospitals in rural areas across Pennsylvania, and the latest step in transforming health care delivery in the commonwealth. The model is the first of its kind in the nation.  “I am especially pleased to see more hospitals joining this important initiative to improve their financial viability so that every Pennsylvanian has access to quality health care within a reasonable distance from home,” said Gov. Wolf.

The governor recently signed Senate Bill 314, which establishes the Rural Health Redesign Center Authority and the Pennsylvania Rural Health Redesign Center Fund. The authority and fund will administer the Pennsylvania Rural Health Model once established.  “The Rural Health Model is a transformative step that changes the financial model for hospitals in rural areas,” Secretary of Health Dr. Rachel Levine said. “This is a step that will help achieve financial stability for these facilities and aims to improve the overall health of the community.”

The model will help ensure that rural hospitals, which are often an economic driver in rural areas, stay open, that jobs stay local and that sustainable access to health care is available to residents living in rural areas.

Nearly half of all rural hospitals in Pennsylvania are operating with negative margins and are at risk of closure. The department has worked closely with the federal Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation, the Pennsylvania Department of Human Services, the Pennsylvania Insurance Department, the Hospital and Healthsystem Association of Pennsylvania, the Hospital Council of Western Pennsylvania, the Pennsylvania Office for Rural Health to develop the model and to ensure the success of the mode. The first five participants were announced earlier in 2019. Those hospitals are Barnes Kasson, Endless Mountains, Geisinger Jersey Shore, UPMC Kane and Wayne Memorial.

Now joining those hospitals are the following eight hospitals:

• Armstrong County Memorial Hospital in Kittanning, Armstrong County
• Chan Soon-Shiong Medical Center at Windber in Windber, Somerset County
• Fulton County Medical Center in McConnellsburg, Fulton County
• Greene Hospital in Waynesburg, Greene County
• Monongahela Valley Hospital in Monongahela, Washington County
• Punxsutawney Area Hospital in Punxsutawney, Jefferson County
• Tyrone Hospital in Tyrone, Blair County
• Washington Hospital in Washington, Washington County

A total of 67 hospitals are eligible for participation in the model based on the definition of a rural hospital developed by the Center for Rural Pennsylvania. With the above 13 hospitals involved in the program, nearly 20% of eligible hospitals will be participating in the program in 2020. While this is a credit to the desire of these hospitals to provide transformative care in their area, it also means there is still much work to be done to bring sustainability to rural hospitals in Pennsylvania.

In addition, Aetna will join the five insurance providers previously announced as private insurance payers for the model to make up a total of six participating insurers. In addition to Aetna, Gateway, Geisinger, Highmark, Medicare and UPMC are also participating in the program. Together, the commercial insurers represent nearly half of the individual and small group market insurance population in the state.

The Rural Health Model is an alternative payment model, transitioning hospitals from a fee-for-service model to a global budget payment. Payment for the global budget comes from multiple-payers, including private and public insurers. Instead of hospitals getting paid when someone is admitted to the hospital, they will receive a predictable amount of money at a specified time to provide services in the community.

Through this change in payment model, the hospitals will be able to transform care locally to better meet the health needs of the community. This includes opportunities to assess items that may traditionally fall outside of the role of the hospital, such as transportation, broadband internet access, etc.

The Department of Health has developed three main strategies for improving health in rural communities. Strategies being carried out include: transforming health care delivery in rural communities; improving the population health status in rural communities; and creating health care services that match the needs of the community.

For more information about rural health, visit the Department of Health website at www.health.pa.gov or follow them on Facebook and Twitter.

MEDIA CONTACT: J.J. Abbott, jjabbott@pa.gov
Nate Wardle, Health, 717-787-1783 or ra-dhpressoffice@pa.gov

Harrisburg, PA – Governor Tom Wolf announced in January 2020 the initial report of Pennsylvania’s Suicide Prevention Task Force based on the statewide listening sessions held throughout fall 2019. The work of the Suicide Prevention Task Force is a complement to the goals and strategies surrounding the governor’s Reach Out PA: Your Mental Health Matters initiative announced earlier this month and his Executive Order to protect vulnerable populations signed last year.

“My administration is committed to developing a comprehensive suicide prevention plan that will save precious lives, support people in crisis, and help loved ones of attempt survivors and those we’ve lost,” Gov. Wolf said. “We’ve taken a giant first step toward that goal by opening this dialogue with Pennsylvanians across the commonwealth, and I want to thank the members of the Suicide Prevention Task Force for their hard work and all who shared their stories, insights, and experiences at a listening session last year.”

Informed by the testimonies and suggestions of people affected by suicide, mental health professionals, and other stakeholders from across the commonwealth, the report will be used to develop a comprehensive, long-term strategy of significantly reducing the number of suicides in Pennsylvania.

In August, the task force announced a series of 10 public listening sessions to be hosted throughout Pennsylvania. Over the next several months, Pennsylvanians gathered to talk about how suicide has affected their lives and to help inform the task force’s draft prevention plan and work to reduce stigma around discussing topics such as mental health and suicide. More than 800 people – community members, state and local officials, representatives from county suicide prevention organizations, and stakeholders from other sectors of government – attended the sessions.

As a direct result of these listening sessions, the Pennsylvania Suicide Prevention Task Force has identified the following key themes to inform the commonwealth’s four-year suicide prevention strategy:

• Stigma associated with mental health, suicide and suicide attempts can affect the likelihood of individuals seeking help or continuing treatment, and how policymakers make decisions that affect mental health systems.
• Resources needed to elevate mental health as a public health issue, incentivize the integration of physical and behavioral health, and improve suicide prevention resources at the local level.
• Barriers to treatment such as cost and insurance gaps.
• Access to more detailed suicide and suicide-attempt data to help policymakers make effective, meaningful decisions.
• Issues within the mental-health workforce, such as pay and barriers to entry, to improve quality of care.
• With proper resources, Pennsylvania’s schools and educators are uniquely positioned to save lives with suicide prevention strategies and resources.
• The Legislature could take direct action to prevent suicides through the passage of a Red Flag law (to provide a means to remove firearms from someone at risk for suicide) or safe storage requirements for firearms.

“On behalf of the entire task force, we are grateful to everyone who took time to share their stories, experiences, recommendations, or even just showed up to listen and learn themselves. The themes and recommendations outlined in this report give us a clear path forward for actionable ways to support and enhance suicide prevention efforts across the commonwealth,” said Department of Human Services Secretary Teresa Miller. “I truly believe elevating this issue and utilizing this meaningful, collective approach to prevention efforts will save lives across Pennsylvania.”

According to a 2018 report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), suicide is the 10th leading cause of death in the United States. In 2017, more than 47,000 individuals died by suicide nationwide. In Pennsylvania alone, 2,023 individuals died by suicide that year.

Gov. Wolf announced the first-of-its-kind statewide task force in May 2019 with the goal of developing a four-year plan to reduce suicide in Pennsylvania. The Task Force is made up of leadership and staff from multiple state agencies, members of the General Assembly, and Prevent Suicide PA. State agencies include the departments of Human Services (DHS), Health (DOH), Corrections (DOC), Aging (PDA), Education (PDE), Military and Veterans Affairs (DMVA), Transportation (PennDOT), Agriculture (PDA), Drug and Alcohol Programs (DDAP), the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency (PCCD), and the Pennsylvania State Police (PSP). Task Force members brought forth a wide array of knowledge of constituencies they represent or serve professionally, from their own lived experiences as loss survivors or attempt survivors of suicide, or as individuals who experience or support someone facing mental-health challenges.

The task force anticipates releasing a comprehensive four-year statewide suicide prevention plan in the first quarter of 2020 that will be available for a public comment period. Following updates based on public comment, the task force will publish the final 2020-2024 Pennsylvania statewide suicide prevention plan, which will include:

• The landscape and gap analysis of detailed suicide statistics nationwide and in Pennsylvania.
• Guiding principles for suicide prevention in Pennsylvania.
• Goals and objectives to reduce suicide and suicide attempts in Pennsylvania, including reducing stigma associated with suicide, suicide attempts, and mental health challenges.
• Recommendations for local and state policymakers, including public and elected officials, as well as cross-sector partners.
• A structure for the implementation and evaluation of Pennsylvania’s statewide suicide prevention plan.

The task force is represented on the Governor’s Special Council to Reduce Gun Violence and the Reducing Suicide by Firearm workgroup and will continue to provide input on the recommendations included in the Council’s report.

“This is just the beginning, and we will deliberately continue on this path of reducing stigma around mental-health issues and encouraging Pennsylvanians in crisis to seek help when they need it,” Gov. Wolf said. “Everyone’s life has value, and things can and will get better.”

To read the task force’s initial report, click here.

MEDIA CONTACT: J.J. Abbott, Governor’s Office, 717-783-1116
Erin James, Department of Human Services, 717-425-7606