This week, the House introduced and is planning to vote on legislation to strengthen the Affordable Care Act (ACA), known as the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Enhancement Act. Also, the House recently introduced a $1.5 trillion infrastructure package, known as the Moving Forward Act (H.R. 2). The bill includes a provision to authorize $10 billion over five years for health center capital projects. The House expects to take up this bill next week. While both bills will likely pass the House, the prospects in the Senate are less favorable. In addition, several congressional committees held hearings this week as they continue to monitor the COVID-19 response. The House Education and Labor Committee held a hearing on Monday to discuss how COVID-19 has exacerbated racial disparities, the Senate HELP Committee held a hearing on Tuesday to look at lessons learned from the pandemic and the House Energy and Commerce Committee looked at the Administration’s response to the pandemic.

Pennsylvania Insurance Commissioner Jessica Altman announced that the Insurance Department has submitted a notice to the Pennsylvania Bulletin outlining guidance for insurers that encounter providers engaging in inappropriate billing practices during the COVID-19 pandemic. The notice is a continuation of Notice 2020-03, issued March 21, 2020, which urged health insurers to help consumers avoid balance billing and surprise balance bills. The notice also recommended health insurers make all necessary and useful information available on their websites, or through consumer assistance lines, to provide readily available accurate information for insureds during the ongoing coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. The COVID-19 Surprise Bill notice encourages health insurers to continue with guidance issued in previous notices and encourages companies and agencies to be aware of new potential billing issues that have arisen in context of the continuing pandemic. Click here to read the release.

Secretary of Health Dr. Rachel Levine announced that the Department of Health (DOH) has applied for a more than $301 million grant from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to strengthen state and local public health capacity in Pennsylvania. More than $100 million of the funding would go to Pennsylvania’s six county health departments and four municipal health departments, who have primary responsibility for public health efforts inside their jurisdiction. The funding will support six primary strategies to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic including:

• Continuing work to develop a robust testing and contact tracing strategy
• Supporting local health departments
• Investing in public health surveillance and laboratory infrastructure

The grant submission focused on ensuring minority and underserved communities are targeted for testing, outreach and that we have improved demographic data collection. Click here for a breakdown of the six strategies and corresponding funding.

Rachelle Bradley, as an emergency room nurse, is fighting the coronavirus spread in the North Carolina town show grew up in. This is the only hospital in her area, and the coronavirus is now spreading rapidly in rural areas. The Northwest Regional Center for Rural Development at Pennsylvania State University states that the virus is spreading more rapidly in rural communities than in urban, increasing the strain on rural health care providers. There is a major strain due to the shortage of nurses and skilled professionals in rural areas, not the lack of rooms or beds, and while the healthcare labor shortage is not a rural-only issue, there is a disproportionate burden in rural areas.

COVID-19 has accelerated the threat of rural hospital closures. Although rural hospital closures threaten communities nationwide, communities serving higher percentages of non-white populations are at a higher risk of closure. Southern states that have not chosen to expand Medicaid, that have higher percentages of non-white populations, and where people rely more on emergency services, are at high risk of experiencing a hospital closure. Furthermore, the spread of COVID-19 is escalating in rural areas, which causes researchers to fear that areas with weakened rural health care infrastructure will not have the capacity needed to treat large surges of patients.