- States Help Child Care Centers Expand in Bid To Create More Slots, Lower Prices
- Rural Telehealth Sees More Policy Wins, but Only Short-Term
- Healing a Dark Past: The Long Road To Reopening Hospitals in the Rural South
- Study: Obstetrics Units in Rural Communities Declining
- Q&A: Angela Gonzales (Hopi), on New Indigenous Health Research Dashboard
- Not All Expectant Moms Can Reach a Doctor's Office. This Kentucky Clinic Travels to Them.
- Hawaiʻi's Physician Shortage Hits Maui Hardest
- Choctaw Nation Found a Better Way to Deliver Harm Reduction. It's Working.
- In Rural America, Heart Disease Is Increasingly Claiming Younger Lives
- HHS Launches Healthy Border 2030 Framework Highlighting Health Priorities and Actions to Support Border Communities and Populations
- Gaps in Mental Health Training, Rural Access to Care Compound Az's Maternal Mortality Crisis
- Enticing Rural Residents to Practice Where They Train
- New Round of Federal Funding Open for Rural Health Initiatives
- UAA Training for Health Care Providers Keeps Victims of Violent Crimes from Falling Through the Cracks
- Helene Exacerbated Rise in Homelessness Across Western North Carolina
NCSL on State Strategies to Reverse Suicide Trends
The National Conference of State Legislators (NCSL) cites higher rates of suicide in rural areas in its guide covering statistics, risk factors, and effect on specific populations. The report examines state-level initiatives including Mental Health First Aid Training, Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training, and the Zero Suicide framework. Read more here.
2020 IT Attestation
Currently not much has changed from PY2019 to PY2020 for the Promoting Interoperability Program (PIP). Here are the key items for attesting to PY2020:
- You can attest anytime up to March 31, 2021
- The reporting period for both Meaningful Use (MU) and Clinical Quality Measures (CQMs) will be a minimum of any continuous 90-day period in PY2020
- The last reporting period for PY2020 is Oct. 3 – Dec. 31, 2020
- There are no changes under Stage 3 for the MU Objectives
For more information, view the PY2020 Helpful Tips guide that is posted on the Pennsylvania Promoting Interoperability website. Reach out to the program at RA-mahealthit@pa.gov with any questions or issues you might encounter while preparing to attest for PY2020.
National Health Service Corps Report to Congress
The National Health Service Corps Report to Congress for the Year 2018 details program accomplishments of the National Health Service Corps (NHSC), provides updates on Health Professional Shortage Area designations, explains recruitment efforts for NHSC Scholarship and Loan Repayment Programs, provides estimates on number of patients seen by NHSC clinicians, and details short- and long-term retention rates. Features state-by-state data with breakdowns by urban and rural locations.
“CATE” Comes to Town
Last week, Pennsylvania’s new mobile COVID-19 response unit–Community-Accessible Testing and Education or “CATE”–visited Wilkes-Barre through a partnership of several agencies and companies: Highmark Blue Cross Blue Shield, the Pennsylvania Department of Health, Independence Blue Cross, Latino Connection and the Wright Center for Community Health 
. CATE offers free information, testing and a bag of useful items for any takers, all free. The Latino Connection specializes in helping companies reach the Latino demographic, but CATE is open to all. CATE is visiting sites across the commonwealth, partnering with FQHCs and other local providers who do the testing at each location. More information is available online at www.CATEmobileunit.com
Key Model Predicts 400,000 Coronavirus Deaths in U.S. by January
The model created by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington posted an update this week predicting an additional 224,000 Americans will die by the beginning of next year. Read more.
Drug Companies Issue Joint Pledge on Vaccine Safety
Nine pharmaceutical companies this week issued a rare joint pledge seeking to reassure the public about the safety and efficacy of their potential vaccines for coronavirus. Read more.
Most Americans See Politics Driving COVID-19 Vaccine Approval Process
Seventy-eight percent of Americans worry the COVID-19 vaccine approval process is being driven more by politics than science, according to a new survey from STAT and the Harris Poll, a reflection of concern that the Trump administration may give the green light to a vaccine prematurely. The response was largely bipartisan, with 72 percent of Republicans and 82 percent of Democrats expressing such worries, according to the poll, which was conducted last week and surveyed 2,067 American adults. Read more.
U.S. Medicaid Enrollment Up by 4.3 Million Since February
The economic fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic has led to a sizable growth in the nation’s Medicaid rolls over the past six months, new analysis by Families USA found. According to the study, which examined Medicaid enrollment trends in 38 states, more than half have seen enrollment grow by seven percent or more from February through early summer. Among those states that have released August enrollment data, growth reached about 11 percent since February. Read more.
Neglect of U.S. Public Health System Impacting U.S. Pandemic Response
At the very moment the United States needed its public health infrastructure the most, many local health departments had all but crumbled, proving ill-equipped to carry out basic functions let alone serve as the last line of defense against COVID-19. Epidemiologists, academics and local health officials across the country say the nation’s public health system is one of many weaknesses that continue to leave the U.S. poorly prepared to handle the pandemic. Read more.
FQHC Roles and Opportunities Related to Rural Hospital Closures
Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs) that serve rural communities face several interlocking challenges, including determining how to respond when a local hospital faces financial vulnerability or closure. To better understand the FQHC experience with rural hospital closures, Capital Link, with support from HRSA, is conducting a national assessment of FQHCs in rural communities. Through this effort, Capital Link hopes to identify and share successful strategies health centers have used to respond to this challenge.