The Pennsylvania Tourism Office announced the release of its annual Happy Traveler travel guide, a resource to inspire all to continue dreaming of and planning for future getaways in Pennsylvania.

Released annually, the Happy Traveler guide is packed with unique destinations, exciting outdoor adventures, and hidden gems throughout the commonwealth to inspire travelers for adventures to come. This year, the guide brings new inspiration to travelers who are ready to plan even as we continue to take precautions to slow the spread of COVID-19 in Pennsylvania.

“After months of staying at home and dreaming about travel, it is more important than ever to make our wellbeing a priority and pursue our happiness wherever possible,” said Carrie Fischer Lepore, Deputy Secretary, Marketing, Tourism, & Film at DCED. “The decision to travel is a personal one and when travelers feel safe, Pennsylvania is ready to welcome them. This year’s Happy Traveler offers inspiration for outdoor adventurers, history buffs, culture vultures, and foodies. With 121 free state parks, a diverse array of museums, a rich performing arts scene, and a delicious culinary plate, Pennsylvania is perfectly positioned to help everyone use those vacation days.”

Tomorrow, January 26, is National Plan for Vacation Day, and while Pennsylvanians may not be ready to travel just yet, they can take the time now to plan for what’s ahead. Travel has the benefit of helping local economies and struggling small businesses, and while Pennsylvanians stay home now and support these businesses virtually or curbside, brighter days are on the horizon.

National Plan for Vacation Day, developed by the U.S. Travel Association, highlights the importance of taking time off to travel, both for personal health and to bolster the economy, each of which is more relevant than ever in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. According to the Institute for Applied Positive Research, 97 percent of survey respondents report that having a trip planned makes them happier, and 71 percent reported feeling greater levels of energy knowing they had a trip scheduled in the next six months. With the release of the 2021 Happy Traveler guide, travelers are encouraged to look forward and plan future getaways in Pennsylvania.

U.S. Travel’s President and CEO Roger Dow added, “In the face of so much uncertainty, and with more than 63 percent of Americans saying they desperately need a vacation, National Plan for Vacation Day is the perfect opportunity for Americans to renew their love of travel and to look ahead to better days.”

The 2021 Happy Traveler feature story touts the culinary gems that make up the fabric of the commonwealth. It celebrates Pennsylvania’s flavorful heritage with four new self-guided culinary trails: Picked – An Apple Trail, Baked – A Bread Trail, Chopped – A Charcuterie Trail, and Pickled – A Fermented Trail. The trails, developed in partnership with Chatham University’s Center for Regional Agriculture, Food, and Transformation (CRAFT), will take visitors through historic small towns, along country backroads, and into artisanal shops to discover what makes Pennsylvania’s rich culinary heritage so unique.

Other special features in the guide include:

• Uncommon history lessons from haunted locales to distilled spirits;
• Urban green spaces, children’s museums, and waterside must-sees;
• Great pasta points of interest, snack food tours, and Amish delight destinations;
• The greatest gravel trails, fall foliage hot spots, and on-the-water adventures;
• RV rendezvous from state parks to castles; and
• Virtual events and museum experiences.

“Over the past year, COVID-19 has affected nearly every aspect of our lives. It has impeded our ability to gather and to travel, but it hasn’t taken away our ability to imagine a not-so-distant future when things are back to normal,” added DCED’s Lepore. “Start planning your Pennsylvania getaway today using inspiration from our free travel guide at visitPA.com, and imagine all the ways you’ll be free to pursue your happiness in Pennsylvania.”

Free copies of the Happy Traveler are available at visitPA.com or by calling 1-800-VISIT-PA. Travelers are encouraged to explore Happy Traveler content across visitPA’s social media platforms and share photos of their favorite Pennsylvania adventures using the hashtag #PAHappySnaps.

The Pennsylvania Tourism Office, housed within the Department of Community and Economic Development, is dedicated to inspiring travel to Pennsylvania. For more information, go to the visitPA website or sign up for our Happy Thoughts newsletter, become a fan on Facebook, follow us on Twitter, check out photos on Instagram, share pins on Pinterest, watch us on Youtube or listen with us on Spotify.

The Pennsylvania Department of Health, in partnership with the Pennsylvania Expanded HIV Testing Initiative (PEHTI) and the HIV Prevention and Care Project (HPCP), has introduced HIV Self-Testing (HST) for individuals who reside in Pennsylvania (excluding Philadelphia County). The goal of the getmyHIVtest.com program is to help people get tested who wouldn’t otherwise go to their doctor or to a testing clinic.

Tests are available from the website getmyhivtest.com. Individuals are asked to read the information on the website and answer a few questions in order to receive an FDA-approved, OraQuick home HIV test kit mailed to the address they provide. Support for clients who request and administer the HIV self-test is available through OraQuick and the HPCP, as noted on the website.

Individuals who reside in Philadelphia County should visit PhillyKeepOnLoving.com to order the HIV Self-test kit and for additional information about testing from the Philadelphia Department of Public Health.

If you have any questions, please send an email to info@getmyHIVtest.com.

For the thousands of Pennsylvanians who have been left by the wayside on the information superhighway, help in the form of high-speed internet is en route, thanks, in part, to an alliance between Penn State Extension and the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission.

An interactive broadband access map created by the organizations was an important tool for helping internet service providers prepare bids for “reverse auctions” held by the Federal Communications Commission. The FCC, through its Rural Digital Opportunity Fund, has allocated $20.4 billion to expand broadband in unserved rural areas.

Pennsylvania received nearly $369 million from the FCC — the seventh highest amount awarded in the nation — in the first auction, which took place Oct. 22. Thirteen internet service providers will carry out the job of providing broadband access to more than 184,500 homes and businesses in the commonwealth over the next decade.

“The pandemic has shown a bright light on the disparity in availability of broadband,” said Brent Hales, director of Penn State Extension and associate dean in the College of Agricultural Sciences. “This affects our children trying to attend schools remotely, adults working or themselves in schools, and businesses that are trying to compete in the marketplace. High-speed broadband enables businesses, schools, governments and families to function more effectively.”

The spatial analytics work was spearheaded at Penn State Extension by Harry Crissy and Tom Beresnyak, in collaboration with Joseph Witmer, adviser and legal counsel to PUC Chairperson Gladys M. Brown.

Together, they created the interactive map — thought to be among the first of its kind in the nation — which breaks the commonwealth into “census blocks,” the smallest group division designated by the U.S. Census Bureau. These geographic pockets, which can range from a handful of homes to several city blocks, are underserved by FCC standards.

The map features measuring tools to help providers make work estimates and includes available funding at the census block group level and the number of eligible sites within the block group. Users can find details on existing structures, transmission lines, substations, tower data and legislator information.

Extension’s collaboration with the PUC was critical in raising awareness about broadband disparities and the importance of the auctions among legislators, county commissioners and internet service providers. The team accomplished that task through webinars, virtual presentations and media outreach.

“Combining extension’s spatial analytic capabilities, educational expertise and connections with county commissioners and extension councils with the regulatory knowledge of the PUC made a significant impact,” said Crissy, extension educator in business and community vitality.

That impact was recognized by government leaders and service providers, many of whom credited the team’s outreach for an increase in bidders in the October auction compared to its predecessor, the 2018 Connect America Fund Phase II auction, noted James Ladlee, extension assistant director for energy, business and community vitality programs.

“The latest auction results are a big deal because in the previous FCC auction, Pennsylvania received only about $56 million,” Ladlee said. “We have heard from state and local officials who told us that our mapping and outreach efforts played a major role in Pennsylvania winning the seventh highest allocation in the nation.”

One of those accolades came from Gov. Tom Wolf, who in a press release commended the PUC and Penn State Extension for their strong leadership in expanding broadband to underserved areas and for “pursuing every available dollar for the state, as well as the many stakeholders that have helped to lay the groundwork to ensure the success of bidders in the most recent auction.”

The benefits of enhancing broadband in the commonwealth are far-reaching, according to Beresnyak, extension client relationship manager, and will touch every aspect of life. He also pointed to the economic benefit to the commonwealth over the next decade — up to $147 million annually — based on an economic analysis conducted by Purdue University.

“Digital access is a key characteristic of healthy communities,” Beresnyak said. “The extension broadband team’s collaborative effort with the PUC will open the doors to educational, telemedicine, precision agriculture and economic development opportunities in some of the most rural and underserved communities in Pennsylvania. We will see 327,000 residents in 66 counties getting or expanding access to broadband as a direct result of this effort.”

The project has caught the attention of government and universities nationwide, including the White House American Broadband Initiative Task Force, which asked Crissy and Beresnyak to give an update on the project during a recent meeting. Additionally, both have been asked to serve on the Philadelphia Federal Reserve Broadband Research Collaborative.

Hales praised extension’s efforts to bridge the digital divide, noting that the team will continue its work to bring broadband access to Pennsylvania, with an eye on precision agriculture.

“We are proud of the work that extension is doing to address real-world needs and to build the capacity of residents of the commonwealth,” he said. “Harry and Tom’s work typifies that commitment to excellence and impact.”

Also instrumental in the project were Tonya Lamo, extension educator; and Sascha Meinrath, the Palmer Chair in Telecommunications in Penn State’s Donald P. Bellisario College of Communications.

A newly revised broadband map is available at https://extension.psu.edu/pennsylvania-broadband-map-app.

The Conversation

By Lauren Hughes, State Policy Director, Farley Health Policy Center; Associate Professor of Family Medicine, University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus and Sameer Vohra, Pediatrician and Founding Chair, Department of Population Science and Policy, Southern Illinois University

Rural hospitals have struggled with financial troubles for years. Over the past decade, more than 130 have closed, forcing residents to drive farther or delay needed care. Now, the COVID-19 pandemic has many of them wondering whether rural health care systems will survive.

Twenty percent of the U.S. population lives in rural America, a region that fuels the country with food and energy. These Americans believe their health care needs have been overlooked or misunderstood by Washington for years.

This crisis is now in the hands of the Biden administration. To revive rural health care, the administration will have to expand its push for diversity to also include rural voices so the needs and priorities of rural Americans aren’t neglected in policy agendas for the next four years.

The solutions rural America needs aren’t just about expanding broadband or insurance coverage, both of which are critical to extend telehealth and health care access. Rural health care will have to transform to survive and then thrive.

One of the first crucial steps is to ensure that trusted rural health care professionals who intimately understand rural America’s challenges are in positions that empower them to shape federal policies that respect rural culture and context. The announcement of the original 13 experts nominated for the Biden transition team’s COVID-19 Advisory Board raised concerns because they largely reflected the coasts and cities at a time when the pandemic raged in rural areas.

As experts in rural health policy and population health, we work with rural health professionals on solving these challenges. Here are five creative ways the Biden administration can help.

Rethink how rural health care providers are paid

In 2019, Pennsylvania launched an innovative program to help the state’s struggling rural hospitals by changing how they are paid.

Normally, a hospital bills its patients per service. That can encourage hospitals to focus on elective procedures and new technology that can draw more paying patients, rather than promoting wellness and preventing disease. In small, rural hospitals, the volume of services – and ultimately, payment – can also fluctuate widely throughout the year.

Pennsylvania, working with the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation, came up with a new design. The Pennsylvania Rural Health Model pays participating hospitals an annual fixed budget that covers inpatient and outpatient services provided at hospitals.

With a predictable budget, enrolled hospitals can focus on the care their communities need, such as treating addiction, increasing cancer screenings and improving the management of patients’ chronic diseases like diabetes to reduce the need for more expensive acute care. The goal is to reduce costs while improving care.

To accelerate rural health care transformation nationwide, the Biden administration could create a dedicated division within the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation focused on rural health. Its mission would be to design and test solutions that address unique problems rural providers face like sparse populations and poorer health status. The administration may have some help coming. Pennsylvania’s former health secretary, Dr. Rachel Levine, is now Biden’s nominee for U.S. assistant secretary of health.

Expand mental health services

Mental illness rates are similar in rural and urban America, but significant differences exist in access to needed mental health services.

Expanding mental health and addiction services for Medicare and Medicaid recipients and integrating those services with primary care could improve access and reduce stigma. And that could avoid wasteful spending on preventable hospitalizations and medical transfers to larger facilities.

One way to do that is to change Medicare’s lopsided billing rules for mental health care.

Clinics that are designated as either Federally Qualified Health Centers or Rural Health Clinics already receive enhanced payments to provide primary care to Medicare and Medicaid patients. However, the Federally Qualified Health Centers, which are more prevalent in urban areas, can bill for a wider array of mental health and substance use treatment services than the Rural Health Clinics can.

Rural clinics could better address higher rates of behavioral illness and substance misuse if they could fully bill for these services. Changing how telemedicine visits are billed by making them equal to in-person visits would also help rural patients access needed services. To avoid unnecessary costs, these payment changes could be tied to quality measures, such as follow-up appointments after emergency department visits. Nearly a quarter of emergency department visits in the U.S. could be more appropriately managed in outpatient clinics, saving billions of dollars each year.

Build transformational leadership

Rural communities know how to train and recruit physicians through rural medicine rotations and loan repayment programs, but what about hospital administrators?

These are the people who ensure cash-strapped rural hospitals have the supplies and staff they need and can react quickly in a crisis and innovate. Yet, similar pipeline programs for investing in rural health care administration leaders are glaringly absent. Rural America needs leaders with the courage to transform health systems, people who can wisely steward resources and think outside the box while improving community health.

Two potential tactics: Rural professionals interested in administrative careers could enroll in innovative master’s programs, supported by their employers or through scholarships. The National Health Service Corps, which provides doctors with incentives to work in underserved areas, could also adjust its eligibility criteria to repay student loans for health care administration leaders in rural health professional shortage areas.

Bring back pregnancy care – in a better way

Fewer than half of rural counties nationwide have hospitals that deliver babies. That, along with difficulty accessing prenatal care, has led to increased childbirth complications like emergency hysterectomies and transferring critically ill newborns.

The new administration could offset costs necessary for Critical Access Hospitals – small, 25-bed hospitals that exist only in rural areas – to deliver babies through special maternity care payments tied to quality outcomes such as increasing breastfeeding rates. These payments would prevent the temptation for small hospitals to grow expensive surgical service lines to cover financial losses commonly associated with offering maternity care. Such payments would also allow rural hospitals to hire dedicated obstetrics nurses.

Additional grants through the Patient Centered Outcomes Research Institute could help address rural maternal health disparities and encourage academic medical centers to partner with rural hospitals, clinics and public health departments.

Invest in health-promoting rural infrastructure

Rural communities across the U.S. have witnessed their roads, dams and other infrastructure deteriorate in ways that have endangered health, jobs and their economic competitiveness.

Both the Obama and Trump administrations strengthened rural infrastructure by prioritizing transportation and telecommunication. However, these investments were often viewed as solutions rather than tools for innovation. Rural towns would benefit from infrastructure investments that also encourage healthy behaviors.

Sitka, Alaska, winner of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Culture of Health Prize, is an example. The town of about 8,600 people has created bike paths, beautified the downtown and built an accessible playground.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture could expand its existing rural infrastructure program by allocating more grant funds for health-promoting activities.

Rural America is rich in resourcefulness and diverse in its demographics, politics and economics. A transformative approach to revitalizing rural health care would respect its unique assets and culture. With the right commitment to innovation and accountability for achieving equitable outcomes.

Pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) is one of the many tools to help end the HIV epidemic in the U.S. HITEQ’s recent blog identifies strategies to help you leverage your health center’s EHR to highlight disparities related to PrEP uptake for high-risk population and to identify and engage patients to close the PrEP access gap. Some of the strategies include leveraging the capabilities of your EHR to implement standardized templates to take detailed sexual histories, using predictive modeling to anticipate outcomes, and using care plan templates to engage prospective PrEP candidates. You can check out all of HITEQ’s Ending the HIV Epidemic resources here.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has released the HIV National Strategic Plan for the United States: A Roadmap to End the Epidemic 2021-2025 (HIV Plan). The HIV Plan was developed in collaboration with federal and community partners and lays out a clear vision where the U.S. will be a place where new HIV infections are prevented, every person knows their status and every person with HIV has high-quality care and treatment and lives free from stigma and discrimination. It builds on lessons learned and the progress made under the first two national HIV/AIDS strategies. The vision includes all people, regardless of age, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, race, ethnicity, religion, disability, geographic location or socioeconomic circumstance.