- Rural America Faces Growing Shortage of Eye Surgeons
- NRHA Continues Partnership to Advance Rural Oral Health
- Comments Requested on Mobile Crisis Team Services: An Implementation Toolkit Draft
- Q&A: What Are the Challenges and Opportunities of Small-Town Philanthropy?
- HRSA Administrator Carole Johnson, Joined by Co-Chair of the Congressional Black Maternal Health Caucus Congresswoman Lauren Underwood, Announces New Funding, Policy Action, and Report to Mark Landmark Year of HRSA's Enhancing Maternal Health Initiative
- Biden-Harris Administration Announces $60 Million Investment for Adding Early Morning, Night, and Weekend Hours at Community Health Centers
- Volunteer Opportunity for HUD's Office of Housing Counseling Tribe and TDHE Certification Exam
- Who Needs Dry January More: Rural or Urban Drinkers?
- Rural Families Have 'Critical' Need for More Hospice, Respite Care
- 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.
Report Looks at Pennsylvania Medical School Impact on Primary Care Physician Shortage
The Joint State Government Committee, a research arm of the Pennsylvania General Assembly, has released the report “Medical School Impact on the Primary Care Physician Shortage in Pennsylvania.” The report, which resulted from a House resolution in 2020, studies efforts within medical schools to promote student choice in primary care, to include primary care experience in the curriculum and to accurately monitor and report graduate retention in primary care. The report includes extensive information about students, ongoing programs and new initiatives gathered during meetings with the Commonwealth’s nine medical schools. A page is devoted to the Pennsylvania Primary Care Career Center. The report concludes with findings and recommendations for the General Assembly’s consideration including:
- Improve data collection of Pennsylvania’s primary care workforce to create more accurate predictions.
- Overcome cultural and financial barriers preventing medical schools from promoting primary care.
- Increase funding to the Pennsylvania Primary Care Loan Repayment Program.
- Invest in the Primary Care Career Center and other programs targeting physician recruitment.
- Expand Pennsylvania’s primary care pipeline programs.
Pennsylvania 2022 Open Enrollment by the Numbers
In Pennsylvania, more than 357,000 consumers selected health insurance through Pennie for coverage as of January 1, 2022. While open enrollment doesn’t end until January 15, this is an increase of 37,000 over the same time period last year. More consumers than ever actively shopped for plans more affordable and suitable to their specific needs. With 8 insurers providing Marketplace coverage, consumers had more choices than the past several years. 37,643 Pennie applications were deemed potentially eligible for Medicaid and transferred to the Department of Human Services. During the open enrollment period, 17,961 applications were transferred to Pennie for enrollment as they did not qualify for Medicaid. 92% of customers qualified for Tax Credits or Cost Sharing Reductions.
University of Pittsburgh Study Finds Kids Lack Adequate Health Insurance
As of 2019, nearly 1.5 million kids in Pennsylvania and New Jersey lacked adequate and continuous health insurance. A third of children in the United States had unreliable or insufficient health insurance in the years leading up to the COVID-19 pandemic — a problem to which the public health emergency has drawn even more attention. Researchers attributed the increase in underinsured children to rising out-of-pocket costs associated with private health plans.
Pennsylvania Department of Health Undergoes Leadership Transition
Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf announced that Department of Health Acting Secretary Alison Beam resigned her position with the commonwealth at the end of the year. The governor also announced that Department of Health Executive Deputy Secretary Keara Klinepeter will serve as Acting Secretary.
Click here to learn more.
Achieving Racial and Ethnic Equity in U.S. Health Care: A Scorecard of State Performance
Profound racial and ethnic disparities in health and well-being have long been the norm in the United States. Black and American Indian/Alaska Native (AIAN) people live fewer years, on average than white people. They are also more likely to die from treatable conditions, die during or after pregnancy and suffer pregnancy-related severe complications, and more likely to lose children in infancy. Black and AIAN people are also at higher risk for many chronic health conditions, from diabetes to hypertension. The COVID-19 pandemic has only worsened, with average life expectancies for Black, Latinx/Hispanic, and, in all likelihood, AIAN people falling more sharply compared to white people.
Read the full report report: Achieving Racial and Ethnic Equity in U.S. Health Care: A Scorecard of State Performance
Loan Forgiveness Programs to Be State Tax Free in Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf announced that Pennsylvanians will not have to pay state income tax on the student loan debt relief they get from the federal Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) Program and the Pennsylvania Student Loan Relief for Nurses (SLRN) Program. The decision by the Wolf administration will save people eligible for those programs potentially thousands of dollars in state tax. “The point of student loan forgiveness programs for public servants is that these are people who have chosen jobs, often in lower paying fields, because they want to make a difference,” said Gov. Wolf. “It’s wrong to take what should be a blessing and turn it into just another burden.”
Biden Administration Unveils Regulatory Agenda with Key Health Reforms
The Biden Administration recently announced five proposals to advance various health care reform priorities.
First, the Administration will release an Executive Order that allows the IRS to fix the “family glitch” that prohibited family members of people with employer-sponsored health insurance from accessing ACA marketplace credits. Second, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) will amend the definition of “short-term plans” that do not comply with ACA standards so that these plans do not undermine the ACA’s coverage and patient protection goals. Third, HHS will propose a new ACA Section 1557 rule to reverse a Trump Administration rule curtailing non-discrimination protection for transgender individuals and people seeking language services. Fourth, HHS will prioritize greater access to contraception in the ACA by amending the final rule that the Trump Administration had promulgated to accommodate moral and religious exemptions. Finally, HHS will work with the Department of Labor to promote compliance with the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act and the Consolidated Appropriations Act (2021) through a new proposed rule.
New HRSA Administrator Named
The Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) will welcome Carole Johnson back in January as the agency’s new Administrator. Carole currently serves as the Testing Coordinator for the White House COVID-19 Response Team. Prior to joining the Biden-Harris Administration, she served as Commissioner of the New Jersey Department of Human Services. Carole served for more than five years as the White House Domestic Policy Council’s public health lead in the Obama Administration, which included overseeing HRSA issues, and has managed health workforce policy issues in HRSA’s Bureau of Health Professions. She has also worked on health care and public health policy on Capitol Hill, in academia, and in the non-profit and philanthropy sectors.
Pennsylvania House of Representatives Approves Bill Establishing COVID-19 At-Home Testing Distribution Program
The Pennsylvania House of Representatives unanimously approved a legislative amendment that would create a $10 million program to assist counties that want to distribute at-home COVID-19 tests. The amendment was added to HB 2033, that extends reporting requirements for state labs that conduct COVID-19 tests. The amended bill still must make its way through the Senate before it can reach the desk of Gov. Tom Wolf. According to the amendment, the Pennsylvania Department of Health would buy the test kits. Counties would then have 30 days to apply by stating how many tests they need and detailing how they plan to distribute them.
Pennsylvania Senate Sends Governor Bill to Create Broadband Authority
The Pennsylvania Senate voted unanimously in support of House Bill 2071, legislation that would create a statewide broadband authority to oversee the state’s strategy for spending federal dollars to close the digital divide. The bill creates the Pennsylvania Broadband Development Authority, which will be a one stop shop to oversee and support broadband deployment. The authority will manage at least $100 million in federal aid that Pennsylvania will receive to support a coordinated and strategic rollout of broadband to more areas with construction of new towers, lines and broadband equipment and other uses. Governor Wolf is expected to sign the bill into law.