HRSA Announcement on Hospital Reinstatement into the 340B Drug Pricing Program. Section 121 of the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2022, signed into law on March 15, 2022, permits certain hospitals to be reinstated into the 340B Drug Pricing Program. The hospital must be classified as a disproportionate share hospital, sole community hospital, rural referral center, children’s hospital, or free-standing cancer hospital and meet other specified conditions to qualify. This includes the condition that the hospital’s termination must have been as a result of actions taken by or other impacts on the hospital in response to, or as a result of, the COVID-19 Public Health Emergency.

The Implications of Long COVID for Rural Communities. While the definition of post-COVID-19 effects has evolved, experts have identified a range of health conditions that may include shortness of breath, chronic fatigue, tachycardia, exercise intolerance, and cognitive dysfunction. In an open-access article from The Journal of Rural Health, researchers report an estimated 7 to 22 million individuals in the U.S. may experience long COVID, with greater implications for rural economies and health delivery systems.

Tobacco Use Down; Still High For Certain Groups.  The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimated that 47.1 million U.S. adults (19%) reported that they were currently using any commercial tobacco product in the 2020 National Health Interview Survey.  The prevalence of cigarette smoking was higher in rural areas than in urban areas among adults who were non-Hispanic Black (38% higher), Hispanic (38% higher), and non-Hispanic White (62% higher).

FCC Requests Comments on Promoting Telehealth in Rural America – Respond by April 14. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) seeks comment on revisions to its initiatives to fund access to broadband and telecommunication services for rural health care providers. FCC proposes to modify the way the internal funding cap applies to upfront costs and multi-year commitments in the Healthcare Connect Fund Program and to streamline the invoice process in the Telecommunications Program. The rule also seeks comment on ways to further increase the speed of funding commitments.

Twelve Years of the Affordable Care Act. March 23^rd marked the anniversary of the landmark law that has helped millions of Americans gain access to health coverage. The U.S. Department of Health & Human Services has issued a series of briefs over the last year analyzing how that coverage affected different segments of the population, including rural residents, older adults, immigrants, and ethnic/racial minorities.

From the Washington Post

Almost three-quarters of all U.S. counties reported more deaths than births last year, a development largely caused by the pandemic, which contributed to a dramatic slowing in the nation’s overall population growth, according to data released Thursday by the Census Bureau. Low fertility rates, which have persisted since the end of the Great Recession, and the nation’s continuing demographic shift toward an older population also combined to create the smallest population increase in 100 years, said Kenneth M. Johnson, a sociology professor and demographer at the University of New Hampshire. He said he expected the data to show a natural decrease but was surprised at its scale. Natural decrease occurs when a population records more deaths than births. (Kunkle, 3/24)

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