- Rural Hospitals Built During Baby Boom Now Face Baby Bust
- Food Stamps Go Further in Rural Areas — Until You Add Transportation Costs
- CMS Announces Resources and Flexibilities to Assist with the Public Health Emergency in the State of Texas
- CMS Proposes New Payments for Digital Health Under CY2025 PFS Draft Rule
- Improving Public Health by Strengthening Community Infrastructure
- Biden Harris Administration Proposes Policies to Reduce Maternal Mortality, Advance Health Equity, and Support Underserved Communities
- Nearly Half of U.S. Counties Don't Have a Single Cardiologist
- Randolph County, Ill. Turns Unused Part of Nursing Home Into State-Of-The-Art Behavioral Health Center
- Rural RPM Program Is a Lifeline for Pregnant Women
- Safe and Stable Housing Is a Foundation of Successful Recovery
- Expert: Rural Hospitals Are Particularly Vulnerable to Increasing Cyberattacks Targeting Healthcare Facilities
- Biden-Harris Administration Invests Over $200 Million to Help Primary Care Doctors, Nurses, and Other Health Care Providers Improve Care for Older Adults
- AJPH Call for Papers Special Section on Intersections of Public Health And Primary Care
- NIH HEAL Initiative Turns Attention to Pragmatic Trials in Rural Communities
- Limited Continuing-Care Options in Rural Virginia Create Challenges for an Aging Population
The Clinician Job Search Tool Gets an Upgrade
HRSA’s Health Workforce Connector, a free tool for connecting clinicians to job and training opportunities, is now easier to use. New features simplify job searches by discipline and program, and an expanded display for Health Professional Shortage Areas (HPSAs) helps clinicians looking for qualifying positions. The most recent quarterly report on HPSAs (pdf) shows that of all designated shortage areas, two-thirds are primary medical HPSAs in rural areas.
Here You Can Watch the Testimonial Video on How Telehealth Helps Patients Access Care
Telehealth can make it easier for patients to find or connect to a healthcare appointment. Watch this video to see how an HRSA grantee, Cherokee Health Systems, is using telehealth to help patients connect to a healthcare appointment and how they use resources on Telehealth.HHS.gov.
Labor Numbers Improve: Is the Great Resignation Over?
The Great Resignation — workers furiously quitting for new, likely higher-paying jobs — is a thing of the past according to Axios. The historic surge of quitters was a symptom of an on-fire labor market, where demand for workers far outstripped supply. Axios based its analysis on U.S. Department of Labor numbers that showed the quits rate falling to 2.4% in April. “We are pretty much back to a strong, robust labor market, but one that is no longer overheating,” Julia Pollak, an economist at ZipRecruiter, told Axios. Read the Labor Department’s press release.
Applications for the Federal Loan Repayment for SUD Providers Are Now Being Accepted
Applications are now being accepted for the Substance Use Disorder Treatment and Recovery Loan Repayment Program (STAR-LRP) administered by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA). You are eligible if you provide direct treatment or recovery support to patients with or in recovery from a substance use disorder at a Substance Use Disorder Treatment and Recovery Loan Repayment Program-approved facility. That facility must be in either a county (or a municipality, if not contained within any county) where the mean drug overdose death rate is higher than the most recent available national average overdose death rate per 100,000 people or in a mental Health Professional Shortage Area (HPSA). The program pays up to $250,000 for six years of service. Check out the STAR-LPR details including registering for application Q&A sessions.
Learn More Here About the Pediatric Specialty Loan Repayment Program
Eligible clinicians—pediatric medical subspecialists, pediatric surgical subspecialists, psychologists, licensed clinical social workers (LCSW), licensed or certified master’s level social workers (LSW or LCMSW), psychiatric mental health nurse practitioners, marriage and family therapists (MFT), licensed professional counselors (LPC) and substance use disorder counselors (SUD counselors)—providing pediatric subspecialty services or child and adolescent mental and behavioral health care including SUD prevention and treatment services may apply for up to $100,000 in loan repayment. Learn more about HRSA’s Pediatric Specialty Loan Repayment Program on HRSA’s website.
Read How Value-Based Care Revenue is Driving Primary Care Practice Acquisitions
Big corporations are scooping up primary care practices to get access to vast numbers of patients while positioning themselves for the shift to value-based care, The New York Times reported May 8. The story cites CVS Heath’s $10.6 billion purchase of Oak Street Health, Amazon’s $3.9 billion deal for One Medical, and Optum’s employment of roughly 70,000 physicians. The companies hope to treat the more than 30 million Americans on Medicare Advantage, which the federal government is paying private payers $400 billion a year to administer.
The Pandemic’s Toll on Community Health Centers
Community health centers are often the first line of defense during health crises in America, including the opioid and HIV epidemics, operating as a safety net for 30 million patients who would otherwise struggle to access primary care, including 13 million patients living in poverty, 6 million uninsured patients, and 1 million patients experiencing homelessness. Despite their vital role, health centers are in a precarious financial position. Operating within tight financial margins leaves them with little room for investments in technology, staffing, and other resources and when financial uncertainty grows, health centers often impose hiring freezes or reduce services. Read more in Underfunded and Overburdened: The Toll of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Community Health Centers.
One Third of Pennsylvania’s May Medicaid Reapplications Ineligible
New data from the Pennsylvania Department of Human Services show that 43,546, or 32%, of the 137,611 Pennsylvanians who completed the reapplication process in the first month were slated to lose Medicaid, declared ineligible because their income was too high or due to a procedural problem, such as not returning documentation, The Philadelphia Inquirer reports.
New Brief Highlights State Opioid Settlement Spending Decisions
In order to spend funding received through the national settlement and other opioid-related settlements, states have developed legislative and legal frameworks that distribute funds and decision-making authorities between the state government, local governments, and/or special abatement funds or trusts. States are in different stages in the process of receiving money, deciding how to spend it, implementing funded programs, and reporting on spending and outcomes. However, 17 states have now approved and published their plans for a first year of spending, which often include priority areas or approved uses for funds. A smaller subset of states have awarded settlement funds to specific abatement programs. Many of these plans were published in the final months of 2022 or first months of 2023 as part of annual reports on settlement spending activity.
This issue brief provides an overview of published statewide opioid settlement spending plans and appropriations made to date and highlights initial priorities and investments outlined in these plans.
National Rural Leaders Program Accepting Applications
The National Rural Health Association’s (NRHA) Rural Health Fellows Program is a yearlong, intensive training program that develops leaders who can articulate a clear and compelling vision for rural America. The goal of the fellows program is to educate and develop a network of diverse rural leaders that will step forward to serve in key positions in the association, affiliated advocacy groups, and local and state legislative bodies with health equity as a main focus.
Each year, NRHA selects 10 to 15 highly motivated individuals who have proven their dedication to improving the health of rural Americans through their educational or professional experience.
The submission period for 2024 Rural Health Fellows applications is now open. For more information, contact Ally Zimmerman.