- Telehealth Study Recruiting Veterans Now
- USDA Delivers Immediate Relief to Farmers, Ranchers and Rural Communities Impacted by Recent Disasters
- Submit Nominations for Partnership for Quality Measurement (PQM) Committees
- Unleashing Prosperity Through Deregulation of the Medicare Program (Executive Order 14192) - Request for Information
- Dr. Mehmet Oz Shares Vision for CMS
- CMS Refocuses on its Core Mission and Preserving the State-Federal Medicaid Partnership
- Social Factors Help Explain Worse Cardiovascular Health among Adults in Rural Vs. Urban Communities
- Reducing Barriers to Participation in Population-Based Total Cost of Care (PB-TCOC) Models and Supporting Primary and Specialty Care Transformation: Request for Input
- Secretary Kennedy Renews Public Health Emergency Declaration to Address National Opioid Crisis
- Secretary Kennedy Renews Public Health Emergency Declaration to Address National Opioid Crisis
- 2025 Marketplace Integrity and Affordability Proposed Rule
- 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?
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.
USDA Partners with Agricultural Producers to Strengthen Markets and Create Jobs for Producers in 19 States
U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Secretary Tom Vilsack announced today that USDA is making investments that will create new and better markets for agricultural producers and food businesses in 19 states across rural America.
“The Biden-Harris Administration and USDA are standing up for America’s farmers and ranchers by expanding processing capacity, creating fairer markets, more revenue streams and market opportunities which help bring down food costs for families at the grocery store,” Secretary Vilsack said. “We are partnering with entrepreneurs in rural areas to build brighter futures, connect business owners to new markets and create good jobs for generations to come. These investments reflect the goals of President Biden’s Investing in America agenda to rebuild our economy from the bottom up and middle out and make our communities more resilient.”
USDA is making investments worth $320 million to strengthen food supply chains and create more opportunities for producers and entrepreneurs in 19 states: Alabama, California, Connecticut, Iowa, Idaho, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, North Carolina, North Dakota, New Hampshire, New York, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Texas and Virginia.
To learn more, read the full news release.