U.S. Rep. Dan Meuser, R-09, co-sponsored H.R. 1310 — the States Handling Access to Reciprocity for Employment (SHARE) Act — which will improve patient care and address workforce shortages that are causing a considerable strain on the healthcare system, particularly in rural communities. Current law requires healthcare providers to obtain a license or certification from each state in which they wish to practice. If a provider, such as a doctor or nurse, licensed in one state relocates to another, that provider must complete the licensure process again for each new state in which they wish to practice. This process is burdensome and strips providers of the ability to practice in any new state until the application is approved — sometimes taking more than half a year. The SHARE Act will make a technical correction to modernize a vital component of the licensure process for healthcare providers seeking a license under an interstate compact. Specifically, the legislation removes red tape and reduces administrative burdens by authorizing the FBI to share criminal history record information between states for licensure purposes. This will allow background checks to be completed in a much more efficient and timely manner, which is often one of the longest aspects of the license application process.

The Rural Health Value team recently updated Demonstrating Your Value: A Guide to Potential Value-based Care Partnerships for Rural Health Care Organizations. This resource can help rural healthcare leaders demonstrate the value their organizations can bring to networks, affiliations, payers, systems, or accountable care organizations (ACOs). The Rural Health Value team also updated its Catalog of Value-Based Initiatives for Rural Providers, as one-page summaries describing rural-relevant, value-based programs. The Rural Health Value team is funded by the Federal Office of Rural Health Policy.

  September is National Recovery Month and HRSA’s Office of Women’s Health has a toolkit to support organizations and healthcare providers that care for women living with opioid use disorder (OUD).

 On September 1, 2023, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) issued the Minimum Staffing Standards for Long-Term Care (LTC) Facilities and Medicaid Institutional Payment Transparency Reporting proposed rule. Under CMS’s proposal, nursing homes participating in Medicare and Medicaid would be required to meet specific nurse staffing levels that promote safe, high-quality care for residents. Nursing homes would need to provide residents with a minimum of 0.55 hours of care from a registered nurse per resident per day, and 2.45 hours of care from a nurse aide per resident per day, exceeding existing standards in nearly all states. CMS estimates approximately 75 percent of nursing homes would have to strengthen staffing in their facilities. As the long-term care sector continues to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic, the proposed standards take into consideration local realities in rural and underserved communities through staggered implementation and exemption processes. CMS specifically seeks comment on its proposed definition of “rural” for these exemptions. The proposed rule uses the Census definition of rural and urban, meaning that “rural” encompasses all population, housing, and territory not included within an urban area. See the Census Bureau for more information on urban area classification, including a high-resolution map of the urban areas based on the 2020 Census. Comments are due by November 6, 2023.

Applications for Fiscal Year (FY) 2024 NIH Loan Repayment Program (LRP) awards will open on September 1, 2023. LRPs can repay up to $100,000 of qualified educational debt for those who are eligible and agree to perform NIH mission-relevant research. The deadline to submit an application is November 16, 2023.

The LRPs help recruit and retain highly qualified health professionals to careers in biomedical or behavioral research. Several different extramural LRP categories are available, so review each to see which may be the right fit for your research. Please also take a couple minutes to watch this brief video where Matthew Lockhart, M.B.A. Director of the OER Division of Loan Repayment (DLR) discusses eligibility criteria and the program categories.

Similar to when we expanded the Health Disparities Research LRP for the FY 2020 LRP program cycle, we are doing the same for the Clinical Research LRP for Individuals from Disadvantaged Backgrounds. The recently published funding opportunity explains who qualifies as an individual from a disadvantaged background and this post shares some other related information.

The process of applying for and managing an LRP award is also now simpler and more cybersafe. Along with moving the application to ASSIST to prepare and submit applications electronically a couple years ago, we also recently launched two new portals that can be accessed through eRA Commons. The enhanced cybersecurity features afforded by eRA means their financial and other personal information is more safe and secure.

• The LRP Participant Portal allows awardees to see their student loans as well as payment and verification history.

• Research supervisors can use their portal to verify an LRP awardee’s research service by answering a series of questions about LRP recipients under their supervision, including their research service hours and ensuring they are fulfilling other necessary requirements.

We hope all eligible candidates consider applying for the FY 2024 LRP cycle. Be sure to review each Institute or Center Mission and Research Priorities first, and consider discussing the process and your ideas with appropriate scientific LRP liaisons at NIH.  Research and funding priorities can change on a yearly basis, so it is essential that applicants contact a liaison – ideally in advance of the opening of the application cycle – to ensure an appropriate understanding of each NIH Institute and Center research priorities. DLR is also available to answer any questions you may have by phone, or email, Monday through Friday, 9.a.m. to 5 p.m. ET.

CMS will host a series of Patient-Focused Listening Sessions this fall as part of the Medicare Drug Price Negotiation Program. The virtual public Listening Sessions will provide an opportunity for patients, beneficiaries, caregivers, consumer and patient organizations, and other interested parties to share input relevant to the drugs selected for the first round of negotiations.

CMS is interested in patient-focused input, including information related to therapeutic alternatives of the selected drugs and how the selected drugs address unmet need, as well as how the selected drugs impact specific populations. The sessions will be listen-only; CMS will not be responding to feedback during the sessions.

Dates: The Listening Sessions will be held October 30 – November 15, 2023. Speaker registration is open September 1 – October 2, 2023.

Attendance: The public does not need to register to attend. All sessions will be livestreamed here.

Public Input Opportunities: There are two ways the public can share feedback and input to CMS related to the selected drugs and their therapeutic alternatives:

1. Public Statement: Those who wish to make a brief live, public statement should register for the chance to speak at a Listening Session. Each session can accommodate approximately 20 speakers. Additional information for speakers and registration to speak can be found here.
2. Submitted Statement: Because there are limited speaking opportunities during the live Listening Sessions, CMS encourages the public to submit written input, if interested, in response to the 2023 CMS request for information about selected drugs and evidence about alternative treatments. Information can be submitted here.

The deadline for both public input opportunities is October 2, 2023 at 11:59 PM PDT.

The Listening Sessions are subject to change, including postponement and/or cancellation.

Additional information on the public Listening Sessions can be found here.

Additional information about the Medicare Drug Price Negotiation Program can be found here.

Employer registration for the 2023 3RNET (National Rural Recruitment and Retention Network) Academy is now open.  The six-session Academy is free to Pennsylvania-based health centers, rural health clinics, rural hospitals, and other safety net facilities thanks to the sponsorship of the Pennsylvania Association of Community Health Centers.

When you register and/or complete the program, you receive:

• Access to six live 90 minute webinars featuring national experts on rural/underserved retention
• Password protected portal to gain access to the webinar recordings, session materials, & more
• Ability to ask questions to other Academy attendees and 3RNET members via the Academy listserv
• A certificate of completion

Go to this custom page for Pennsylvania to find more information and to register. You will find the promo code to insert while checking out after registering.

For more information contact Judd Mellinger-Blouch.

During the week of September  4, 2023, CMS will launch a new version of CMS.gov. The new version of the site will feature an updated information architecture and streamlined navigation, as well as a refreshed home page. We worked with stakeholders throughout the development of these website improvements and this input is reflected in the new website navigation.

Here are some important things to keep in mind with regards to the new version of CMS.gov:

• Once the new site goes live, if you are still seeing the old site, please try refreshing the page, closing and re-opening your browser window, or opening a different browser.
• Redirects
  • All pages will automatically redirect to the new URLs
  • All redirects will remain in place indefinitely
  • For anyone who has pages or files bookmarked, those links will continue to work properly
  • All links from existing materials such as documents and press releases will continue to work properly
  • All links from external websites will continue to work properly
  • All links from search engines such as Google will continue to work properly
• Marketplace.cms.gov and Innovation.cms.gov
  • These two domains will be migrated into the www.cms.gov website and retired as standalone websites
  • All of the content from these domains has been migrated into the new information architecture on CMS.gov
  • All of the above information about redirects applies to these two sites as well
  • Once the new version of CMS.gov launches, you can navigate to Innovation Center content by going to cms.gov/innovation, and you can navigate to Marketplace content by going to cms.gov/marketplace
  • It will take a day or two for the Innovation and Marketplace content to be indexed by our site search

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Office of Minority Health (CMS OMH) released a new Z code infographic entitled: Improving the Collection of Social Determinants of Health (SDOH) Data with ICD-10-CM Z Codes (2023). This resource aims to assist providers with understanding and using Z codes to improve the quality and collection of health equity data. Using social determinants of health, Z codes can enhance quality improvement activities, track factors that influence people’s health, and provide further insight into existing health inequities.

Z codes are a set of ICD-10-CM codes used to report social, economic, and environmental determinants known to affect health and health-related outcomes. Nine broad categories of Z codes represent various hazardous socioeconomic, and environmental conditions. Z codes can be used in any health setting and by any provider as a tool for identifying a range of issues related to education and literacy, employment, housing, ability to obtain adequate amounts of food or safe drinking water, and occupational exposure to toxic agents, dust, or radiation.

Looking for more information about Z codes? Review the journey map: Using SDOH Z Codes Can Enhance Your Quality Improvement Initiatives, which provides step-by-step instructions for healthcare professionals on how to use Z codes.

For more CMS OMH health equity-focused resources, visit: go.cms.gov/omh.

Resources

• Check out the Z code infographic: Improving the Collection of Social Determinants of Health (SDOH) Data with ICD-10-CM Z Codes (2023).
• Review the journey map: Using SDOH Z Codes Can Enhance Your Quality Improvement Initiatives.
• Read this Data Highlight from CMS OMH on Z code usage.
• Visit the CDC website for more information on Z codes and other health equity initiatives. Use the CDC National Center for Health Statistics ICD-10-CM Browser tool to search for all the current Z codes.
• Join the public process for SDOH code development and approval through the ICD-10-CM Coordination and Maintenance Committee.