– Thursday, August 15 at 2 pm Eastern. The National Association of Rural Health Clinics (NARHC) will host the free webinar with details on the recently released Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Calendar Year 2025 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule (MPFS) proposed rule. This annual regulatory update contains Rural Health Clinic (RHC) specific proposals to eliminate productivity standards, remove hemoglobin/hematocrit from the six required lab services, reform care management billing, and allow RHCs to bill for administration of part B preventive vaccines at time of service, among others. Additional time for Q&A will be provided. Advanced registration is required.

On July 30th, 2024, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) issued a final rule that provides updates to the fiscal year (FY) 2025 Hospice Quality Reporting Program (HQRP). This rule finalizes new HQRP quality measures; finalizes a new data collection instrument, the Hospice Outcomes and Patient Evaluation (HOPE); summarizes responses to a request for information regarding potential social determinants of health (SDOH) elements; and provides updates on Health Equity activities, future quality measures, and public reporting requirements. The rule also finalizes changes to the Hospice Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (Hospice CAHPS) Survey.   This rule is effective October 1, 2024.

This brief from the North Carolina Rural Health Research and Policy Analysis Center provides an update to a 2016 analysis of the profitability of low-volume and non-low-volume rural Prospective Payment System hospitals under the Affordable Care Act’s qualifying criteria.

While pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) is a key tool to ending the global HIV and AIDS epidemic by 2030, recent data show that only 30 percent of the 1.2 million Americans who are candidates for the medication proven to reduce the risk of getting HIV are actually taking it.  A recent report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention revealed substantial differences in uptake by geography, race and ethnicity; what scientists call “PrEP deserts” are most commonly found in the rural South, where more than half of new HIV infections in the U.S continue to occur.  In this study, researchers recognize that inequity in care is likely attributed to social determinants of health and structural issues beyond individuals’ control.  They describe three approaches to potentially improve access in the South and in rural communities: 1) normalizing where providers prescribe PrEP routinely as a standard of care; 2) digitalizing, i.e., using technology, such as telehealth, as recommended in 2020 by the National Advisory Committee on Rural Health and Human Services; and 3) streamlining care using guidelines from the World Health Organization and the U.S. Public Health Service to explore different approaches, such as on-demand PrEP and HIV self-testing.  See Learning Opportunities below for upcoming event addressing stigma in the rural Southeast.

The 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline has expanded services and continued to answer millions of calls, texts, and chats from people experiencing mental health or substance use crises since its launch on July 16, 2022. The Department of Health and Human Services has invested nearly $1.5 billion into 988 as part of the Biden-Harris Administration’s comprehensive strategy to address the nation’s mental health and substance use crises.

988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline crisis counselors answered more than 10 million calls, texts, and chats from people experiencing mental health or substance use crises in the two years since its launch, including almost 1.2 million calls answered by the Veterans Crisis Line (VCL) through 988’s Press 1 option, one of the ways Veterans, service members and their families can reach the VCL. Considering the full range of VCL services, Veterans and their supporters have reached VCL through phone, online chat, and text over 2 million times since July 2022. If you or someone you know is struggling or in crisis, help is available. Call or text 988 or chat at 988lifeline.org.

A report (PDF) from the HHS National Syphilis and Congenital Syphilis Syndemic Federal Task Force explores differences between point of care (POC) tests and laboratory-based serologic tests. It also highlights when POC testing may be the best. Visit HIV.gov to learn more. HHS will hold a webinar on the topic on July 31 from 12:00 – 1:00 pm. Registration is available.

Pennsylvania is joining the legislative bandwagon to limit noncompetition agreements for certain health care workers. In a purported effort to retain health care practitioners for the commonwealth and promote continuity of care for patients, Gov. Josh Shapiro signed the Fair Contracting for Health Care Practitioners Act into law on July 17, 2024. In addition to narrowing the scope of noncompete in certain limited instances, it imposes a separate patient notice requirement following the “departure” of a health care practitioner. The act is not effective until January 1, 2025. The act:

·     Prohibits noncompete covenants for more than one year in length in certain circumstances

·     Prohibits the enforcement of a noncompete covenant against a health care practitioner if the health care practitioner is “dismissed”

·     Permits an employer to recover certain reasonable expenses “related to relocation, training and establishment of a patient base” but prohibits recovery if the health care practitioner is “dismissed”

·     Permits noncompete covenants related to sales or merger of a business entity

·     Permits noncompete covenants where the health care practitioner receives by purchase, grant, award or issuance of an ownership interest in a “business entity”

·     In addition, the act requires an employer to notify “patients seen within the past year” of: (1) the “departure” of a health care practitioner, (2) how to transfer patient records to “departed health care practitioner or another health care practitioner” and (3) “that the patient may be assigned to a new health care practitioner within the existing employer if the patient chooses to continue receiving care from the employer.” An employer is required to provide these notifications within 90 days of the health care practitioner’s departure. However, the notification requirement applies only where the health care practitioner had an “ongoing outpatient relationship with the patient for two or more years.”

In 2022, the national nonprofit Build Healthy Places Network (BHPN) released “A Playbook for New Rural Healthcare Partnership Models of Investment,” a resource for addressing social determinants of health in rural communities.  In this update, BPHN reconnects with organizations featured in the original playbook to gain a deeper understanding of the partnership landscape.