Investing in childcare services creates jobs, allows caregivers to participate in the labor market, and provides opportunities for young families to remain in their rural communities — all of which contribute to a thriving regional economy. Research has shown that accessible, reliable childcare can help address local labor shortages and strengthen economic mobility for families.

Event: Rural Community Action Assembly: Childcare Demands and Workforce Needs
When: Thursday, March 27, from 10:00 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. ET
Where: Virtual

At this event, you will hear from experts and practitioners about strategies and best practices for supporting the local workforce through sustainable childcare services.

This event is for rural economic or workforce development organizations, policymakers and community leaders in rural regions, rural chambers of commerce, and current and potential childcare providers.

Participation is free, but registration is required. A video recording and event materials will be shared publicly after the session. Participants will have opportunities to engage with their peers, and all attendees will be encouraged to contribute to the conversation. Click here to register

For questions about this series, please contact Philip Jones at philip.jones@phil.frb.org.

This virtual meeting is a continuation of the Rural Community Action Assembly.

Update: On February 25, the White House issued an Executive Order to empower patients with clear, accurate, and actionable healthcare pricing information. Read the fact sheet for more information, which indicates the Departments of the Treasury, Labor, and Health and Human Services will:

• Ensure hospitals and insurers disclose actual prices, not estimates, and take action to make prices comparable across hospitals and insurers, including prescription drug prices
• Update their enforcement policies to ensure hospitals and insurers are in compliance with requirements to make prices transparent

Existing CMS guidance: Hospital Price Transparency regulations require each hospital operating in the U.S. to provide 1) a comprehensive machine-readable file with the standard charges for all items and services the hospital provides and 2) a display of shoppable services in a consumer-friendly format.

Additional resources available:

• Hospital Price Transparency Tools: CMS offers a suite of tools to aid hospitals in implementing hospital price transparency. These tools are designed to help facilitate compliance with regulations and enhance the accessibility of pricing information. The Online Validator ensures machine-readable files meet CMS template layouts and data specifications, enabling hospitals to identify and fix errors before publication. The HPT TXT Generator helps hospitals create the required cms-hpt.txt file, which contains information about the hospital and a direct link to the machine-readable file.
• Data Dictionary GitHub Repository: Here hospitals can access the CMS templates and data dictionary with technical instructions for encoding required standard charge information and get technical support.
• For any questions related to hospital price transparency, email PriceTransparencyHospitalCharges@cms.hhs.gov.

Compliance: CMS is planning a more systematic monitoring and enforcement approach, per the Executive Order. Consistent with standing CMS policies, non-compliance will be addressed with swift enforcement. See a list of enforcement actions to date and see a list, updated quarterly, of enforcement activities and their outcomes undertaken by CMS since the January 1, 2021, effective date.

CMS will host a series of public engagement events this spring as part of the Medicare Drug Price Negotiation Program. The virtual public engagement events will provide an opportunity for patients, beneficiaries, caregivers, consumer and patient organizations, and other interested parties, such as clinicians and researchers, to share input relevant to the drugs selected for the second cycle of negotiations.

CMS is interested in input relevant to the selected drugs, the condition(s) that the selected drug may be used to treat, and other medications that may be used to manage those conditions. This includes information related to the clinical benefits of the selected drugs compared to therapeutic alternatives, how the selected drugs address unmet need, and how the selected drugs impact specific populations.

CMS will use the information shared during the roundtable events to better understand patients’ experiences with the conditions and diseases treated by the selected drugs and patients’ experiences with the selected drugs themselves. CMS will use the information shared during the town hall meeting to better understand clinicians’ experiences prescribing and/or managing treatment with the selected drugs or therapeutic alternatives and clinicians’ considerations that drive treatment choice between the selected drugs and therapeutic alternatives. The information shared during both the town hall meeting and the roundtable events will also inform CMS’ identification of therapeutic alternatives, key outcomes, and adjustment of the starting point to develop the initial offer in negotiating with manufacturers of selected drugs. CMS will release redacted transcripts for the town hall meeting and each of the roundtable events, omitting participant names and other identifying information after all the events have ended.

Dates: The public engagement events will be held April 16 – April 30, 2025. Participant registration will be open until March 12, 2025.

Attendance: Anyone from the public may attend the town hall meeting livestream as a listener. Registration is not required, and the link to the livestream will be available here on April 30, 2025. Accommodation for people with disabilities and language assistance (e.g., interpretation) may be available.

Public Input Opportunities: There are two ways the public can share feedback and input with CMS:

• Public Engagement Events:
  • CMS will host one livestreamed town hall meeting for all selected drugs, focused on the clinical considerations related to the selected drugs. CMS encourages practicing clinicians and researchers, as well as other interested parties, to register to speak.
  • CMS will host 15 private (i.e., not livestreamed or open to press or general public) patient-focused roundtable events, one for each selected drug, which will be open to patients, patient advocacy organizations, and caregivers selected to speak at the events, and will allow for discussion among speakers.

Those who wish to make a public statement in the town hall meeting or to participate in a private roundtable event should register for the opportunity to speak at the public engagement events. Additional information to register for the events can be found here. For more information about the public engagement events, please see the Frequently Asked Questions document linked here.

If you are selected to speak at the event for which you registered, you will have 4 days after receiving the confirmation email to confirm your availability to participate at the selected event date and time, and any language interpretation services you need.

• Submitted Statement: CMS encourages the public to submit written input, if interested, in response to the CMS request for information about selected drugs and evidence about alternative treatments. Information can be submitted here by 11:59 PM PT March 1, 2025.

The public engagement events are subject to change, including postponement and/or cancellation.

Additional information on the public engagement events can be found here. Additional information about the Medicare Drug Price Negotiation Program can be found here.

Democratic members of Pennsylvania’s congressional delegation railed against the budget blueprint that passed the House on Tuesday night, warning it could result in steep cuts to Medicaid. But Rep. John Joyce (PA-13), who serves on a committee tasked with coming up with $880 billion in savings over the next decade, says he will work to protect what he calls the core mission of the health care program for low-income people and those with disabilities. “I have heard the concerns of many of my constituents about the Medicaid program,” said U.S. Rep. John Joyce, R-Altoona, who serves as vice chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee. “I remain committed to supporting Medicaid’s core mission of providing access and care to low-income children, pregnant women and individuals with disabilities, and I will work to protect this core mission throughout the budget resolution process,” Joyce said. Source: Tribune Review

Community health centers (CHCs) face substantial obstacles to participation in value-based payment models, in which payers reward performance on health outcomes. Further, these models rarely measure and reward efforts toward population health equity, a central CHC goal and outcome. In this Issue Brief, PennLDI recommends ways to promote and enhance CHC participation in value-based payment, and strategies to align these efforts with health equity goals. Penn LDI bases these recommendations on a series of focus groups and conversations with frontline CHC leaders, payers, and payment policy experts.

Given the significant uptake in Medicaid and CHIP enrollment during the pandemic (25 percent), the state has still made a net gain in terms of overall public health care coverage, and many of those de-enrolled were able to transition to the wider insurance marketplace. However, Pennsylvania’s failure to cement these gains in coverage still raises concerns, as evidence suggests many individuals across the country were kicked off their health care because of administrative errors, insufficient information on the disenrollment process, and other procedural issues. Source: Newsweek

Pennie and the Pennsylvania Department of Revenue collaborate to connect uninsured tax filers to coverage through Pennie. Path to Pennie allows customers to enroll outside of Open Enrollment in health insurance coverage. When uninsured tax filers complete their Pennsylvania state income tax return, they can fill out Tax Form REV-1882 – Health Insurance Coverage Information Request. The PA Department of Revenue will send the information provided on the form to Pennie to create an account. Pennie will then send a notice with three important pieces of information: an access code to open the newly created Pennie account; an estimate of financial assistance the consumer is likely to receive; and a 60-day Special Enrollment Period to apply, shop and enroll in coverage.

All Pennie customers will receive a 1095-A in the mail or in their secure Pennie Account inbox and must file a federal tax return. Customers who have a health insurance plan through Pennie and are using Advance Premium Tax Credit (APTC) will have to “reconcile” when they file their federal taxes. The reconciliation process will compare the amount of premium tax credit the customer used in advance during the previous plan year and the amount of premium tax credit the customer qualified for based on the customer’s final income for the year. The difference between the two figures may affect the customer’s refund or tax owed when the customer files their taxes. When filing taxes, customers must complete the IRS Tax Form 8962 and provide the 1095-A as proof.

The National Health Service Corps (NHSC) and Nurse Corps Loan Repayment Programs help repay part of school loan debt in exchange for service in a medically underserved area. Did you know Community Health Centers are automatically approved sites for these programs? The 2025 application will be opening soon, and interested clinicians can now access the Application and Program Guidance documents for the Nurse Corps, NHSC, Substance Use Disorder, and Rural Community loan repayment programs. Share this information with your clinicians and clinician candidates!

A Provider’s Pathway to Supporting Patients with Substance Use Disorder (SUD) is a self-paced, e-learning curriculum addressing issues at the intersection of SUD, stigma, the social determinants of health, and clinical practice. Participating providers will take away strategies to create a safe, non-stigmatizing environment for people with SUD and receive up to six hours of free CEU’s.