- 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
Medicaid Enrollments Increased 17% During the Public Health Emergency
The December Medicaid enrollment count has reached 3,430,872, up 17% since the beginning of the Public Health Emergency (PHE) declaration in March 2020. Medicaid eligible individuals did not lose coverage due to Maintenance of Effort provisions, but approximately 400,000 individuals stand to lose Medicaid eligibility when the PHE declaration is lifted or expires. Health centers nationwide expect to provide enrollment assistance to patients needing help enrolling in marketplaces at the end of the Public Health Emergency.
Final Pennie Enrollment Numbers for Open Enrollment in Pennsylvania
Pennie ended Open Enrollment with 374,776 enrollments, an 11% increase over the 2021 Open Enrollment period, which was seven days longer, ending on January 22, 2021. More than 50,000 applications were deemed potentially eligible for Medicaid and thus transferred to the Department of Human Services for processing. Consumer metal level selections increased in the Gold level by about 11%. This is due in part to additional savings from the American Rescue Plan. More than 3,000 health insurance enrollments were attributed to assisters. New this year were stats reflecting Dental enrollments, which showed that 9% of all dental enrollments were stand-alone plans out of the 87,701 total enrollments. The seven 2022 dental insurers were Best, Capital Blue Cross, Delta Dental, DentaQuest, Dominion, EMI Health and Guardian. To view more metrics and information, click here for the Pennie Board slides and meeting recordings.
Little Progress on Key Legislation
As negotiations on the Build Back Better Act remained stalled, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) canceled this week’s recess to continue to focus on voting rights legislation. However, as Senators Joe Manchin’s (D-WV) and Kyrsten Sinema’s (D-AZ) opposition to changes to the filibuster has not waivered, voting rights reform cannot pass. Last week, top appropriators met to discuss government funding as the Feb. 18, 2022, deadline to pass another continuing resolution or an omnibus appropriations bill approaches. While lawmakers are negotiating an omnibus appropriations bill, including supplemental funding to address the ongoing pandemic, a short-term continuing resolution would give Congress more time to work on the legislation.
Pennsylvania House Republication Policy Committee Holds Rural Health Hearing
The Pennsylvania House Republican Policy Committee hosted a public hearing this week to discuss rural health care challenges and proposed solutions. The goal of the hearing was two-fold: to gain greater insights into the challenges facing rural health care facilities and discuss potential policy solutions to ensure rural residents have affordable and accessible care when they need it. The virtual hearing featured testimony from hospital administrators, including those from UPMC Kane, UPMC Cole, Warren General Hospital and Kaleida Health; area health care providers; and rural health care advocacy organizations. Pennsylvania Acting Secretary of Health Keara Klinepeter also testified. Click here to watch the hearing and read the written testimony.
Rural Communities Opioid Response Program – Behavioral Health Care Support
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), through the Health Resources and Services Administration’s (HRSA) Federal Office of Rural Health Policy (FORHP), announced the availability of $13 million in funding to increase access to quality behavioral health care services in rural America through the Rural Communities Opioid Response Program–Behavioral Health Care Support (RCORP-BHS). RCORP-BHS is a part of the Rural Communities Opioid Response Program (RCORP), a multi-year initiative administered by HRSA that has provided over $400 million in direct grants and technical assistance to rural communities addressing behavioral health care challenges, including substance use disorder since 2018.
All domestic public and private entities, nonprofit and for-profit, are eligible to apply for RCORP-BHS, including, but not limited to, Rural Health Clinics, community- and faith-based organizations, and Federally recognized tribes and tribal organizations.
Approximately 26 award recipients will receive $500,000 each per year for a four-year period of performance. During the course of the grant, RCORP-BHS award recipients will implement activities that are aligned with the following overarching program goals:
- Address structural- and systems-level barriers to improve rural residents’ access to quality, integrated SUD and other behavioral health care services.
- Improve the quality and sustainability of rural behavioral health care services through supporting rural health care providers to offer coordinated, evidence-based, trauma-informed SUD and other behavioral health care services.
- Improve the capacity of the behavioral health care system to address rural community risk factors and social determinants of health that affect the behavioral health of rural residents.
Award recipients are required to be part of a consortium of four or more separately owned entities and all services must be provided in HRSA-designated rural areas. Additionally, award recipients will submit a Behavioral Health Disparities Impact Statement during the period of performance that details how their project will address health disparities within their target rural service areas.
FORHP will hold a technical assistance webinar for applicants on Thursday, February 3, 2022 from 1 – 2:30 p.m. ET. A recording will be made available for those who cannot attend. For dial-in information, view the NOFO on Grants.gov, click the Package tab, then Preview, and Download Instructions; technical assistance information is on page (ii). You do not need to register in advance for the webinar. Please email ruralopioidresponse@hrsa.gov for a link to the recording.
Applicants can begin the RCORP-Behavioral Health Care Support application process on Grants.gov and apply by Tuesday, April 19, 2022 at 11:59 PM, ET. Visit the Notice of Funding Opportunity for more information.
Increasing Female Dentists Improves Health Equity
A new study, Evaluating the Impact of Dentists’ Personal Characteristics on Workforce Participation: https://oralhealthworkforce.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/OHWRC-Evaluating-the-Impact-of-Dentists-Personal-Characteristics-on-Workforce-Participation-2021.pdf conducted by the Oral Health Workforce Research Center (OHWRC) at the University at Albany’s Center for Health Workforce Studies (CHWS) builds on their previous work. A National Study of the Practice Characteristics of Women in Dentistry and Potential Impacts on Access to Care for Underserved Communities that suggested that “female dentists treat more children and more publicly insured patients than their male counterparts. The growth in the number of women in dentistry may expand the capacity of the delivery system to better meet the needs of the population, particularly the underserved.”
Oral Antiviral COVID-19 Therapies Update
In December, the FDA approved the first oral antiviral https://www.fda.gov/news-events/press-announcements/coronavirus-covid-19-update-fda-authorizes-first-oral-antiviral-treatment-covid-19 for the treatment of mild-to-moderate coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in adults and pediatric patients (12 years of age and older weighing at least 40 kilograms or about 88 pounds) with positive results of direct SARS-CoV-2 testing, and who are at high risk for progression to severe COVID-19, including hospitalization or death. A limited number of FQHCs in Pennsylvania have begun to receive a supply of oral antivirals. Pennsylvania locations with oral antivirals obtained through the PA Department of health can be found at: https://www.health.pa.gov/topics/disease/coronavirus/Pages/Prevention-Treatment.aspx#oral Scroll down the page and note there are separate links for Mulnupiravir providers and Paxlovid providers. Individuals can also search by address using this therapeutics map: https://protect-public.hhs.gov/pages/therapeutics-distribution In addition, around 200 health centers nationwide, including seven in Pennsylvania, have been invited to participate in the HRSA program to distribute oral antivirals. As supply increases, oral AVs should be a more accessible solution, but supply is currently very limited in both programs.
Effects of Virtual Care Delivery on Clinician Human Resources
The COVID-19 pandemic prompted the increased and widespread use of virtual health services, including telehealth, in health centers. Learn more about the effect that the rise in the use of this technology has had on clinician engagement through a STAR Center white paper. https://chcworkforce.org/web_links/effects-of-virtual-care-delivery/
CDC Study Confirms Vaccine Effectiveness
A recent study of more than one million people confirms that COVID-19 vaccines are highly effective against COVID-19-associated hospitalization and death. Highlights include that severe COVID-19-associated outcomes (0.015%) or death (0.0033%) were rare and nearly 80% of those who died had at least four risk factors. https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/71/wr/mm7101a4.htm
Provider Relief Fund Reporting Portal Open
The Provider Relief Fund (PRF) reporting portal is open for providers required to report on PRF payments during Reporting Period 2. The portal will remain open until Thursday, March 31. Learn more about reporting requirements at: https://www.hrsa.gov/provider-relief/reporting-auditing/reporting-resources