- In Rural Avery County, Helene Washed Away One of the Only Dental Clinics
- VA Proposes to Eliminate Copays for Telehealth, Expand Access to Telehealth for Rural Veterans
- Deaths From Cardiovascular Disease Increased Among Younger U.S Adults in Rural Areas
- Rural Veterans Are Struggling with Access to VA-Provided Care
- Idaho Gained Nurses. But Not Enough To Deal with Retirements and Population Boom.
- Community Health Workers Spread Across the US, Even in Rural Areas
- CMS Announces New Policies to Reduce Maternal Mortality, Increase Access to Care, and Advance Health Equity
- USDA Partners With White House, National Rural Water Association to Strengthen Cybersecurity for Rural Water Systems
- On-Call Maternity Care in Rural Arizona Boosted by AHCCCS Funding
- Ask an Expert: Solutions to Social Isolation in Rural Communities
- Share Your Rural Health Story in Honor of National Rural Health Day
- On Navajo Nation, a Push to Electrify More Homes on the Vast Reservation
- Agriculture Secretary Vilsack Visits North Carolina to Highlight Federal Resources Available to Help Farmers, Families and Communities Recover from Hurricane Helene
- NRHA Releases 2024 Compendium of Best Practices for Rural Age-Friendly Care
- Pratt Is the Latest Kansas Town Facing Nitrate Pollution. One-Quarter of Its Water Supply Is Off
96% of U.S. Counties See Decline in Share of White Population
Axios reports that America is more racially diverse than at any point in history, and racial minorities are becoming more geographically dispersed than ever before. Nationally, Hispanics and Asian Americans are the fastest-growing racial minority groups, increasing by 18.6% and 27.4%, respectively, between 2010 and 2018, according to an analysis by the Brookings Institution demographer Bill Frey, whose 2018 book “Diversity Explosion” outlined the country’s majority-minority future. Atlanta, Charlotte, Orlando, Dallas, Phoenix, Las Vegas, and Seattle registered substantial growth in their black populations. The nation’s white population has grown only 0.1% since 2010 and is projected to decline over the next decade. Read more.
Check Out the Pennsylvania Health Insurance Exchange Webpage
Keep up to date on the creation and rollout of Pennsylvania’s state-based health insurance exchange on the Department of Insurance’s State-Based Exchange webpage. Pennsylvania has been a federally facilitated marketplace or exchange since 2013. For the 2020 enrollment period, Pennsylvania has moved to a state-based exchange (SBE) using the federal platform (SBE-FP) and will fully transition to a SBE in 2021. For 2020, this will allow Pennsylvanians to continue to choose plans and enroll into the marketplace using Healthcare.gov, but the state is responsible for performing all marketplace functions for the individual market and the Small Business Health Insurance Options Program (SHOP).
Pennsylvania Governor Wolf’s Administration to Distribute More Free Naloxone
Later in September, Pennsylvania will recognize “Stop Overdoses in PA: Get Help Now Week” by making free Naloxone available at 95 location across the state. The free Naloxone will be available on two days while supplies last: Wednesday, Sept. 18, from 11:00 am to 7:00 pm, and Wednesday, Sept. 25, from 9:00 am to 3:00 pm. Click here for a list of the locations. Other commonwealth opioid use disorder activities and progress:
- Through a standing order, Naloxone, used to reverse an overdose caused by an opioid by blocking the effects of opioids on the brain, is available to any Pennsylvanian through pharmacies across the commonwealth for anyone who may need it
- According to the state Department of Health, more than 25,000 people have been revived with Naloxone by police officers and EMS providers in Pennsylvania since November 2014
- In December 2018, the commonwealth distributed over 5,000 naloxone kits across Pennsylvania
- Gov. Wolf announced in August that opioid related overdose deaths have decreased by 18 percent over the past 12 months
- Gov. Wolf this week announced another renewal of the state opioid disaster declaration, the seventh one since he first made the declaration on Jan. 10, 2018
Research Brief: Technical Assistance for Hospitals Applying to the Pennsylvania Rural Health Model—A CMMI-Sponsored Rural Hospital Global Budget Model
The Rural Health Value team recently released a new Rural Innovation Brief focused on technical assistance for rural hospitals considering participation in the Pennsylvania Rural Health Model.
Technical Assistance for Hospitals Applying to the Pennsylvania Rural Health Model—a CMMI-Sponsored Rural Hospital Global Budget Model – Rural hospitals, interested in participating in the Pennsylvania Rural Health Model, participated in a rapid cycle process to develop plans to transition from being volume-oriented to focusing on community health, facilitated by a global budget. This brief summarizes Rural Health Value’s process to facilitate hospital development of a transition plan for those considering developing or participating in a global budget or other transformation models for rural hospitals. (August 2019)
The report can be accessed here.
Does a Lower Income Mean a Shorter Life?
Americans with lower incomes are less likely to live into their 70s and 80s than Americans with comparatively higher incomes, according to a Government Accountability Office (GAO) report released this week. GAO researchers found average life expectancy in the United States increased from 1992 to 2014, but it “has not increased uniformly across all income groups, and people who have lower incomes tend to have shorter lives than those with higher incomes.” (Source: Washington Post, 9/9)
National Rural Health Center: 2019 Rural Care Coordination and Population Health Summit Findings
With the support of the Federal Office of Rural Health Policy (FORHP), the National Rural Health Resource Center (The Center) hosted the 2019 Rural Care Coordination and Population Health Management Summit in May 2019.
National Institute of Health Loan Repayment Programs (LRP) Application Cycle Opened on Sunday, September 1st
Have you thought about applying for an NIH LRP award? Do you know someone that should?
Continue reading “National Institute of Health Loan Repayment Programs (LRP) Application Cycle Opened on Sunday, September 1st”
Hospital closings hit hard on the edge of the Rust Belt
Carrie Jones is looking for work for the first time in two decades. She’s even more worried about what will happen to her psychiatric patients. “Where are they going to go?” Jones said. “We’re honestly like their family.”
Jones is among nearly 1,100 employees being laid off at Ohio Valley Medical Center in Wheeling and sister facility East Ohio Regional Hospital in nearby Martins Ferry, Ohio.
The layoffs are the latest blow to a region on the edge of the Rust Belt that hasn’t fully benefited from the economic recovery that President Donald Trump — who attended a private campaign fundraiser in Wheeling in July — has touted. The area had managed to hang on after steel mills and other manufacturing plants closed, in part by forging a new identity as a health care hub.
But after two years of ownership, Irvine, California-based Alecto Healthcare Services announced both hospitals will close by next month. The company cited several factors, including losses of more than $37 million since taking over, increasing facility improvement needs and the lack of a potential partner or buyer, including a cross-town hospital.
Acute and emergency admissions were suspended Wednesday night at OVMC, where workers held an emotional candlelight vigil just before midnight.
The Appalachian hilltop region’s economy has steadily eroded in recent decades, a trend forecasters expect to continue. Steel mills farther north were shuttered long ago. Aluminum and other manufacturing plants in Ohio left as well.
As the jobs went, so have residents. The population in the three-county area on either side of the river about an hour west of Pittsburgh has fallen steadily since the early 1980s, including a 5.3 percent drop from 2010 to 2018.
Powered by a natural gas fracking boom, employment rebounded after the Great Recession. But a 2018 report by West Virginia University researchers said the area would need “a significant positive economic shock” to halt long-term declines.
North of Wheeling, a natural gas-fired power plant is planned on a reclaimed coal strip mine but would create only 30 permanent jobs. In Ohio, a petrochemical plant proposed in Belmont County has languished in the planning stages for years.
A block away from OVMC, the 166-year-old Centre Market District is filled with restaurants and shops that cater to hospital workers and patients’ families. Some business owners said they will be affected by the hospital closing but are prepared to handle it.
A few miles east, Wheeling Hospital is one of the state’s top 10 private employers. In Ohio, three of Belmont County’s top employers are hospitals. Doctors who work at the two hospitals will be forced to go elsewhere.
Read the entire article here.
Fewer U.S. Households Are Going Hungry, But Cuts In Food Aid Loom
Millions of families in the U.S. struggled to get enough food to eat last year, but conditions appear to be getting better as the economy improves.
In a new report released Wednesday, the U.S. Department of Agriculture says that about 11 percent of households — just over 14 million — had trouble putting enough food on the table last year and that in about 4 percent of households, someone went hungry because there was not enough money to buy food.
While the numbers are high, they have steadily dropped in recent years and the government says that the level of what it calls food “insecurity” is finally back to where it was before the Great Recession began in 2007.
“That’s good news,” says Rachel Merker of First Focus, a group that advocates for children and families. But she and other anti-hunger advocates worry that the new numbers will be used to justify cuts in government aid. They say that hunger is still a problem, especially among certain vulnerable groups. “It’s important to note that children are disproportionately living in food insecure households,” Merker says.
Primary Care Practice Improvement Tools for Change
The EvidenceNOW Model for supporting primary care practice improvement originated from a multiyear Agency for Health Research and Quality (AHRQ) grant initiative designed to advance the adoption of clinical and organizational evidence in small- and medium-sized primary care practices. AHRQ seeks to spread the EvidenceNOW Model by sharing carefully selected tools and resources used in EvidenceNOW and other quality improvement (QI) initiatives. EvidenceNOW Tools for Change can help primary care practices, as well as practice facilitators and others who support practices, make changes to build their capacity to engage in quality improvement and implement the best evidence. Those interested in practice improvement can also attend the Setting the Foundation for Teamwork in Your Practice using the AHRQ TeamSTEPPS session during the PACHC Annual Conference & Clinical Summit. You will learn how to form a change team to lead teamwork efforts as well as how to assess your environment for strengths, barriers, and readiness for change.