Funding Will Expand Access to COVID-19 Vaccines, Health Care Services and Food Assistance in Rural America

The Biden-Harris Administration announced that the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is making up to $500 million available in grants to help rural health care facilities, tribes and communities expand access to COVID-19 vaccines, health care services and nutrition assistance.

President Biden’s comprehensive plan to recover the economy and deliver relief to the American people is changing the course of the pandemic and providing immediate relief to millions of households, growing the economy and addressing the stark, intergenerational inequities that have worsened in the wake of COVID-19.

“Under the leadership of President Biden and Vice President Harris, USDA is playing a critical role to help rural America build back better and equitably as the nation continues to respond to the pandemic,” Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said. “Through the Emergency Rural Health Care Grants, USDA will help rural hospitals and local communities increase access to COVID-19 vaccines and testing, medical supplies, telehealth, and food assistance, and support the construction or renovation of rural health care facilities. These investments will also help improve the long-term viability of rural health care providers across the nation.”

Background:

Applicants may apply for two types of assistance: Recovery Grants and Impact Grants.

The Biden-Harris Administration is making Recovery Grants available to help public bodies, nonprofit organizations and tribes provide immediate COVID-19 relief to support rural hospitals, health care clinics and local communities.

These funds may be used to increase COVID-19 vaccine distribution and telehealth capabilities; purchase medical supplies; replace revenue lost during the pandemic; build and rehabilitate temporary or permanent structures for health care services; support staffing needs for vaccine administration and testing; and support facility and operations expenses associated with food banks and food distribution facilities. Recovery Grant applications will be accepted on a continual basis until funds are expended.

The Administration also is making Impact Grants available to help regional partnerships, public bodies, nonprofits and tribes solve regional rural health care problems and build a stronger, more sustainable rural health care system in response to the pandemic.

USDA encourages applicants to plan and implement strategies to:

• develop health care systems that offer a blend of behavioral care, primary care and other medical services;
• support health care as an anchor institution in small communities; and
• expand telehealth, electronic health data sharing, workforce development, transportation, paramedicine, obstetrics, behavioral health, farmworker health care and cooperative home care.

Impact Grant applications must be submitted to your local USDA Rural Development State Office by 4:00 p.m. local time on Oct. 12, 2021.

For additional information, please see the notice (PDF, 343 KB) in today’s Federal Register. USDA encourages potential applicants to review the application guide at www.rd.usda.gov/erhc.

In response to the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) recent action that authorizes an additional dose of COVID-19 vaccine for immunocompromised individuals, CMS is assuring people with Medicare who qualify for an additional dose that they can receive it with no cost sharing. This is part of President Biden’s commitment that patients have access to the necessary vaccinations to protect themselves from COVID-19.

Medicare would pay for administering an additional dose of COVID-19 vaccines consistent with the modified FDA emergency use authorization (EUA) that was announced today. For COVID-19 vaccines administered on or after March 15, 2021, the national average payment rate for physicians, hospitals, pharmacies and many other immunizers is $40 to administer each dose of a COVID-19 vaccine. The Medicare program would continue to pay providers $40 to administer this additional dose – the same amount as paid for other doses of the COVID-19 vaccine.

CMS will share more information and guidance in the coming days about billing and coding for the additional dose of the COVID-19 vaccine for immunocompromised patients.

For additional information:

• View the FDA announcement
• CMS COVID-19 Provider Toolkit

Resources include guidance documents, links to the latest from the CDC, and information about vaccine safety and administration

With cases of COVID-19 surging again across the country, EMS clinicians and leaders may once again be responding to increased numbers of PUIs, have questions about handling exposures, and be looking for information about coronavirus vaccines.

The EMS.gov COVID-19 Resources for EMS page continues to provide a number of helpful tools, on topics ranging from crisis standards of care to first responder mental health. The source of each resource is clearly identified, including documents created by the Federal Healthcare Resilience Working Group EMS/Prehospital Team.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) Office of EMS once again would like to thank EMS clinicians and our public safety and healthcare colleagues across the country for your dedicated service. What you do is vital to our communities and our nation. We urge you to take steps to ensure the health and safety of you, your patients and your families and protect yourself from COVID-19, stress, and other dangers.

Please contact nhtsa.ems@dot.gov with questions or comments.

Learn more.

In new interim guidance, “Post-COVID-19 Conditions in Children and Adolescents,” the American Academy of Pediatrics offers pediatricians and other providers guidance in the follow-up care of infants, children, and adolescents after infection with COVID-19.

Read the news release.

Johns Hopkins University introduces Vira, a vaccine education chatbot, to answer common COVID-19 vaccine questions. The university’s International Vaccine Access Center (IVAC), in collaboration with IBM Research, developed Vira. All you need to do is type your question into the chatbot and in just seconds, Vira will offer evidence-based answers vetted by Johns Hopkins vaccine scientists. Vira can be used on both desktop and mobile devices.

The Departments of Health and Human Services (HHS) and Justice (DOJ) jointly published guidance on how disability nondiscrimination laws apply to people with “long COVID” who may be newly covered because of the impact of the COVID-19 infection. The guidance discusses when long COVID may be considered a disability under the Americans with Disabilities Act and other federal civil rights laws. The White House shared the guidance, along with a directory of resources available through programs funded by the Administration for Community Living, as part of a comprehensive package of resources for people with disabilities, including those with long COVID and other post-COVID conditions.

The Pennsylvania Department of Health (DOH) issued Health Update – 583 – Public Health Recommendations for People Fully Vaccinated Against COVID-19 on July 30. This guidance replaces PA-HAN-566 and provides clarification on quarantine recommendations for persons exposed to SARS-CoV-2. In counties with substantial or high transmission, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and DOH recommend all persons, regardless of vaccination status, to wear a mask in public indoor settings. Fully vaccinated people who have had a known exposure to someone with suspected or confirmed COVID-19 should be tested 2-5 days after exposure and should wear a mask in public indoor settings for 14 days or until they receive a negative test. Regardless of vaccination status, any person with new or unexplained symptoms of COVID-19 still needs to isolate and be evaluated for SARS-CoV-2 testing.

If anyone has questions about this guidance, please call your local health department or 1-877-PA-HEALTH (1-877-724-3258). Click here for all the 2021 Health Alerts, Advisories and Updates.

In 2020, before COVID-19 vaccines, most major private insurers waived patient payments — from coinsurance to deductibles — for COVID treatment. That is changing and there is logic behind the changes. Insurers are asking why patients should be kept financially unharmed from what is now a preventable hospitalization, thanks to a vaccine that is made available free of charge. More than 97 percent of hospitalized patients last month were unvaccinated. Though the vaccines might not prevent you from catching the coronavirus, they are highly effective at assuring you will have a milder case and are kept out of the hospital. In addition, if a person decides not to get vaccinated and contracts a bad case of COVID-19, they are not only exposing others in their family, workplace and neighborhood, the tens or hundreds of thousands spent on their care could mean higher health insurance premiums for others as well. What’s more, outbreaks in low-vaccination regions could help breed more vaccine-resistant variants that affect everyone. The decision on whether to get vaccinated or not might still be an individual one, but it is one that comes with consequences.

Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf and the members of the bipartisan COVID-19 Vaccine Task Force sent a letter to the Pennsylvania General Assembly, the Pennsylvania Congressional delegation, and county and local officials asking them to support vaccination efforts in the commonwealth and encourage their constituents to get vaccinated. The letter calls on officials to use all means at their disposal – including social media, newsletters and events – to connect with constituents and encourage them to take the simple step of getting vaccinated. High vaccination rates are the best protection our communities have against COVID-19.

Click here to learn more.