- Request for Information (RFI): Evolving the Network of the National Library of Medicine
- Dental Therapists, Who Can Fill Cavities and Check Teeth, Get the OK in More States
- Colorectal Cancer Is Rising among Younger Adults. Some States Want to Boost Awareness.
- 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
- Safe and Stable Housing Is a Foundation of Successful Recovery
- Rural RPM Program Is a Lifeline for Pregnant Women
- 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
NTIA Released their Most Recent Broadband Infrastructure Map
An interactive map from the federal National Telecommunications and Information Administration shows how broadband infrastructure may impact local economies. Using county-level data from the U.S. Census Bureau, the map provides a percentage of households with a broadband subscription as well as data on employment, wages and income, poverty, home values, population change and migration, educational attainment, and gross domestic product.
Here You Can Find the FORHP Investment Preview for 2023
An archived recording of the March 1 presentation that previews grants we expect to be funded this year.
A New Proposed Rule on Disclosure of Ownership for Nursing Facilities Has Been Annnounced
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) recently released a proposed rule that would require the disclosure of certain ownership, managerial, and other information regarding Medicare skilled nursing facilities (SNFs) and Medicaid nursing facilities. CMS believes that greater transparency about nursing home owners and operators can help CMS and other regulators hold these parties more accountable for the quality of care they furnish. Recent research from the WWAMI Rural Health Research Center looked at quality of SNFs serving rural Medicare beneficiaries and included an overview of SNF characteristics including ownership status. Comments are due by April 14, 2023.
Rural Schools and Their Community-Based Programs Supporting the LGBTQ+ Youth
This case series from the University of Minnesota Rural Health Research Center highlights examples of four school- and community-based organizations providing support for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer/questioning (LGBTQ+) youth.
You Can Read About The University of Vermont Center on Rural Addiction Here!
HRSA Rural Center of Excellence on Substance Use Disorders offers an incentive to help defray previous training costs of $750 to each qualifying provider who obtained a DATA Waiver. To qualify, providers must be practicing in an HRSA-designated rural county in Vermont, Maine, New Hampshire, or Northern New York. To apply for the $750 payment, providers should contact cora@uvm.edu.
Read About Guiding Rural Health Clinics at the End of the Public Health Emergency Here
The National Association of Rural Health Clinics first describes some of the COVID-related waivers and flexibilities that applied widely – such as those reducing barriers to telehealth – and then those that were specific to RHCs. These include relaxed requirements that physicians provide medical direction to nurse practitioners and justification to provide home nursing services, among others. These waivers will end with the public health emergency.
See Your States Timeline for Unwinding Medicaid Continuous Enrollment
As of April 1, states will resume eligibility reviews for enrollees in Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), also known as unwinding the Medicaid continuous coverage requirement. This chart details the expected first month for each state/territory’s unwinding-related renewals, as well as the anticipated effective date for the first terminations of enrollees’ Medicaid coverage. The Georgetown University Center for Children and Families maintains a 50-State Unwinding Tracker that compiles information found on state websites, including links to how enrollees can update their contact information and communication materials and toolkits for partners. Nearly a quarter of individuals under age 65 who live in rural areas are covered by Medicaid.
Announcing a 2-year Extension of Guidance Regarding Non-U.S. Citizens with Valid Social Security Numbers and Employment Authorization Documents
The Single Family Housing Guaranteed Loan Program (SFHGLP) is pleased to announce a two year extension of guidance originally published on April 29, 2022 which makes non-U.S. citizens with valid Social Security Numbers (SSN) and work authorization, as evidenced by documentation such as an Employment Authorization Document (EAD), Form I-766, temporarily eligible to apply for assistance. This extension expires on May 2, 2025.
Please note, applicant(s) must meet all other criteria set forth in 7 CFR Part 3555 and Handbook 1-3555.
Thank you for supporting the Single-Family Housing Guaranteed Loan Program!
Help Resources
Rural Development Help Desk:
For GUS system, outage or functionality assistance
Email: RD.HD@USDA.GOV
Important Links:
SFHGLP Lending Partner Webpage: https://www.rd.usda.gov/page/sfh-guaranteed-lender
SFHGLP Webpage:https://www.rd.usda.gov/programs-services/single-family-housing-guaranteed-loan-program
USDA LINC Training and Resource Library:
https://www.rd.usda.gov/programs-services/lenders/usda-linc-training-resource-library
Procedure Notices: https://www.rd.usda.gov/resources/directives/procedures-notices
Notice of Potential Changes to Eligible Area Maps for USDA Rural Development Housing Programs in Pennsylvania
USDA Rural Development is conducting a review of all areas under its jurisdiction to identify areas that no longer qualify as rural for housing programs. The last rural area reviews were performed in 2017-2018 using 2015 American Community Survey (ACS) data. Rural area designations are reviewed every five years. This review will utilize the 2020 United States decennial census data.
Based on the 2020 US census data and rural area guidance located in Handbook HB-1-3550, Chapter 5, the rural eligibility designation is under review for the following areas in Pennsylvania:
Currently eligible communities under review (population):
- Northampton and Lehigh Counties – (Bethlehem Line Adjustment)
Currently eligible communities under review (Rural in Character):
- Columbia County – Bloomsburg (“Rural in Character” under review.)
- Columbia County – Berwick (“Rural in Character” under review.)
- Lancaster County – Ephrata (“Rural in Character” under review.)
- Lancaster County – Elizabethtown (“Rural in Character” under review.)
- Franklin County – Chambersburg (“Rural in Character” under review.)
- Franklin County – Waynesboro (“Rural in Character” under review.)
Ineligible communities under review (expansion of ineligible areas):
- Lancaster County – Columbia (Line Adjustment)
- York County – Weigelstown (Line Adjustment)
- Allegheny County – Franklin Park (Line Adjustment)
- Allegheny County – Monroeville (Line Adjustment)
Ineligible communities under review (reconsideration of eligibility):
- Lycoming County – Williamsport (Minor Boundary Adjustments)
- Montgomery County – Pottstown (Minor Boundary Adjustments)
The public shall have 90 days from the date of this public notice to submit comments regarding the potential loss of eligibility for Rural Development housing programs. Comments should be sent to pasfh@usda.gov. For details, or questions about specific changes, please contact the Pennsylvania Rural Development Housing Program staff at (717) 237-2186.
Struggling to Survive, the First Rural Hospitals Line Up for New Federal Lifeline
Just off the historic U.S. Route 66 in eastern New Mexico, a 10-bed hospital has for decades provided emergency care for a steady flow of people injured in car crashes and ranching accidents.
It also has served as a close-to-home option for the occasional overnight patient, usually older residents with pneumonia or heart trouble. It’s the only hospital for the more than 4,500 people living on a swath of 3,000 square miles of high plains of Albuquerque.
“We want to be the facility that saves lives,” said Christina Campos, administrator of Guadalupe County Hospital in Santa Rosa. Its leaders have no desire to grow or be a big, profitable business, she said.
But even with a tax levy to help support the medical outpost, the facility lost more than $1 million in the past six months, Campos said: “For years, we’ve been anticipating kind of our own demise, praying that a program would come along and make us sustainable.”
Guadalupe is one of the nation’s first to start the process of converting into a Rural Emergency Hospital. The designation was created as part of the first new federal payment program launched by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services for rural providers in 25 years. And though it is not expected to be a permanent solution to pressures facing rural America, policymakers and hospital operators alike hope it will slow the financial hemorrhage that continues to shutter those communities’ hospitals.
More than 140 rural hospitals have closed nationwide since 2010, and health policy watchers aren’t sure how many of the more than 1,700 rural facilities eligible for the new designation will apply. CMS officials said late last month that seven have already filed applications. Dr. Lee Fleisher, director of the Center for Clinical Standards and Quality at CMS, said how long it will take to review the applications will vary. The agency declined to provide the names or locations of hospitals seeking the designation.