Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf announced that more than 327,000 Pennsylvanians will gain access to high-speed Internet service through the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) Rural Digital Opportunity Fund Phase I auction.

Thirteen providers in Pennsylvania successfully bid in the auction and will provide high-speed Internet access in locations across the state that are underserved or do not have access to broadband that meets current federal standard. The FCC will allocate $368.7 million to these providers over the next 10 years. Virtually every Pennsylvania county will benefit from the broadband build out supported by this funding.

“In the 21st century, reliable high-speed internet service is a critical utility for homes and businesses alike. The lack of this technology in our communities inhibits our students and educators, businesses, the healthcare system and more from truly connecting locally and globally. If we want to support our economy, give our students the tools to learn, and improve quality of life, we must expand broadband access,” Gov. Wolf said. “The current pandemic has vividly demonstrated the pressing need to expand high speed internet access to enable telehealth and allow students to connect with their classmates and teachers. As a result of this auction, hundreds of thousands of Pennsylvanians will gain this access, which is a significant step toward bridging the digital divide.”

The Rural Digital Opportunity Fund is an effort by the FCC to ensure high-speed Internet access in underserved communities. In total, the FCC will allocate $9.2 billion to 180 bidders, who will deploy high-speed broadband to more than 5.2 million unserved homes and businesses across the country.

Nearly a million Pennsylvanians lack access to reliable high-speed internet access, according to the FCC. Ensuring that all Pennsylvanians have access to high-speed Internet access is a top priority of the Wolf Administration. The governor’s Restore Pennsylvania plan, a $4.5 billion bipartisan proposal funded through a commonsense severance tax, would provide funding to completely bridge the digital divide in every community in Pennsylvania. Funding would be available to support installation of infrastructure to bring high speed internet to every corner of the commonwealth.

Similarly, the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission (PUC) has also strongly advocated for universal access to broadband and a presence in the federal auction process.

“I commend the Public Utility Commissioners for their strong leadership in expanding broadband to underserved areas, and pursuing every available dollar for the state, as well as the many stakeholders–including particularly Penn State University’s Rural Extension Program–that have helped to lay groundwork to ensure the success of bidders in the most recent auction.” Gov. Wolf said. “I look forward to continuing to work with the Commissioners, Penn State, and other committed stakeholders to make progress towards our goal of universal broadband access across the commonwealth.”

Congress needs to hear voices of rural America as they tackle COVD-19 relief and kick off the 117^th Congress. The National Rural Health Association (NRHA) has taken action to make rural health advocacy easier than ever before for our members and is introducing NRHA’s VoterVoice advocacy tool.

NRHA’s VoterVoice advocacy tool connects you and hundreds of our fellow rural health stakeholders with local, state, and federal lawmakers, ensuring our message to support or oppose legislation is heard by those with the power to enact change at every level. The tool supplies pre-filled information, which means that you can take reach your members of Congress with one click, while customizing content as needed. VoterVoice’s support team also checks for and corrects undelivered messages resulting in 100 percent deliverability to legislative officials.

NRHA’s VoterVoice advocacy tool enables the NRHA government affairs team to create campaigns that will exist on NRHA’s new Rural Health Advocacy Campaigns webpage. Additionally, the NRHA government affairs team will alert NRHA membership of new public campaigns as they become available via NRHA Connect.

If you are eager to test it out – no need to wait! Our first advocacy campaign is waiting for you here.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), in collaboration with RWJF and the CDC Foundation, has launched PLACES, an extension of the 500 Cities project.

The PLACES project provides estimates, obtained using model-based small area estimation methods, for 27 health measures for four U.S. geographic levels: counties, places, census tracts, and ZIP Code Tabulation Areas (ZCTAs). It includes nationwide data at a granular level to cover smaller cities and rural areas, data that were previously unavailable. Measures include unhealthy behaviors (e.g., current smoking), health outcomes (e.g., coronary heart disease, diabetes), and prevention practices (e.g., health insurance coverage, cholesterol screening).

The data can be used to:

• Identify the health issues facing a local area or neighborhoods.
• Establish key health objectives.
• Develop and implement effective and targeted prevention activities.

Information on the methods used can be found here.

A new set of five-year estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey (ACS) have been released today, providing data users with demographic and socio-economic data for all geographic areas.

With this year’s release, users can now compare estimates across three distinct periods of time. The newest estimates can be compared with other non-overlapping releases (i.e., 2010-2014 and 2005-2009) to show change over time.

The Pennsylvania State Data Center has developed a report that highlights trends in marital status across all three non-overlapping five-year periods. Some findings include that the percentage of individuals who were married decreased consistently in 39 counties across each five-year period while the percentage of individuals who were divorced increased in 39 counties during that time.

Perry County had the highest percentage of individuals who were currently married (excluding those separated) at 57.1% while Philadelphia County had the lowest (30.6%). Cameron County had the highest percentage of those who were divorced (15.5%) while Centre County had the lowest (7.3%).

For more information on marital status trends or the ACS Five-Year Estimates, click here to read the Data Center’s latest brief.

Pennsylvania Governor Wolf’s Administration called for an end to the stigma surrounding the disease of addiction and highlighted the work that has been done by the administration in response to the ongoing opioid crisis.

“While the COVID-19 pandemic is occurring, many Pennsylvanians continue to struggle with the disease of addiction,” Deputy Secretary of Health Preparedness and Community Protection and Opioid Command Center Incident Commander Ray Barishansky said. “We know that a public health pandemic at the same time as the opioid epidemic has made for a challenging year for many. It is up to all of us to come alongside those who are struggling with the disease of addiction and to offer them our support. Treatment works, and recovery is possible.”

December is typically a challenging month for many who struggle with the disease of addiction.  With the need for people to social distance and avoid gathering due to COVID-19, Pennsylvanians who have struggled with the disease of addiction may be at increased risk of relapsing this year.

The Department of Drug and Alcohol Programs (DDAP) maintains a toll-free helpline that connects callers looking for treatment options for themselves or a loved one to resources in their community. You can reach the Get Help Now helpline at 1-800-662-HELP (4357). The helpline is available 24/7 – including on Christmas Day. An anonymous chat service offering the same information to individuals who may not be comfortable speaking on the phone is also available at www.ddap.pa.gov.

“The most important thing for people to know is that there is hope through the help that is available for Pennsylvanians struggling with substance use disorder,” said DDAP Secretary Jennifer Smith. “Even during the pandemic, Pennsylvania’s drug and alcohol treatment providers are open and operational. If people are deciding whether to take that first, brave step, there is absolutely no shame in seeking help to lead a happy, healthy life. We must end the stigma associated with substance use disorder. Ending addiction stigma means saving Pennsylvania lives.”

In September, DDAP announced the launch of Life Unites Us, an anti-stigma campaign, utilizing social media platforms to spread real-life stories of individuals and their family members battling substance use disorder, live and recorded webinars detailing tools and information necessary to effectively reduce stigma to more than 350 community-based organizations focused on SUD prevention, treatment, and recovery throughout Pennsylvania, and a web-based interactive data dashboard detailing the progress of the campaign.

In addition to Life Unites Us, the administration is calling on all Pennsylvanians to carry naloxone.

Naloxone is carried at most pharmacies across the state year-round. Naloxone is available at pharmacies to many with public and private insurance either for free or at a low cost. In addition, naloxone has also been made available through the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency’s Centralized Coordinating Entities, free public naloxone giveaways at Pennsylvania Health Centers, partnerships with Pennsylvania colleges and universities, and distribution to narcotic treatment providers throughout the commonwealth.

The Opioid Command Center, established in January 2018 when Gov. Wolf signed the first opioid disaster declaration, meets every week to discuss the opioid crisis. The command center is staffed by personnel from 17 state agencies and the Office of the Attorney General, spearheaded by the departments of Health and Drug and Alcohol Programs.

Work to address the opioid crisis focuses on three areas: prevention, rescue and treatment. Efforts over the past several years, working with state agencies, local, regional and federal officials, have resulted in significant action to address the opioid crisis:

• Secretary of Health Dr. Rachel Levine signed an updated naloxone standing order permitting community-based organizations to provide naloxone by mail.
• The Prescription Drug Monitoring Program has reduced opioid prescriptions by 47 percent and has virtually eliminated doctor shopping.
• The number of people receiving high dosages of opioids (defined as greater than 90 morphine milligram equivalents per day) has dropped 57 percent since the PDMP launched in August 2016.
• The Opioid Data Dashboard and Data Dashboard 2.0 has provided public-facing data regarding prevention, rescue and treatment.
• 11 Pennsylvania Coordinated Medication Assisted Treatment (PacMAT) programs are serving as part of a hub-and-spoke model to provide evidence-based treatment to people where they live, with just under $26 million dedicated into the centers.
• More than 45 Centers of Excellence, administered by the Department of Human Services, provide coordinated, evidence-based treatment to people with an opioid use disorder covered by Medicaid. The COEs have treated more than 32,500 people since first launching in 2016.
• The waiver of birth certificate fees for those with opioid use disorder has helped more than 5,400 people, enabling easier entry into recovery programs.
• A standing order signed by Dr. Rachel Levine in 2018 allowed EMS to leave behind more than 2,400 doses of naloxone.
• Education has been provided to more than 7,000 prescribers through either online or face-to-face education.
• 882 drug take-back boxes help Pennsylvanians properly dispose of unwanted drugs, including 178,540 pounds of unwanted drugs in 2019. 2020 data is not yet available because of COVID.
• The Get Help Now Hotline received more than 44,000 calls, with more than half of all callers connected directly to a treatment provider.
• The state prison system has expanded their Medication Assisted Treatment (MAT) program, which is viewed as a model program for other states.
• A body scanner pilot project was successful in reducing overdoses and violent crime in a number of facilities. Body scanners are in place in more than 30 locations and are currently being expanded to additional facilities.
• Several agencies have worked together to collaborate on the seizure and destruction of illicit opioids across Pennsylvania.
• Education and training on opioids have been provided to schools. Future plans are in place to make opioid education a standard component of school-based training.
• The coordination with seven major commercial providers has expand access to naloxone and mental health care, while also working to make it more affordable.
• Naloxone has been made available to first responders through the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency since November 2017, with more than 72,000 kits made available and more than 16,241 overdose reversals reported through the program. More than 6,600 of those saves occurred in 2019.
• EMS have administered more than 47,000 doses of naloxone and more than 10,000 doses were made available to members of the public during the state’s naloxone distribution last year.

For more information on Pennsylvania’s response to the opioid crisis visit www.pa.gov/opioids.