- Telehealth Study Recruiting Veterans Now
- USDA Delivers Immediate Relief to Farmers, Ranchers and Rural Communities Impacted by Recent Disasters
- Submit Nominations for Partnership for Quality Measurement (PQM) Committees
- Unleashing Prosperity Through Deregulation of the Medicare Program (Executive Order 14192) - Request for Information
- Dr. Mehmet Oz Shares Vision for CMS
- CMS Refocuses on its Core Mission and Preserving the State-Federal Medicaid Partnership
- Social Factors Help Explain Worse Cardiovascular Health among Adults in Rural Vs. Urban Communities
- Reducing Barriers to Participation in Population-Based Total Cost of Care (PB-TCOC) Models and Supporting Primary and Specialty Care Transformation: Request for Input
- Secretary Kennedy Renews Public Health Emergency Declaration to Address National Opioid Crisis
- Secretary Kennedy Renews Public Health Emergency Declaration to Address National Opioid Crisis
- 2025 Marketplace Integrity and Affordability Proposed Rule
- Rural America Faces Growing Shortage of Eye Surgeons
- NRHA Continues Partnership to Advance Rural Oral Health
- Comments Requested on Mobile Crisis Team Services: An Implementation Toolkit Draft
- Q&A: What Are the Challenges and Opportunities of Small-Town Philanthropy?
Capacity of Rural Counties to Address an HIV or Hepatitis C Outbreak
This study from the Maine Rural Health Research Center identifies states potentially at risk for an HIV outbreak among persons who inject drugs in order to examine rural-urban differences in surveillance, prevention, and response to outbreak. Related to this project, Maine researchers also created a chartbook of rural HIV prevalence and service availability, and a report on rural-urban differences in rates of maternal infection with hepatitis C virus.
Share Your Thoughts and Opinions on Health – Respond by March 15
The Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) is seeking English-speaking people living in rural areas to participate in virtual discussions about health. The purpose of these discussions is to obtain consumer feedback on newly developed health materials. HRSA is open to speaking with individuals from diverse backgrounds. Sessions will be held in March and May via Zoom and will last approximately 90 minutes. All who participate will receive monetary token of appreciation. If you or someone you know may be interested, please have them contact Heidi.Palacios@
CDC on Changes in Suicide Rates
In its latest Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and Prevention report that more than 47,000 deaths were attributed to suicide in 2019. For the first time in a decade, the overall suicide rate from 2018 to 2019 declined. The lowest rate was found in large central metropolitan areas, and the highest in nonmetropolitan areas. Firearms were the most common mechanism of suicide in all county urbanization levels.
ERS on Disparities in Educational Attainment in Rural America
The Economic Research Service (ERS) at the U.S. Department of Agriculture reports that, among all rural residents aged 25 years or older, the percentage who had completed a bachelor’s degree or higher rose from 15 percent in 2000 to 21 percent in 2019. Ethnic disparities persist in what is considered a leading social determinant of health, with Whites completing high school and bachelor’s degrees at much higher rates than those who are Black, American Indian, or Hispanic.
New Telebehavioral Health Care Best Practice Guide
Telehealth.HHS.gov has added a new best practice guide to help mental health providers navigate changes to telehealth policy due to the COVID-19 public health emergency. This official website from the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services includes resources for getting started, developing a strategy, billing, preparing patients, and more.
Resources from CDC National Forum on COVID-19 Vaccine
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) held a three-day event to promote the most effective strategies for building confidence and increasing access to the vaccine nationwide. Resources, including recordings of the forum’s sessions and a toolkit for community outreach, are now available. Learn more about the role of the Health Resources and Services Administration in the effort, including distribution of vaccines to 250 health centers nationwide.
Pennsylvania Kicks off Problem Gambling Awareness Month by Highlighting Available Resources and Help
The Pennsylvania Department of Drug and Alcohol Programs (DDAP) Secretary Jen Smith was joined virtually by the Pennsylvania Lottery, the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board, and the Council on Compulsive Gambling of Pennsylvania to kick off March as National Problem Gambling Awareness Month.
COVID-19 Vaccine Resources: Friday, March 5: Focus on Health Care Staff
As COVID-19 vaccines continue rolling out across the country, CMS is taking action to protect the health and safety of our nation’s patients and providers and keeping you updated on the latest COVID-19 resources from HHS, CDC and CMS.
With information coming from many different sources, CMS has up-to-date resources and materials to help you share important and relevant information on the COVID- 19 vaccine with the people that you serve. You can find these and more resources on the COVID-19 Partner Resources Page and the HHS COVID Education Campaign page. We look forward to partnering with you to promote the safety of vaccines and encourage our beneficiaries to get vaccinated when they have the opportunity.
If you manage healthcare staff:
CDC and CMS have useful COVID-19 vaccine resources and ready-made materials you can use to inform your healthcare personnel. Medical centers, pharmacies, and clinicians can use or adapt these ready-made materials to build confidence about COVID-19 vaccination among your healthcare teams and other staff.
The CDC’s COVID-19 Vaccination Communication Toolkit For Medical Centers, Pharmacies, and Clinicians is a resource that provides ready-made materials that can be used to educate healthcare teams and staff and to give them tool they can use to educate patients and answer their questions about the vaccines. The toolkit includes:
- How to Build Confidence in COVID-19 Vaccines: A Short Guide for Immunization Coordinators in Medical Centers and Clinics – This informational guide presents six strategies for immunization coordinators to build vaccine confidence within their health system or clinics. It includes tangible actions to promote confidence, communication, and uptake of COVID-19 vaccine, which can help support confidence among providers and patients.
- Communications and Confidence Readiness Checklist – Use this checklist to assess the readiness of your facility to promote COVID-19 vaccine to healthcare personnel, and eventually, to patients. Each activity in the checklist includes links to corresponding CDC resources that you can tailor to the needs of your facility and the populations you serve.
- The COVID-19 Vaccine Confidence Conversation Starter – This conversation starter is a prompt for engaging healthcare providers during an in-person or virtual meeting in order to identify tailored approaches to promote vaccine confidence within a facility.
- Vaccine with Confidence – Use CDC’s Vaccinate with Confidence strategy to reinforce confidence in COVID-19 vaccines.
- Answering Your Questions About the New COVID-19 Vaccines – This fact sheet for healthcare personnel addresses common questions about the safety and efficacy of the new vaccines.
- V-safe After Vaccination Health Checker – Healthcare personnel can use this tool to receive personalized health check-ins after they receive a COVID-19 vaccine, and should encourage all COVID-19 vaccine recipients to participate. V-safe also provides second vaccine dose reminders if needed, and telephone follow up to anyone who reports medically significant adverse events.
- Posters that you can download, print, and hang in health facility common areas and staff break rooms to foster conversation and make vaccination visible:
- Healthcare Workers and Employees: Stopping the COVID-19 Pandemic Is Going to Take All of Our Tools
- Healthcare Workers and Employees: Three Reasons Why You Were Given Top Priority To Be Vaccinated Against COVID‑19
- Healthcare Workers and Employees: Why Get Vaccinated? To Protect Yourself, Your Coworkers, Your Patients, Your Family
- Healthcare Workers and Employees: Get Vaccinated, Get Your Smartphone, Get Started With v-safe
- Printable stickers in ORANGE and WHITE for staff to wear once they’ve gotten their vaccine.
- Slide presentations and accompany scripts are available to help health systems, clinics, and pharmacies educate healthcare personnel, teams and immunization coordinators about COVID-19 vaccination and build vaccine confidence within their organization:
- How CDC is Making COVID-19 Vaccine Recommendations Video – COVID-19 vaccines will be an important tool to help stop this pandemic. CDC’s Dr. Cohn explains how the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, an independent group of experts, develops recommendations and advises CDC on the use of vaccines in our country and the process for making recommendations on COVID-19 vaccines.
CMS maintains a COVID-19 Provider Toolkit to ensure health care providers have the necessary tools to respond to the COVID-19 public health emergency. CMS recently added up to date payment allowances for COVID-19 vaccine administration, including the new Johnson & Johnson (Janssen) vaccine.
The MLN Connects® Newsletter is also a great source of Medicare updates, including the latest information about vaccines as they become available.
Questions? Please e-mail us: Partnership@cms.hhs.gov
USDA is seeking Applications for Projects Supporting Regional Economic and Community Development Planning in Pennsylvania
The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Rural Development is accepting applications for projects that prioritize strategic investments to grow the economy and build prosperity in rural communities.
Strategic Economic and Community Development (SECD) funding may be used to develop and implement multi-jurisdictional or multi-sectoral strategic community investment plans. Rural Development implements SECD by reserving funds from the appropriations for covered programs.
The deadline to approve and obligate funds for the Community Facilities Direct Loan and Grant Program is June 30, 2021. All Community Facilities Guaranteed Loan applications must also be received prior to this date. In Pennsylvania, projects will be limited to renovations and equipment procurement because of the short application window.
In Pennsylvania, contact your local county loan specialist with questions or additional information.
To apply for SECD funding, applicants must meet all requirements and application deadlines for the program to which they are applying. In addition, applicants must submit Form RD 1980-88, “Strategic Economic Community Development (Section 6401).” Applicants applying for SECD funding through a loan guarantee program may submit forms under the OneRD Guarantee Loan Initiative application guidelines. All SECD direct loans and grant applications should be submitted through a local area loan specialist.
This funding is awarded on a competitive basis. Consideration of proposed projects will be based on:
- How well the project supports multi-jurisdictional plan,
- Whether the plan contains evidence of collaboration among multiple stakeholders,
- Whether the project leverages applicable regional resources; and
- Whether the plan includes clear objectives with measurable metrics.
For additional information, see page 1918 of the January 11, 2021, Federal Register.
If you’d like to subscribe to USDA Rural Development updates, visit our GovDelivery subscriber page.
New from Rural Health Value: Catalog of Value-Based Initiatives for Rural Providers – 2021 Update
The Rural Health Value team recently updated its Catalog of Value-Based Initiatives for Rural Providers. Includes one-page summaries of various HHS value-based programs appropriate for rural participation.
Catalog of Value-Based Initiatives for Rural Providers. Summarizes rural-relevant, value-based programs to help rural leaders and communities identify Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) value-based programs appropriate for rural participation. Covers programs implemented by HHS, primarily by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and its Center for Medicare & Medicaid Innovation. Recent catalog additions include 1) Community Health Access and Rural Transformation (CHART) Community Transformation and Accountable Care Organization Tracks 2) the Radiation Oncology Model, and 3) the Value in Opioid Disorder Treatment Model. (Updated 2021)