- CMS: Medicare Program; Hospital Inpatient Prospective Payment Systems for Acute Care Hospitals and the Long-Term Care Hospital Prospective Payment System and Policy Changes and Fiscal Year 2026 Rates; Requirements for Quality Programs; and Other Policy Changes; Correction
- CMS: Medicare Program; Hospital Inpatient Prospective Payment Systems for Acute Care Hospitals and the Long-Term Care Hospital Prospective Payment System and Policy Changes and Fiscal Year 2026 Rates; Requirements for Quality Programs; and Other Policy Changes; Correction
- CMS: Medicare and Medicaid Programs; Contract Year 2026 Policy and Technical Changes to the Medicare Advantage Program, Medicare Prescription Drug Benefit Program, Medicare Cost Plan Program, and Programs of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly; Correction
- CMS: Medicare and Medicaid Programs; Contract Year 2026 Policy and Technical Changes to the Medicare Advantage Program, Medicare Prescription Drug Benefit Program, Medicare Cost Plan Program, and Programs of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly; Correction
- CMS: Medicare Program; Prospective Payment System and Consolidated Billing for Skilled Nursing Facilities; Updates to the Quality Reporting Program for Federal Fiscal Year 2026
- CMS: Medicare Program; FY 2026 Hospice Wage Index and Payment Rate Update and Hospice Quality Reporting Program Requirements
- Public Inspection: CMS: Medicare Program: Fiscal Year 2026 Hospice Wage Index and Payment Rate Update and Hospice Quality Reporting Program Requirements
- Public Inspection: CMS: Medicare Program: Prospective Payment System and Consolidated Billing for Skilled Nursing Facilities; Updates to the Quality Reporting Program for Federal Fiscal Year 2026
- CMS: Medicare and Medicaid Programs; CY 2025 Payment Policies Under the Physician Fee Schedule and Other Changes to Part B Payment and Coverage Policies; Medicare Shared Savings Program Requirements; Medicare Prescription Drug Inflation Rebate Program; and Medicare Overpayments; and Appeal Rights for Certain Changes in Patient Status; Corrections and Correcting Amendment
- CMS: Request for Information; Health Technology Ecosystem
- CMS: Medicare and Medicaid Programs; CY 2025 Payment Policies Under the Physician Fee Schedule and Other Changes to Part B Payment and Coverage Policies; Medicare Shared Savings Program Requirements; Medicare Prescription Drug Inflation Rebate Program; and Medicare Overpayments; and Appeal Rights for Certain Changes in Patient Status; Corrections and Correcting Amendment
- VA: Staff Sergeant Fox Suicide Prevention Grant Program Funding Opportunity
- State: 60-Day Notice of Proposed Information Collection: J-1 Visa Waiver Recommendation Application
- HHS: Request for Information (RFI): Ensuring Lawful Regulation and Unleashing Innovation To Make American Healthy Again
- Public Inspection: CMS: Request for Information: Health Technology Ecosystem
New from the CDC: Rural Cardiovascular Disease Mortality Data
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has shared a new resource from the Division for Heart Disease and Stroke Prevention. The Local Trends in Heart Disease and Stroke Mortality report provides detailed maps and graphics documenting county-level heart disease and stroke mortality and trends within each state. The report includes data for most counties in all states, including the most rural. This report can be used to enhance and inform cardiovascular disease prevention and treatment programs and policies.
For each state, the Local Trends in Heart Disease and Stroke Mortality report includes:
- County-level maps of death rates for coronary heart disease (CHD) and stroke
- County-level maps of trends in CHD and stroke death rates
- Figures depicting comparisons of county-level death rates and historical trends for CHD & stroke
- All graphics are presented by age group (ages 35-64; ages 65 and older)
- A CSV file containing all data used to make the report.
The Local Trends in Heart Disease and Stroke Mortality report for each state, along with the underlying dataset, is available by request. To get the report, please contact Adam Vaughan at avaughan@cdc.gov. Additionally, the data are available on chronicdata.cdc.gov.
Insights from Experts: COVID-19 Case Rates in Rural and Urban Pennsylvania
When the COVID-19 pandemic became widespread in the United States, much of the discussion and attention centered on urban epicenters with rapid spread due to the high population density. While rural areas are less populous, other characteristics of rural America make those individuals living there far more vulnerable than their urban counterparts.
In this post, Penn State researchers Raeven Chandler, Katrina Alford and Leif Jensen describe the unique dynamics making rural residents more vulnerable, provide a comparison of COVID-19 trends in rural and urban areas in Pennsylvania, and offer insight as to why the COVID-19 pandemic highlights and magnifies the longstanding factors contributing to rural-urban health disparities.
For more, visit the Insights from Experts website — a partnership of Penn State’s Social Science Research Institute and the Center for Health Care and Policy Research.
CMS Now Accepting Applications: Primary Care First Model Cohort 2
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) released the Request for Applications (RFA) for Cohort 2 of the Primary Care First (PCF) Model. Primary care practices in eligible regions are encouraged to apply. Practices that participate in PCF will have flexibility in terms of care delivery and the opportunity to increase practice revenue through performance-based model payments. The deadline for practice applications is April 30, 2021; the deadline for payer applications is May 28, 2021.
The PCF Model tests whether the way Medicare pays for advanced primary care—shifting from a fee-for-service to a value-based payment approach—can positively affect quality of care and reduce total Medicare expenditures. By tying performance based payment adjustments to health outcomes, the PCF Model seeks to improve advanced primary care for participating practices and patients alike.
What this means for model participants:
- You have greater independence and can tailor care delivery approaches to meet the special needs of your patients.
- You have the opportunity to prioritize the doctor-patient relationship.
- You are supported in offering patients increased access to care, greater engagement in the decision-making process and enhanced care coordination.
Further, participating practices that focus on patients with complex chronic needs receive higher model payments for the care of these patient populations.
PCF Cohort 2 will have five performance years and is scheduled to begin in January 2022. You can access the RFA, practice application, and more information on the PCF Model, on the CMS Primary Care First website.
Webinars for interested applicants will be held in the coming weeks, and will include opportunity for live question and answer:
Introduction to PCF
- Wednesday, March 24, 2021 at 2:00 p.m. EDT
- Registration is open
Become a Primary Care First Payer Partner
- Tuesday, March 30, 2021 at 2:00 p.m. EDT
- Registration is open
Ready, Set, Apply!
- Wednesday, March 31, 2021 at 3:00 p.m. EDT
- Registration is open
Pennsylvanians are Experiencing Hunger at Highest Levels Since Onset of Pandemic
At the end of 2020, more than 12% of Pennsylvania households were experiencing hunger — the highest rate since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to researchers in Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences. Their report confirms anecdotal and media reports and highlights the role that community resources, such as food pantries and free school lunches, are playing in the state.
“We’ve seen the media accounts of exceptionally long lines at food banks and wanted to get a better understanding of the magnitude of the problem,” said Stephan Goetz, professor of agricultural and regional economics and director of the Northeast Regional Center for Rural Development (NERCRD).
“Our synthesis suggests that while the state’s rate of food insufficiency tends to be lower than the nation’s as a whole, it is still a significant and growing problem,” he said. “More than one in 10 households in Pennsylvania sometimes or often didn’t have enough food to eat last year, and food insufficiency status has grown worse for all but the wealthiest Pennsylvanians since the beginning of the pandemic.”
Goetz and his colleagues examined data from the U.S. Census Household Pulse Survey, a survey administered in three phases beginning in 2020 to a randomly selected representative sample of U.S. households. The goal of the survey is to better understand the social and economic effects that the coronavirus pandemic has had on households across the country.
Survey respondents answer questions about their employment status, food and housing security, education disruptions, and physical and mental well-being. When responding to questions about food sufficiency and availability, they base their answers on the previous seven days.
Focusing on Pennsylvania, the researchers analyzed the survey data to assess the most recent levels of household food security, how food security has changed over the course of the pandemic, and how households in different income brackets have experienced the crisis. They also assessed how families have adapted to food insufficiency by accessing free food. They released their findings this week in a new report titled “Pennsylvania Food Insufficiency Reached New High at the End of 2020.”
The report shows that food insufficiency in Pennsylvania is closely linked to the state’s unemployment rate. During weeks when unemployment claims are at their highest in the state, reports of food insufficiency also are relatively high, or rising. For policymakers, this underscores the close connection between income from working and food security of individuals. Community safety nets, such as free school lunches and food pantries, play a significant role in meeting household food needs.
“Our synthesis shows an increasingly dire food insecurity situation for many households in Pennsylvania and beyond,” Goetz said. “As the pandemic drags on, it is likely to become an even more serious problem as families deplete their savings and are forced to choose between paying for food or paying for other necessities.”
The report is part of an ongoing series of briefs and reports authored by NERCRD researchers, focusing on the coronavirus pandemic in the context of direct farm sales, the fruit and vegetable industry, consumer spending and sourcing, network science, and regional science.
The center also has available the data included in the report for other states in the northeastern U.S.
Other members of the research team who contributed to the report described here include Zheng Tian, research associate; Claudia Schmidt, assistant professor of marketing and local/regional food systems; and Yuxuan Pan, graduate research assistant.
USDA Increases Funding Limits for the Revolving Fund Program to Help Expand Access to Rural Water and Wastewater Infrastructure
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced that it is increasing funding limits for loans financed under the Revolving Fund Program to support water and wastewater infrastructure projects in rural America. This improvement is in accordance with provisions in the Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018 (2018 Farm Bill).
In a final rule published today, USDA increased to $200,000 the maximum loan amount in the Revolving Fund Program. The previous loan limit was $100,000. This change will help expand access to safe, reliable drinking water, and sanitary sewage treatment for households in rural communities.
The Revolving Fund Program helps qualified nonprofit organizations create revolving loan funds to extend and improve water and waste disposal systems in rural areas. The funds may be used for pre-development costs for water and wastewater treatment projects. Funds also may be used for small short-term capital improvement projects that are not part of regular operations and maintenance. Program recipients set the loan terms for the individual communities they serve.
In Pennsylvania, for additional information about the program contact Tom Wellington, acting water and environmental program director, by email at thomas.wellington@usda.gov or phone at 717-2372188.
Additional information is available on page 14525 of the March 17, 2021, Federal Register.
If you’d like to subscribe to USDA Rural Development updates, visit our GovDelivery subscriber page.
MedPAC Examines Rural Access to Care
The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC) looked at whether seniors in rural areas face barriers to receiving care. While access to care indicators appear good, the Commission said rural beneficiaries often have longer drives to appointments or cannot find specialists, in addition to the problem of local hospital closures. Yet MedPAC said there is reason for optimism that the availability of telehealth services and efforts to bolster rural hospital payments may help.
MedPAC’s work suggests that rural Medicare beneficiaries continue to have difficulty getting to their doctor and accessing specialty care and are more likely to face the challenge of hospital closures.
- The Commission is updating a 2012 report that compared access for rural beneficiaries and their urban counterparts.
- However, MedPAC noted that regional differences are often greater than the rural/urban divide and said that wider use of telehealth and a new Rural Emergency Hospital designation could bolster rural care.
New Study: School-Based Dental Programs and Cavities
A school-based cavity prevention program involving nearly 7,000 elementary school students reduced cavities by more than 50 percent, according to a study led by researchers at New York University College of Dentistry. The findings were published March 1, 2021 in the Journal of the American Dental Association.
ADA Releases Toolkit for Increasing Vaccine Confidence
The American Dental Association (ADA) released a toolkit to help dental providers increase patients’ confidence in COVID-19 vaccines. The downloadable resource includes answers to commonly asked questions, advice for social media interactions, and tip sheets for dispelling myths about the vaccines and sharing science-based recommendations for pregnant women or those planning to start a family.
Visiting Loved Ones in a Nursing Home – UPDATED Graphic Available (English and Spanish)
On March 10, 2021, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), in collaboration with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), issued updated guidance for nursing homes to safely expand visitation options during the COVID-19 pandemic public health emergency (PHE). Today, CMS is releasing a graphic to further explain the expanded visitation options.
According to the updated guidance, facilities should allow responsible indoor visitation at all times and for all residents, regardless of vaccination status of the resident, or visitor, unless certain scenarios arise that would limit visitation. Read the full press release and review the graphic in English and Spanish.
Pennsylvania Adds 8 Counties to Pennsylvania’s Spotted Lanternfly Quarantine, Highlights New Weapon to Sniff Out Pest
Pennsylvania Agriculture Secretary Russell Redding announced that eight counties have been added to Pennsylvania’s Spotted Lanternfly quarantine zone ahead of the 2021 spring hatch. With this addition, the quarantine for this invasive pest is now at 34 counties.
“The Spotted Lanternfly is more than a pest in the literal sense,” said Redding. “It’s wreaking havoc for home and business owners, kids who just want to play outside, Pennsylvania agriculture and the economy of the state we all call home. Whether you think it’s your job or not, we need every Pennsylvanian to keep their eyes peeled for signs of this bad bug – to scrape every egg mass, squash every bug, and report every sighting. We need to unite in our hatred for this pest for our common love: Pennsylvania.”
The new eight counties are not completely infested, but rather have a few municipalities with a known infestation. Cambria, Cameron, Franklin, Lackawanna, Montour, Pike, Wayne, and Westmoreland are new to the quarantine for 2021.
“When we expand the quarantine, our goal is to slow the spread of the Spotted Lanternfly,” said Dr. Ruth Welliver, director of the department’s Bureau of Plant Industry. “And we have slowed it. Last spring we quarantined 12 counties with isolated infestations, and those counties have not been overrun because of the heightened awareness a quarantine brings. With continued aggressive treatment and monitoring, and an actively engaged community, we can help ensure families and businesses in these new counties aren’t inconvenienced by widespread infestation.”
Quick, aggressive treatment to newly identified populations of Spotted Lanternfly in Pennsylvania has been funded through the Rapid Response Disaster Readiness line of Governor Wolf’s Pennsylvania Farm Bill for the past two years. The 2021-22 PA Farm Bill proposes another $3 million to combat Spotted Lanternfly.
New to Pennsylvania’s fight against the Spotted Lanternfly this Spring is Lucky, a female German Shepherd, trained as a puppy at PennVet’s Working Dog Center to detect Spotted Lanternfly eggs, often in places humans can’t access. Lucky joined the department in November 2020 and helps to inspect businesses like nurseries, greenhouses, vehicle fleets, and log yards. She is the first dog in the nation trained to detect Spotted Lanternfly.
Businesses that operate in or travel through quarantined counties are required to obtain a Spotted Lanternfly permit. Homeowners with questions about treatment are encouraged to contact their local Penn State Extension office or learn about management, including approved sprays, online. Pennsylvanians who live inside the quarantine zone should also review and sign the Compliance Checklist for residents.
Since 2015, the department has received more than $34 million to combat Spotted Lanternfly in Pennsylvania — $20 million in federal funds and another $14 million in state investment. The department also awarded more than $260,000 in January for four priority research projects.
For more information on Spotted Lanternfly, visit agriculture.pa.gov/spottedlanternfly. For more about Governor Tom Wolf’s PA Farm Bill and its investments in a sustainable agriculture industry visit agriculture.pa.gov/pafarmbill.
Note: High quality, public domain photos of the Spotted Lanternfly are available for download through the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Spotted Lanternfly Flickr album. Designed graphics for social or other media use to raise awareness of the Spotted Lanternfly and new quarantine can be downloaded from the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture’s 2021 Spotted Lanternfly Flickr album.