Jessica Altman, Pennsylvania’s Insurance Commissioner, was named as new CEO of Covered California the state’s health insurance marketplace for ACA coverage. She serves as the Insurance Commissioner and chair of the Pennsylvania Health Insurance Exchange (Pennie) Authority Board of Directors. She also holds a leadership position with the National Association of Insurance Commissioners and is chair of the Health Insurance and Managed Care Committee. Mike Humphreys, Chief of Staff at the Pennsylvania Insurance Department, will fill Jessica’s position on the Pennie Board. Pennsylvania is the 5^th largest insurance market in the nation.

Understanding and communicating about mental health is vital, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, when more people report feeling sad, lonely, or stressed. Three new mental health literacy courses provide a foundation of mental health literacy, including effective strategies to help you recognize opportunities to be more thoughtful in the use of language in your everyday life and when treating patients with mental illnesses.

Help reduce mental health stigma. Take a free mental health literacy course today!

If r anyone you know is having suicidal thoughts, call the 24-hour National Suicide Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255.

CDC Mental Health Literacy

On February 16, the American Cancer Society National Consortium for Cancer Screening and Care (ACS National Consortium) released a set of consensus recommendations in a new report Responding to the COVID-19 Pandemic: Improving Cancer Screening and Care in the US. Companion materials are also available.

The ACS National Consortium launched in March 2021 with the aim to quicken the nation’s collective response to the COVID-19 pandemic’s detrimental impact on cancer screening and care. The group represents a diverse, multi-sector coalition of 28 organizational members including government agencies, leading cancer advocacy organizations, professional societies, research institutions, national roundtables, leading health organizations, and other relevant industry leaders and partners.

More information can be found here at consortium.acs4ccc.org.

The U.S. Senate has passed a continuing resolution (CR), 65-27. This CR will continue to fund the federal government until March 11, 2022.

With passage of the CR, the National Rural Health Association (NRHA) expects Congress to fully fund the fiscal year (FY) 2022 budget before March 11.  In NRHA’s February letter to Congressional Leadership, we encouraged Congress to fully fund the rural health safety net. Items include:

• Fully funding the Rural Maternity Obstetrics Management Strategies (RMOMS) program.
• Reauthorizing and increasing funding for the Medicare Rural Hospital Flexibility Grant Program. NRHA encourages funding to include technical assistance support for providers interested in applying for the new Rural Emergency Hospital (REH) designation.

NRHA expects the funding package to be an Omnibus package, meaning it will include non-appropriation related provisions. NRHA urges Congress to use this opportunity to provide support to rural providers continuing to combat the COVID-19 pandemic. Items includes:

• Extending relief from Medicare sequestration for the remainder of 2022.
• Continuing telehealth provisions beyond the duration of the public health emergency.
• Reinstating uncapped reimbursement for provider-based rural health clinics in exchange for voluntary inclusion in a quality reporting program.

HHS and CMS are pleased to announce a series of listening sessions to obtain feedback on CMS’ efforts to help ensure robust awareness, outreach, and education for consumers and consumer stakeholders of important new No Surprises Act (NSA) protections. 

In this series of listening sessions, we wish to first understand from consumer advocates the role they can play to help educate consumers about the protections in the NSA as well as to receive input from the field about the consumer experience so far.  We also want feedback from consumer advocates on the tools, consumer website, guidance, social media, paid media, marketing, word of mouth awareness, and other resources necessary to help educate consumers on their rights and protections under NSA.  

The sessions will have a question and answer chat and we will address as many on-topic comments, ideas, and questions as time permits. We will likely not be able to respond to all comments individually, but all those we receive will be used to improve our efforts and help plan future sessions.

During the session we will be focusing on consumer outreach, education, and implementation and will not be addressing technical questions specific to NSA provisions or policy, or from a provider’s perspective. We really want your feedback and innovative ideas to help educate consumers and we encourage you to participate. To learn more about the No Surprises Act, visit: https://www.cms.gov/nosurprises

When: 3:00 PM ET on March 3, April 7, and May 5.  

If you have already registered for this series, which began on February 10, there is no need to re-register.

Who should attend: This series is designed for organizations who advocate for and/or assist healthcare consumers.

RSVP: Click here 

Registering for the listening sessions will register you for all sessions. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar.

This meeting is closed to press. 

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has released a Request for Information (RFI) on the topic of access for people enrolled in Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP). The RFI feedback will be used to identify ways to help ensure that individuals eligible for Medicaid and CHIP can enroll in, maintain coverage, and have equitable access to timely, high-quality, and appropriate health care services and support in all payment and delivery systems, regardless of whether care is delivered through fee-for-service or managed care. This Request for Information (RFI) is one of the first steps CMS is taking to develop its comprehensive access strategy.  I attached the Press Release for your convenience.

Interested parties may access the RFI questions and provide comment on Medicaid.gov. The RFI is open for a 60 day public comment period beginning February 17, 2022.

To read the RFI, visit: https://cmsmedicaidaccessrfi.gov1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_6EYj9eLS9b74Npk

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has released another addendum – “Considerations for Conducting Rapid Community Assessment in Migrant and Seasonal Farmworker Communities” – to its field guide for conducting a Rapid Community Assessment (RCA).  The addendum was developed in partnership with the Oregon Health Authority, the National Center for Farmworker Health, CDC’s Global Migration Task Force, and Oregon and Yuma County Farmworker Deployment Teams.

An RCA is a process for quickly collecting community insights about a public health issue to inform program design. The assessment involves reviewing existing data and conducting community-based interviews, listening sessions, observations, social listening, and surveys.  In addition to the farmworker communities addendum, the CDC RCA webpage provides an assessment guide and tools for those who wish to better understand their community’s needs regarding COVID-19 vaccine acceptance and uptake among adults, adolescents, and children.

Please share widely!  Questions may be directed to jqi3@cdc.gov.

Get Connected Through Lifeline is a Federal program which offers a monthly discount on phone, internet, or bundled package bills to qualified low-income people, that can give them the tools to access services like telehealth.  Customers living on Tribal lands can receive an additional benefit: https://www.lifelinesupport.org/tribal-benefit/

Welcome to the fourth edition of Health Equity Quarterly, our quarterly newsletter that highlights the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Office of Minority Health’s (CMS OMH) activities, messages from leadership, and some of the great work the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is doing to address health care disparities.

While the nation continues to deal with the ongoing effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, it is imperative that you and your family get vaccinated. Children ages 5-11 recently became eligible for vaccination and it is critical that we encourage parents to get their children vaccinated, answer questions about the vaccine and how it will affect this age group, and provide resources that will further inform parents so they feel safe getting their child vaccinated.

In addition to getting your children vaccinated, we also continue to stress the importance of getting your COVID-19 vaccine booster, if eligible. Boosters have been authorized for all three of the vaccines that are currently available – Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna, and Johnson & Johnson – with the requirements for getting your booster varying according to which vaccine you initially received. Research suggests the effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines wanes over time, which means that the booster is essential to protect yourself and your family as we continued to deal with this pandemic.

Throughout 2021, CMS OMH held multiple webinars related to the COVID-19 vaccine, with the most recent being our Pediatric Vaccine Partner Webinar, which was co-hosted with the Connecting Kids to Coverage National Campaign. The webinar highlighted newly released recommendations on COVID-19 vaccines for children ages 5-11, federal COVID-19 resources, and more. Panelists detailed their ongoing work to further emphasize the importance of vaccines, discussed the availability of vaccines, and provided messaging that viewers could use to reach different populations and stakeholders. View the recording and slides from the webinar. We also encourage you to view the information from our other webinars, the COVID-19 Vaccine Webinar for Rural Communities (recording and slides) and the Building COVID-19 Vaccine Confidence Webinar (recording, slides, and supplemental handout).

CMS OMH strives to ensure that all of the populations that we serve have access to quality health care, including vaccinations and other preventive services. These webinars offered us a chance to work with various partner organizations and individual providers to ensure that the concerns of the various populations that we serve are heard as we continue to shape our strategies.

Finally, this February, CMS OMH is proud to celebrate Black History Month as well as American Heart Month. Black communities are often disproportionately affected by heart conditions and related risk factors. By examining these two monthly observances together, CMS OMH has an opportunity to advance health equity for all Americans by highlighting resources and initiatives that can help those disproportionately impacted by heart disease. Visit the CMS OMH Health Observances website for a list of resources to share during February and beyond.

– Dr. LaShawn McIver, Director, CMS OMH