The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) released a pair of informational bulletins to inform states about their larger efforts to strengthen access to comprehensive health care for children on Medicaid. They are as follows:

• Leveraging Medicaid, CHIP, and Other Federal Programs in the Delivery of Behavioral Health Services for Children and Youth
• Information on School-Based Services in Medicaid: Funding, Documentation and Expanding Services

The Pennsylvania Department of Drug and Alcohol Programs (DDAP) issued Informational Bulletin 02-22 to clarify Act 33 of 2022 – Confidentiality of Substance Use Disorder Records. Act 33, signed into law on July 7, 2022, makes Pennsylvania’s SUD confidentiality requirements consistent with federal law. Federally-assisted programs for the diagnosis, referral, or treatment of SUD are now covered by the federal regulations at 42 CFR Part 2. Under Act 33, federal confidentiality provisions apply to those programs and disclosures shall be made as permitted by federal law. Act 33 prohibits DDAP from issuing or enforcing a regulation that restricts the disclosure of information permitted by Act 33.

The Pennsylvania Department of Human Services (DHS) reports some consumers may be receiving phishing scam texts with claims of approval for $1,000 in benefits requiring recipients to click on a link. DHS does not send messages from 1-833-648-1964 asking for details about benefits, requests for personal information, or links to unofficial sites. DHS issued a warning to consumers that if they receive unsolicited or random calls or text messages, it is most likely a scam. As a reminder, consumers should not respond and delete the message, so they do not get caught in identity theft.

Continuing its work to address and prevent one of the fastest-growing forms of elder abuse, the Pennsylvania Department of Aging announced the formation of a dedicated investigative unit to support Area Agencies on Aging (AAAs) in probing complex financial exploitation cases and obtaining justice for older Pennsylvanians. The Financial Abuse Specialist Team (FAST) is a four-person unit consisting of an analyst/supervisor, two analysts, and an attorney to assist the aging network for the next two years. Click here to learn more.

 Last week, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) released a proposed rule to promote consistent use of nationally standardized quality measures in Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) and to help identify gaps and health disparities among the millions of people enrolled in these programs. This rule proposes requirements for mandatory annual state reporting of three different quality measure sets: the Core Set of Children’s Health Care Quality Measures for Medicaid and CHIP; the behavioral health measures on the Core Set of Adult Health Care Quality Measures for Medicaid; and the Core Sets of Health Home Quality Measures for Medicaid. CMS is proposing that annual reporting guidance will include identification of the populations for which States must report the measures identified by the Secretary of HHS, including, but not limited to beneficiaries receiving services through Federally Qualified Health Centers and Rural Health Clinics. CMS is also proposing that measures must be stratified by various elements including rural/urban status.

Comments are due by October 21.

Among key findings from the Rural and Minority Health Research Center: In rural ZIP code tabulation areas (ZCTA) with high proportions of American Indian/Alaska Native (AI/AN) residents, 80% had no hospital-based obstetric unit within 15 miles, and approximately one-third of rural ZCTAs with highly represented Hispanic/Latino populations have no obstetric care within 30 miles.  Results suggest that Black-White maternal health disparities might be independent of distances to a hospital obstetric unit at the community level and instead associated with the social determinants of health.

Researchers at the RUPRI Center for Rural Analysis examine the availability of community pharmacies and also provide a deeper analysis of counties with no retail pharmacies (i.e., pharmacy deserts) based on metropolitan/nonmetropolitan locations.

The study explored opportunities for enhanced screening using telehealth and electronic patient-reported outcomes at five HRSA-funded Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program clinics in Alabama – one of seven mostly rural states prioritized for the federal Ending the HIV Epidemic Initiative. While there were concerns among survey respondents about the lack of in-person interaction, the study revealed opportunities to expand technology use in rural areas.

Researchers interviewed community partners, health care providers, and people who inject drugs in Maine to see how the pandemic affected programs, including syringe services, safe drug supply, low barrier treatment, and peer support.  Some barriers to access were unavoidable, but they found specific policy decisions that mitigated barriers, while other policies exacerbated them.