The National Rural Health Resource Center centers hospitals designated as Critical Access in a guide to planning, implementing, evaluating, and sustaining an effective telehealth program.

  An interactive map from the federal National Telecommunications and Information Administration shows how broadband infrastructure may impact local economies.  Using county-level data from the U.S. Census Bureau, the map provides a percentage of households with a broadband subscription as well as data on employment, wages and income, poverty, home values, population change and migration, educational attainment, and gross domestic product.

An archived recording of the March 1 presentation that previews grants we expect to be funded this year.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) recently released a proposed rule that would require the disclosure of certain ownership, managerial, and other information regarding Medicare skilled nursing facilities (SNFs) and Medicaid nursing facilities. CMS believes that greater transparency about nursing home owners and operators can help CMS and other regulators hold these parties more accountable for the quality of care they furnish. Recent research from the WWAMI Rural Health Research Center looked at quality of SNFs serving rural Medicare beneficiaries and included an overview of SNF characteristics including ownership status. Comments are due by April 14, 2023.

HRSA Rural Center of Excellence on Substance Use Disorders offers an incentive to help defray previous training costs of $750 to each qualifying provider who obtained a DATA Waiver. To qualify, providers must be practicing in an HRSA-designated rural county in Vermont, Maine, New Hampshire, or Northern New York. To apply for the $750 payment, providers should contact cora@uvm.edu.

  As of April 1, states will resume eligibility reviews for enrollees in Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), also known as unwinding the Medicaid continuous coverage requirement. This chart details the expected first month for each state/territory’s unwinding-related renewals, as well as the anticipated effective date for the first terminations of enrollees’ Medicaid coverage.  The Georgetown University Center for Children and Families maintains a 50-State Unwinding Tracker that compiles information found on state websites, including links to how enrollees can update their contact information and communication materials and toolkits for partners.  Nearly a quarter of individuals under age 65 who live in rural areas are covered by Medicaid.

The Single Family Housing Guaranteed Loan Program (SFHGLP) is pleased to announce a two year extension of guidance originally published on April 29, 2022 which makes non-U.S. citizens with valid Social Security Numbers (SSN) and work authorization, as evidenced by documentation such as an Employment Authorization Document (EAD), Form I-766, temporarily eligible to apply for assistance. This extension expires on May 2, 2025.

Please note, applicant(s) must meet all other criteria set forth in 7 CFR Part 3555 and Handbook 1-3555.

Thank you for supporting the Single-Family Housing Guaranteed Loan Program!

Help Resources

Rural Development Help Desk:

For GUS system, outage or functionality assistance

Email: RD.HD@USDA.GOV

Important Links:

SFHGLP Lending Partner Webpage: https://www.rd.usda.gov/page/sfh-guaranteed-lender

SFHGLP Webpage:https://www.rd.usda.gov/programs-services/single-family-housing-guaranteed-loan-program

USDA LINC Training and Resource Library:

https://www.rd.usda.gov/programs-services/lenders/usda-linc-training-resource-library

Procedure Notices: https://www.rd.usda.gov/resources/directives/procedures-notices

USDA Rural Development is conducting a review of all areas under its jurisdiction to identify areas that no longer qualify as rural for housing programs.  The last rural area reviews were performed in 2017-2018 using 2015 American Community Survey (ACS) data.  Rural area designations are reviewed every five years. This review will utilize the 2020 United States decennial census data.

Based on the 2020 US census data and rural area guidance located in Handbook HB-1-3550, Chapter 5, the rural eligibility designation is under review for the following areas in Pennsylvania:

Currently eligible communities under review (population):

1. Northampton and Lehigh Counties – (Bethlehem Line Adjustment)

Currently eligible communities under review (Rural in Character):

1. Columbia County – Bloomsburg (“Rural in Character” under review.)
2. Columbia County – Berwick (“Rural in Character” under review.)
3. Lancaster County – Ephrata (“Rural in Character” under review.)
4. Lancaster County – Elizabethtown (“Rural in Character” under review.)
5. Franklin County – Chambersburg (“Rural in Character” under review.)
6. Franklin County – Waynesboro (“Rural in Character” under review.)

Ineligible communities under review (expansion of ineligible areas):

1. Lancaster County – Columbia (Line Adjustment)
2. York County – Weigelstown (Line Adjustment)
3. Allegheny County – Franklin Park (Line Adjustment)
4. Allegheny County – Monroeville (Line Adjustment)

Ineligible communities under review (reconsideration of eligibility):

1. Lycoming County – Williamsport (Minor Boundary Adjustments)
2. Montgomery County – Pottstown (Minor Boundary Adjustments)

The public shall have 90 days from the date of this public notice to submit comments regarding the potential loss of eligibility for Rural Development housing programs.  Comments should be sent to pasfh@usda.gov.  For details, or questions about specific changes, please contact the Pennsylvania Rural Development Housing Program staff at (717) 237-2186.

Just off the historic U.S. Route 66 in eastern New Mexico, a 10-bed hospital has for decades provided emergency care for a steady flow of people injured in car crashes and ranching accidents.

It also has served as a close-to-home option for the occasional overnight patient, usually older residents with pneumonia or heart trouble. It’s the only hospital for the more than 4,500 people living on a swath of 3,000 square miles of high plains  of Albuquerque.

“We want to be the facility that saves lives,” said Christina Campos, administrator of Guadalupe County Hospital in Santa Rosa. Its leaders have no desire to grow or be a big, profitable business, she said.

But even with a tax levy to help support the medical outpost, the facility lost more than $1 million in the past six months, Campos said: “For years, we’ve been anticipating kind of our own demise, praying that a program would come along and make us sustainable.”

Guadalupe is one of the nation’s first to start the process of converting into a Rural Emergency Hospital. The designation was created as part of the first new federal payment program launched by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services for rural providers in 25 years. And though it is not expected to be a permanent solution to pressures facing rural America, policymakers and hospital operators alike hope it will slow the financial hemorrhage that continues to shutter those communities’ hospitals.

More than 140 rural hospitals have closed nationwide since 2010, and health policy watchers aren’t sure how many of the more than 1,700 rural facilities eligible for the new designation will apply. CMS officials said late last month that seven have already filed applications. Dr. Lee Fleisher, director of the Center for Clinical Standards and Quality at CMS, said how long it will take to review the applications will vary. The agency declined to provide the names or locations of hospitals seeking the designation.

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