- Rural Children Struggle to Access Hospital Services, Say Researchers
- Outlining the Intersection between Health Care and Missing and Murdered Indigenous People
- Biden-Harris Administration Announces Critical More Than $1.5 Billion State and Tribal Opioid Response Funding Opportunities
- RPHARM Program Fulfills Need for Rural Pharmacists
- Farmers Don't Do Mental Health
- A Pilot Program in Rural Vermont Hopes to Build a Blueprint for Substance Abuse Recovery
- Rural Telehealth Extension Reintroduced in Congress
- Students From Across the State Emphasized the Need for Mental Health Resources in Rural Alaska During a Conference
- The South Was the Center of Rural Population Growth Last Year
- How HHS SUD Confidentiality Regulations Will Impact Rural Providers
- VA Announces Expansion of "Close to Me" Cancer Program as Part of the Cancer Moonshot, Bringing Cancer Diagnosis and Treatment Closer to Thousands of Veterans
- Navajo Psychiatrist Bridges Gaps Between Native American Culture and Behavioral Health Care
- Biden-Harris Administration Releases National Strategy for Suicide Prevention and First-Ever Federal Action Plan
- Biden Administration Sets Higher Staffing Mandates. Most Nursing Homes Don't Meet Them.
- Rural Communities Face Primary Care Physician Shortage
Pennsylvania Department of Health Seeks Oral Health Plan Advisory Group Nominations
The Pennsylvania Department of Health (DOH) is accepting nominations and applications of dynamic oral health stakeholders to represent one of the nine sectors listed in the Pennsylvania Oral Health Plan 2020-2030 to serve on the Pennsylvania Oral Health Plan Advisory Group (OHPAG).
To nominate a candidate, or yourself, for the OHPAG, please download the application, complete, and send it along with a resume and/or CV to janmille@pa.gov.
The application deadline is June 5th, 2023. Selected members will be notified via email in July 2023. If you or your organization would like to endorse someone, please send an email to include with the person’s nomination. Additional information can be found at the links below.
Click here to download the nomination form.
Click here to download the group guidelines.
New CMS Report Released: Disparities in Health Care in Medicare Advantage Associated with Dual Eligibility or Eligibility for a Low-Income Subsidy and Disability
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ Office of Minority Health (CMS OMH) released a report detailing the quality of care received by people enrolled in Medicare Advantage (MA).
The Disparities in Health Care in Medicare Advantage Associated with Dual Eligibility or Eligibility for a Low-Income Subsidy and Disability report presents summary information on the performance of Medicare Advantage plans on specific measures of quality of health care reported in 2021, which corresponds to care received in 2020. Specifically, this report compares the quality of care for four groups of Medicare Advantage enrollees that are defined based on the combination of two characteristics: (1) dual eligibility for Medicare and Medicaid or eligibility for a Part D Low-Income Subsidy (LIS) and (2) disability.
Overall, the report showed that people who were dually eligible for Medicare and Medicaid or eligible for the Low-Income Subsidy received worse clinical care than those who were not. The largest differences between the two groups were in the areas of Follow-up After Hospital Stay for Mental Illness (within 30 days of discharge), Avoiding Potentially Harmful Drug-Disease Interactions in Elderly Patients with Dementia, and Avoiding Potentially Harmful Drug-Disease Interactions in Elderly Patients with a History of Falls. Disparities by dual eligibility status/Low-Income Subsidy eligibility status were least common among Hispanic individuals and most common among White individuals. The report also shows more pronounced disparities in clinical care for dually eligible/Low-Income Subsidy eligible individuals in urban areas as compared to rural areas.
This report is based on an analysis of data from the Healthcare Effectiveness Data and Information Set (HEDIS). HEDIS collects information from medical records and administrative data on the technical quality of care that Medicare Advantage enrollees receive for a variety of medical issues, including diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and chronic lung disease.
Health care professionals, organizations, researchers, and hospital leaders can utilize this report along with other CMS tools and resources to help raise awareness of health disparities, develop health care interventions for Medicare Advantage enrollees who are dually eligible for Medicare and Medicaid/Low- Income Subsidy eligible and those with disabilities, and implement quality improvement efforts that improve health equity.
Help CMS to advance equity by sharing this report and our resources on prevention and health equity initiatives. Also, sign up for our listserv or visit https://go.cms.gov/omh for more information.
Small, Rural Communities Have Become Abortion Access Battlegrounds
In April, Mark Lee Dickson arrived in this 4,500-person city that hugs the Utah-Nevada border to pitch an ordinance banning abortion.
Dickson is the director of the anti-abortion group Right to Life of East Texas and founder of another organization that has spent the past few years traveling the United States trying to persuade local governments to pass abortion bans.
“Sixty-five cities and two counties across the United States” have passed similar restrictions, he told members of the West Wendover City Council during a mid-April meeting. The majority are in Texas, but recent successes in other states have buoyed Dickson and his group. “We’re doing this in Virginia and Illinois and Montana and other places as well,” he said.
The quest to enact local bans has become particularly acute in small towns, like West Wendover and Hobbs, New Mexico, which are situated by borders between states that have restricted abortion and states where laws preserve access. They are crossroads where abortion advocates and providers have looked to establish clinics to serve people traveling from the large swaths of the U.S. where states have banned or severely restricted abortions after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned nearly 50-year-old nationwide abortion protections established by the court’s decision in Roe v. Wade.
Democrats In Pennsylvania Retain the House Majority After Tuesday Special Elections
Democratic candidate Heather Boyd easily won the special election to fill a House seat vacancy in Delaware County, allowing Democrats to retain their one-seat majority in the chamber. Boyd received almost 60% of the votes cast. Republicans held onto the seat in the 108th Legislative District as Michael Stender defeated Democrat Trevor Finn. That election was needed because former state Sen. Lynda Schlegel Culver, R-Northumberland, won a special election earlier this year to succeed former state Sen. John Gordner, R-Columbia. And more special elections are likely on the horizon as Rep. John Galloway, D-Bucks, won an election for district judge and Rep. Sara Innamorato, D-Allegheny, won the Democratic nomination to be Allegheny County executive.
Pennsylvania Governor’s Administration Awards $6 Million to Fight Overdose Deaths in Underrepresented Communities Across the Commonwealth
The Pennsylvania Department of Drug and Alcohol Programs (DDAP) announced more than $6 million in grant funding for organizations to establish or expand substance use disorder (SUD) services, community outreach, and education to underrepresented communities struggling with the opioid overdose crisis. In 2020, overdose death rates increased 39% for Black Pennsylvanians compared to 2019. In 2021, Black Pennsylvanians died from an overdose at a rate that was nearly two times higher than White Pennsylvanians. Those eligible for this funding included organizations that provide services, outreach, and/or education to communities of color that promote access to harm reduction services, low-barrier SUD and medication-assisted treatment (MAT), recovery and peer supports, and/or offender reentry supports.
A New Pennsylvania Scholarship Program Has Been Created that May Help Patients
Pennsylvania is now accepting applications for students eligible to benefit from the Kids’ Chance Scholarship Fund – a program aimed at providing financial assistance for children growing up in situations that may make it particularly difficult for them to make the transition from high school to college. The original concept for the scholarship had been to target children whose parents are incarcerated. The scholarship program was broadened by lawmakers to include children of incarcerated parents as well as other children living in difficult situations. The grant program will fund scholarships and support services for young people who are living and learning in regions of the commonwealth that have statistically higher high school dropout rates, incarceration rates, or high crime rates as identified by the PA Commission on Crime and Delinquency (PCCD). Learn more by visiting the Kids Chance of PA website.
SAMHSA and FDA Letter Promotes the Medication First Model
A letter (PDF) issued by SAMHSA and the FDA emphasizes that counseling and other services should not be prerequisites for a patient to receive medications for opioid use disorder. Practitioners must work collaboratively with patients, meeting them where they are, to create supportive and tailored treatment plans.
Free Mental Health State Guidebooks Have Been Released
PsychU Mental Health System Guidebooks is a comprehensive resource for understanding each state’s mental health system. The guidebooks provide a detailed overview of the state agencies responsible for managing mental health, as well as information on Medicaid coverage, healthcare reform initiatives, and the largest health plans and accountable care organizations in each state. Registration to access the guides is free.
The Risk for New MPOX Cases Continues
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) continues to receive reports of new cases of mpox, indicating ongoing community transmission in the United States. On May 15, the CDC released a Health Alert Network (HAN) noting that a cluster of 12 mpox cases was identified in Chicago between April 17 and May 5, 2023. Travel history for nine cases was available and four individuals recently traveled to New York City, New Orleans, and Mexico. The CDC expects new breakthrough cases to occur and warns that spring and summer 2023 could lead to a resurgence of mpox as people gather for festivals and other events. On May 17, the PA Department of Health (DOH) released PA HAN 695 with additional information for providers on when to consider testing for mpox as well as treatment and vaccination information. For more information on clinical evaluation, treatment, vaccination, or testing, please refer to the HAN or reach out to Erin Babe, PACHC Public Health Program Specialist.
Read About Recent Research on Stigma and Opioid Use Disorder
More than 450 clinicians and counselors in rural New England were surveyed about stigma as a barrier to treating patients for opioid use disorder (OUD) as well as practitioners’ beliefs about medications for OUD. Over half (55 percent) ranked stigma as the highest barrier among other factors such as time and staffing, medication diversion, and organizational/clinic barriers. Many clinicians (60 percent) and counselors (51 percent) disagreed that medications for opioid use disorder “replace addiction to one kind of drug with another.” But among clinicians with the ability to prescribe, there was a significant difference in this belief depending on whether they were currently treating with medications for OUD (MOUD). More than 80 percent of those currently treating with MOUD believed it is not an addiction replacement; among those not currently treated with OUD, fewer than half felt that way. The study was conducted by the FORHP-supported Center on Rural Addiction at the University of Vermont.