- Weathering the Storm Together: Community Resiliency Hubs Hold the Promise of Local Self-Sufficiency and Supportive Mutual Aid
- Virginia Tech Researchers Bring Rural Families into the Nation's Largest Study of Early Brain and Child Development
- Expanding Access to Cancer Care for Rural Veterans
- VA: Veterans Rural Health Advisory Committee, Notice of Meeting
- Scaling Rural Wellness with Clever Collaboration
- Stroudwater Associates Enhances Rural Healthcare Dashboard with New Data to Support State Rural Transformation Grant Applications
- Harvest Season Is Here: Busy Times Call for Increased Focus on Safety and Health
- HHS Dispatches More Than 70 Public Health Service Officers to Strengthen Care in Tribal Communities
- Wisconsin Rural Hospitals Team up to Form Network
- CMS Launches Landmark $50 Billion Rural Health Transformation Program
- American Heart Association Provides Blood Pressure Kits at Southeast Arkansas Regional Libraries to Support Rural Health
- Broadening Access to Minimally Invasive Surgery Could Narrow Rural-Urban Health Gaps
- Instead of Selling, Some Rural Hospitals Band Together To Survive
- Help Line Gives Pediatricians Crucial Mental Health Information to Help Kids, Families
- Rural Health: A Strategic Opportunity for Governors
USDA and EDA Update Resources in Joint Guide to Boost Economic Development in Rural Communities
U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Rural Development Under Secretary Dr. Basil Gooden announced that USDA and the U.S. Economic Development Administration (EDA) updated resources in the joint guide originally released in 2022 to help rural communities build strategies to boost local economic development.
Both agencies made several key updates to ensure communities can access new webpages and resources.
The announcement reinforces USDA’s commitment to strengthening partnerships that ensure rural Americans have the most up-to-date resources to compete in a modern economy and to create economic growth that lasts for generations to come.
Read full stakeholder announcement.
Federal Administration Finalizes Policies to Increase Access to Health Coverage for DACA Recipients
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, through the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), finalized a rule that will expand access to health care for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipients. Today’s rule ensures DACA recipients will no longer be excluded from eligibility to enroll in a Qualified Health Plan (QHP) through the Affordable Care Act (ACA) Health Insurance Marketplace, or for coverage through a Basic Health Program (BHP). CMS estimates that this rule could lead to 100,000 previously uninsured DACA recipients enrolling in health coverage through Marketplaces or a BHP.
“HHS is committed to making health coverage accessible for people DACA recipients – Dreamers – who have worked hard to live the American Dream. Dreamers are our neighbors and friends; they are students, teachers, social workers, doctors, and nurses. More importantly, they are fellow Americans,” said HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra. “More than one third of DACA recipients currently do not have health insurance, so making them eligible to enroll in coverage will improve their health and wellbeing, and help the overall economy.”
“The Biden-Harris Administration believes health care is a right, not a privilege, and that extends to DACA recipients who have built their lives in the United States,” said CMS Administrator Chiquita Brooks-LaSure. “Today’s rule reduces barriers for DACA recipients to obtain health care coverage and is a vital step toward making certain that it is available and accessible to all Americans.”
Individuals without health insurance are less likely to receive preventive or routine health screenings and may delay necessary medical care, incurring high costs and debts when they do seek care. DACA recipients are currently three times more likely to be uninsured than the general U.S. population. DACA recipients who qualify to enroll in a Marketplace plan may also qualify for advance payments of the premium tax credit (APTC) and cost-sharing reductions (CSRs) to reduce the cost of their Marketplace coverage, depending on their income.
As a result of this rule, DACA recipients and other newly eligible individuals will qualify for a special enrollment period to select a health plan through the Marketplace during the 60 days following the rule’s November 1, 2024, effective date. This timing also corresponds with the 2025 Open Enrollment Period, which will help ensure that newly eligible individuals are able to seamlessly enroll in coverage. Those who apply for coverage in November 2024 can have their Marketplace coverage begin as early as December 1, 2024, if they meet all other eligibility requirements. DACA recipients and others who are eligible for a BHP can apply for and receive coverage as early as November 1, 2024.
CMS also made technical modifications to the definition of “lawfully present” used to determine eligibility for coverage through a Marketplace or a BHP to promote administrative efficiency, clarity, and transparency. These changes aim to ensure complete, accurate, and consistent eligibility determinations and verification processes for health coverage for these populations.
CMS is committed to providing high-quality education regarding implementation of this rule and technical assistance for the many interested parties who assist immigrant and other communities with health coverage enrollment.
All provisions of the final rule will be effective on November 1, 2024.
For more information on the final rule, see the fact sheet at https://www.cms.gov/newsroom/fact-sheets/hhs-final-rule-clarifying-eligibility-deferred-action-childhood-arrivals-daca-recipients-and-certain.
To view the final rule, visit the Federal Register.
New School Lunch Nutrition Standards Announced
The U.S. Department of Agriculture announced new nutrition standards that limit added sugars and sodium in children’s school meals. The change will gradually phase in added sugar limits for the school lunch and breakfast program and update total sugar limits for breakfast cereals and yogurt. Program operators are not required to make any changes to their menus as a result of this rulemaking until school year 2025-26 at the earliest. As diet directly affects oral health, limiting added sugars can improve the oral health of children and youth.
New CDC Study Investigates Preventable Early Deaths in Rural and Urban Areas
A new study released in the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR) shows the gap in preventable premature mortality (or early death) between rural and urban America is growing wider. People living in rural areas are at a higher risk of dying early from one of the five leading causes of death when the death could have been prevented compared to people living in urban areas. A video on premature and preventable deaths is available here.
This report is an extension of the 2019 CDC study, which showed the percentage of preventable early deaths from the five leading causes was higher in rural counties compared with urban counties during 2010–2017. It extends the study period by including mortality data for additional years (2018-2022), expanding the analysis from 2010 to 2022. Below are some of the main findings, and a brief data visualization of the report is available here.
Cancer
- The percentage of preventable early cancer deaths among all premature deaths declined from 21% in 2010 to 0.3% in 2022. Regardless of metropolitan status, all county categories experienced declines.
- However, declines in urban areas were larger than those in rural areas, which widened the rural-urban disparities in early cancer deaths.
- Differences in tobacco use and less access to lung cancer screening facilities may explain some of this gap.
Unintentional injury
- The percentage of preventable early deaths from unintentional injury increased from 2010 through 2019 (39% to 54%), followed by a steep increase from 2019 to 2021 and a slight decrease through June 2022 to 64%.
- Increases in the percentage of preventable early deaths from unintentional injury during 2010-2022 were statistically significant for all rural-urban county categories except micropolitan (rural counties with small towns, population of 10,000 to 50,000 person).
- Percentages were higher in rural areas than in urban areas, but the gap narrowed.
- The worsening and expanding drug overdose epidemic, increases in motor vehicle traffic fatalities, and increases in falls drive the growth in early deaths from unintentional injury.
Stroke
- The percentage of preventable early deaths from stroke declined slightly from 2010 through 2019 (32% to 26%), followed by an increase to 34% through June 2022.
- Each rural-urban county category experienced steep increases from 2019 to June 2022, except for the most rural counties, which experienced a slight decrease from 2021 to June 2022; rural counties had the highest percentage from January to June 2022 (42% in micropolitan counties and 41% in noncore counties).
- Increases in 2020 and 2021 were likely associated with COVID-19-related conditions that contributed to risk-associated increased heart disease and stroke mortality, such as delayed or avoided emergency care treatment.
- The highest percentages of preventable early deaths from stroke in 2022 were in southern states.
These findings can help guide local public health interventions to reduce risks of early death, while also highlighting the need to understand and address underlying social, environmental, and structural inequities contributing to disparities in preventable early deaths between rural and urban areas.
Access the full report and share this information with your network using our partner toolkit. This resource contains social media messages, graphics, and newsletter text you can use to help bring awareness of these findings and the need for more multi-sector approaches and focused interventions across the U.S. to reduce early death from the five leading causes. View CDC’s rural health website and Rural Public Health At-a-Glance to find out what CDC is doing to improve the health and well-being of rural communities.
Fentanyl and COVID-19 Pandemic Reshaped Racial Profile of Overdose Deaths in U.S.
For as long as statistics about opioid overdose deaths have been collected in the United States, white individuals have been much more likely to die than Black individuals of the same age. With the rapidly increasing rate of fentanyl overdoses in the late 2010s, that trend began to reverse — by the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, more Black Americans began to die of opioid overdoses and from drug overdoses of any kind, according to researchers at Penn State.
New research from the Penn State College of Health and Human Development examined racial and regional differences in overdose fatalities from 2012-21, capturing the periods preceding and during the COVID-19 pandemic. In most of the nation, the researchers found that younger Black individuals died of overdose at lower rates than their white counterparts, but older Black individuals — especially men in Midwestern cities — became several times more likely to die of drug overdose than their white counterparts as the COVID-19 pandemic emerged.
The study was published in The American Journal on Addictions.
Rural Prosperity Roundtable Signals A New Era for Our Planet, People in Rural Pennsylvania
On April 23, more than 70 academics, public officials, economic development, and agriculture stakeholders met at Pennsylvania State University’s Behrend Campus in Erie, Pa. The roundtable discussion – Investing in America Rural Prosperity Roundtable –highlighted the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) efforts to create additional income opportunities for producers and entrepreneurs.
Agriculture Deputy Secretary Xochitl Torres Small also highlighted other Biden-Harris Administration efforts to build a stronger, more prosperous rural America through historic investments including the American Rescue Plan Act, Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, and Inflation Reduction Act. These investments are about rebuilding our economy from the middle out and the bottom up and creating new opportunities that ensure families, small businesses and family farmers throughout rural America have the opportunities and tools they need to build a good life in the communities that they love.
Among USDA’s local representatives at the event were Bob Morgan, State Director for Rural Development (RD), Heidi Secord, State Executive Director for the Farm Service Agency (FSA), and Denise Coleman, Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) State Conservationist.
Last week was Earth Week and people everywhere are looking for ways to make our world a better place. This includes rural Americans, who thanks to programs like those in President Biden’s historic Inflation Reduction Act, are leading the fight against climate change, while making their communities healthier and reducing their energy costs. USDA is highlighting our partnership with rural communities to sustainably cultivate the future here in Pennsylvania and around the country.
Just like the President, we at USDA believe that every person, no matter where you call home, has a right to breathe clean air, drink clean water, and live in a healthy community—now and into the future. Every single day, we work to ensure these things. And with historic investments like the Inflation Reduction Act, we’ve also created new programs to transform rural power production and create good jobs for people in rural areas across the country.
The President’s Investing in America agenda is creating good-paying clean energy jobs, lowering costs, meeting our climate goals, advancing environmental justice and conservation, and strengthening communities that for too long were left behind or left out. The President has given Native Americans a stronger voice in federal affairs, and USDA has built new land stewardship and food harvesting programs based on the knowledge and traditions indigenous people have passed down through generations.
Here in Pennsylvania and throughout the country, USDA will continue to play an important role in all these goals. The investments we’re making will bring wealth and resources to people in rural areas and ensure they have every opportunity to succeed right in their own communities.
USDA is proud to celebrate Earth Week to show how we are investing in locally driven solutions to expand access to renewable energy, clean water and wastewater systems, and essential services that create jobs, build critical infrastructure, and create sustainable futures for rural America. We are committed to unleashing the potential of all rural and Tribal communities to build a secure and successful future for all.
For more information and to contact your local USDA office.
FSA in Pennsylvania: https://offices.sc.egov.usda.gov/locator/app?state=pa&agency=fsa
NRCS in Pennsylvania: https://www.nrcs.usda.gov/contact/find-a-service-center
RD in Pennsylvania: https://www.rd.usda.gov/pa/pennsylvania-contacts
To learn more about biobased products, go to www.biopreferred.gov. For more information on how the Inflation Reduction Act is enhancing USDA investments in clean energy, visit https://www.rd.usda.gov/inflation-reduction-act.