House and Senate Democrats are pressing leadership to quickly pass legislation extending Obama Care’s enhanced subsidies before they expire at the end of 2025. Read more.

A bipartisan group of six Representatives began circulating for signatures a letter to HHS urging the agency to stop J&J’s rebate model. To date, they have more than 130 bipartisan co-signers. Contact your member of the U.S. House of Representatives and ask them to sign on to the letter. PACHC has already reached out to each Representative’s office.

The U.S. House Energy & Commerce Committee unanimously advanced H.R. 7623, the bipartisan Telehealth Modernization Act. This NACHC-endorsed bill includes a two-year extension of existing Medicare telehealth coverage flexibilities and fixes the gap in payment between in-person and telehealth medical visits. Congress hears your advocacy as they continue to work toward passing legislation later this year that maintains access to telehealth services.

Leadership from the Pennsylvania Departments of Human Services (DHS), Health (DOH), and the Pennsylvania Insurance Department (PID) joined Black Maternal Health Caucus Members Rep. Morgan Cephas and Rep. Gina Curry for a roundtable discussion centered on improving maternal health outcomes in Pennsylvania. During the roundtable, the Shapiro Administration officials met with maternal health advocates and community members at North 10 Philadelphia to collect feedback and develop strategies for Pennsylvania’s maternal health. The strategic plan will address health disparities, the high rates of maternal mortality – especially among black women – and help pregnant women in Pennsylvania get the prenatal and postpartum care they need to live healthy lives for both them and their children. The maternal health strategic plan will include priorities centering on equity and diversity, with a focus on increasing access to high-quality care, expanding and diversifying the maternal health care workforce, and addressing behavioral health and substance use disorder services and supports. The Shapiro Administration will launch an online survey and host additional community events throughout Pennsylvania this fall to help gather input from Pennsylvanians with lived experience in maternal health. The survey and events will help the departments inform and expand the planned strategies to improve maternal health outcomes across the state. Learn more.

The nonprofit Addiction Policy Forum explains the risks of fentanyl exposure and steps communities and families can take to prevent overdose. The evidence-based resources are available in 12 languages to ensure all communities have access to the information.

This guide from the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services covers the advantages of telehealth accreditation, clinical and technical standards, and educational and training standards.

The toolkit is intended to help Critical Access Hospitals (CAHs) and other rural providers improve workforce recruitment and retention efforts with resources that address four topics: organizational culture and leadership, leveraging partnerships, emergency medical services workforce, and administrative and support staff workforce. The Flex Monitoring Team is a FORHP-supported consortium of researchers who evaluate the impact of HRSA’s Medicare Rural Hospital Flexibility Program.

The Government Accountability Office (GAO), a federal agency that examines how taxpayer dollars are spent, issued a new report with recommendations on rural communities known as Colonias.  These are predominantly rural, Hispanic communities near the U.S.-Mexico border. Many have poor access to drinking water, inadequate sewage systems, and substandard housing.

– Submit by December 6. If you are a clinician or health official with a background in primary care, oral health, or mental/behavioral health, we invite you to apply for the National Advisory Council on the National Health Service Corps (NHSC). Rural communities are often the least represented on the board, and the NHSC wants your input! Self-nominations are accepted.

A study published in the Journal of Graduate Medical Education evaluates the outcomes of 25 grantees in cohort 1 of HRSA’s program to create new residency training programs in rural areas.  Results indicate sufficient success to support program continuation; about a third of placed residents were from the states where the residency programs are located, and these residency programs filled at similar rates as more established residency programs. View a list of RRPD grantees from 2019 to 2024.