- 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
Pennsylvania PHDHP Survey Summary Released
Earlier this year, the Pennsylvania Coalition for Oral Health (PCOH) conducted a survey of Pennsylvania public health dental hygiene practitioners (PHDHPs).
Check out the summary of results at the link below to learn more about PHDHP certification utilization, public health settings where PHDHPs work, populations seen by PHDHPs, and PHDHP participation with Pennsylvania Medicaid and CHIP.
USDA Announces Presidential Appointee to Serve Rural Pennsylvania
U.S. Department of Agriculture Rural Development Deputy Under Secretary Joe Gilson fannounced that Chris Hoffman has been appointed by President Donald Trump to serve as the USDA Rural Development State Director for the state of Pennsylvania. Director Hoffman will implement President Trump’s America First agenda at USDA Rural Development, ensuring the needs of America’s farmers, ranchers, and producers remain a top priority.
Director Hoffman brings a strong record of agriculture engagement, leadership, mentorship, and outreach to his new role. He previously served as the President of the Pennsylvania Farm Bureau and served on the Board of Directors for the American Farm Bureau. He is also a first-generation swine and poultry farmer. He has spent the last two decades advocating for farmers and rural communities through numerous agriculture leadership positions, his own experiences as a first-generation farmer, and mentoring the next generation in agriculture.
State Directors serve as the Chief Executive Officer of USDA Rural Development in the states and territories and are tasked with leading teams to carry out the mission of Rural Development to the benefit of all rural Americans. In conjunction with the guidance and support of the National Office, State Directors are responsible for advancing the key priorities and initiatives of the Presidential Administration, the Secretary of Agriculture and the Deputy Under Secretary for Rural Development. State Directors also provide key leadership to foster a mission-driven, accountable, and high-performing workforce focused on operational excellence, public trust, and responsible stewardship of taxpayer resources.
To learn more about USDA Rural Development’s leadership and programs, view www.rd.usda.gov.
ICYMI: Rural Hospital Financial Performance: Tools for Data-Driven Decision Making
In case you missed it, the Rural Health Information Hub (RHIhub) posted a recording of a useful webinar that took place on Tuesday of this week.
Experts from the Federal Office of Rural Health Policy, the Office for Planning and Evaluation at the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services (HHS), and from the North Carolina Rural Health Research Center gave an overview of HHS’s Rural Hospital Financial Performance Dashboard, a new tool intended to provide information about the financial and operational characteristics of individual rural hospitals as well as characteristics of the community health around those hospitals.
Supporting Rural Older Adults in Home and Community-Based Settings: Perspectives from Area Agencies on Aging
Area Agencies on Aging (AAAs) are state-designated public or private non-profit agencies that cover a specified region to provide and coordinate support services for older adults, people with disabilities, and caregivers. Services provided by AAAs include transportation, needs assessment and care planning, homemaking, case management, nutrition, personal care assistance, chore services, home modification and repair, older adult education and programming, and many other essential programs for older adults.
This policy brief examines the needs of older adults living in rural communities who are homebound by sharing findings from a listening session of rural-serving AAAs.
Expanding, Sustaining Rural Clinical Education: Perspectives from Health Professions Education Leaders
Rural clinical education, which consistently strengthens students’ intention to pursue rural careers and increases the likelihood of long-term rural practice, can help address rural health care workforce shortages.
This qualitative study explores strategies to sustain and expand rural clinical education, drawing on interviews with 21 rural clinical education leaders, conducted in early 2025, from organizations that support health professions education in rural and underserved communities.
Rural vs. Urban Patterns of Dental Care Services and Outcomes Among Medicaid-Enrolled Children
This brief reports rural vs. urban patterns of preventive services, restorative or surgical dental services, and incidence rates of dental caries in 2021 and 2022 among Medicaid-enrolled children ages 2 to 5.
Rural Implications of Increased Medicare Beneficiary Enrollment in ACOs and MA Plans
This brief explores the interplay of Medicare Advantage (MA) enrollment and beneficiary attribution to Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Medicare Shared Savings Program (MSSP) Accountable Care Organizations (ACO).
MA enrollees are not eligible for such ACO attribution, and both payment models are drawn from the same pool of Medicare beneficiaries. As the number of beneficiaries not participating in either is shrinking, it is important to understand how the growth (or shrinkage) in one model influences participation in the other.
RMOMS 2021 Cohort Report Highlights Progress in Expanding Rural Maternal Health Care
The Rural Maternity and Obstetrics Management Strategies (RMOMS) 2021 Cohort Final Report summarizes the results of three rural maternal health networks funded by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), Federal Office of Rural Health Policy (FORHP) from September 2021 through August 2025.
The report describes how networks in Minnesota, Missouri, and West Virginia expanded access to maternity care through telehealth, remote patient monitoring, patient navigation, group prenatal care, doula services, and other innovative strategies designed to address provider shortages and transportation barriers in rural communities. The networks served more than 8,600 women during the implementation period and reported improvements in first-trimester prenatal care, postpartum visit utilization, and infant health outcomes while establishing network models of care intended to continue after federal funding ends. The report also identifies strategies used by RMOMS networks that may help inform efforts to improve maternal and infant health in rural areas.
Visit ruralmaternaldata.org for more resources from the RMOMS program.
New Request for Information to Support “Accelerating Medical Treatments for Serious Mental Illness”
On July 14, the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) published a request for information (RFI) seeking feedback on training and care delivery models for the safe use of potential future Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved psychedelic drugs in outpatient settings, including health centers and Rural Health Clinics.
Comment by August 13.
CMS Proposes Updates to Medicare Physician Fee Schedule Payments for CY 2027
This proposed rule from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), issued on July 14, 2026, seeks public comment on payment updates and policy changes to Medicare’s physician fee schedule payments and includes other proposals affecting Medicare beneficiaries.
As required by statute, in 2026 CMS is implementing two separate conversion factors, one for participants of qualifying alternative payment models (APMs) and one for providers not participating. The proposed conversion factor for 2027 projects a decrease of –1.19% for APM providers, and a decrease of –1.68% for non-participant providers. Additionally, CMS is proposing to limit billing of remote patient monitoring services (RPMs) to clinical staff of a practice, no longer allowing billing for RPMs performed by third party contractors or vendors.
CMS also proposes to change the office/outpatient evaluation and management (O/O E/M) visit complexity add-on code, HCPCS code G2211, to a modifier appended to E/M base codes that will increase the payment by 16%. CMS is proposing a second modifier code only available to participants in the Medicare Shared Savings Program (MSSP) and LEAD ACO model that will increase the value of the base E/M code by 32%, among other major changes to the Medicare Shared Savings Program. CMS is proposing major changes to how practice expenses are calculated, a reduction of payments to evaluation and management (E/M) services billed on the same day as a global procedure, and new codes for advanced care planning.
Comment by September 14.