- Telehealth Study Recruiting Veterans Now
- USDA Delivers Immediate Relief to Farmers, Ranchers and Rural Communities Impacted by Recent Disasters
- Submit Nominations for Partnership for Quality Measurement (PQM) Committees
- Unleashing Prosperity Through Deregulation of the Medicare Program (Executive Order 14192) - Request for Information
- Dr. Mehmet Oz Shares Vision for CMS
- CMS Refocuses on its Core Mission and Preserving the State-Federal Medicaid Partnership
- Social Factors Help Explain Worse Cardiovascular Health among Adults in Rural Vs. Urban Communities
- Reducing Barriers to Participation in Population-Based Total Cost of Care (PB-TCOC) Models and Supporting Primary and Specialty Care Transformation: Request for Input
- Secretary Kennedy Renews Public Health Emergency Declaration to Address National Opioid Crisis
- Secretary Kennedy Renews Public Health Emergency Declaration to Address National Opioid Crisis
- 2025 Marketplace Integrity and Affordability Proposed Rule
- Rural America Faces Growing Shortage of Eye Surgeons
- NRHA Continues Partnership to Advance Rural Oral Health
- Comments Requested on Mobile Crisis Team Services: An Implementation Toolkit Draft
- Q&A: What Are the Challenges and Opportunities of Small-Town Philanthropy?
#WellChildWednesdays Social Media Campaign Encourages Keeping Up with Pediatric Checkups and Immunizations
Fewer children are receiving timely immunizations this year compared to last year. To encourage parents and stakeholders to keep up with these important well-child visits and immunizations, HRSA launched a new social media campaign with the hashtag #WellChildWednesdays. Each Wednesday for four weeks, messages will address well-visits, immunizations, adolescent and young adult care and nutrition, safety and mental health as topics to be discussed with pediatric providers. The first message already posted, and more messages will appear on Twitter and Facebook with the hashtag #WellChildWednesdays. Please share, retweet and promote #WellChildWednesdays to help amplify this important message.
FCC Distributes $100 Million to Health Systems in Order to Improve Telehealth Infrastructure
After the CARES Act allocated $200 million for telehealth funding in March, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) distributed over $100 million in funding to approximately 300 healthcare facilities to further aid telehealth during the pandemic. However, smaller, not larger, rural hospitals need more funding to improve telehealth systems. Since 2010, about 130 rural hospitals have closed and the pandemic has further exacerbated the crisis. Telehealth could help rural providers deliver care to their patients, but issues with poor broadband internet service and limited at-home access to technology make virtual care difficult. In contrast, larger hospitals likely have more resources to provide virtual care. Allocating resources specifically to smaller rural hospitals, rather than larger hospitals who not struggle accessing and incorporating telehealth technology, would allow these facilities to more effectively provide virtual care.
In Rural Areas, Nurse Shortage Hinders Fight Against COVID-19 – Fewer Professionals Makes Task Tougher
Rachelle Bradley, as an emergency room nurse, is fighting the coronavirus spread in the North Carolina town show grew up in. This is the only hospital in her area, and the coronavirus is now spreading rapidly in rural areas. The Northwest Regional Center for Rural Development at Pennsylvania State University states that the virus is spreading more rapidly in rural communities than in urban, increasing the strain on rural health care providers. There is a major strain due to the shortage of nurses and skilled professionals in rural areas, not the lack of rooms or beds, and while the healthcare labor shortage is not a rural-only issue, there is a disproportionate burden in rural areas.
Vulnerable Rural Hospitals During the COVID-19 Pandemic
COVID-19 has accelerated the threat of rural hospital closures. Although rural hospital closures threaten communities nationwide, communities serving higher percentages of non-white populations are at a higher risk of closure. Southern states that have not chosen to expand Medicaid, that have higher percentages of non-white populations, and where people rely more on emergency services, are at high risk of experiencing a hospital closure. Furthermore, the spread of COVID-19 is escalating in rural areas, which causes researchers to fear that areas with weakened rural health care infrastructure will not have the capacity needed to treat large surges of patients.
Rural Healthcare and COVID-19: A Research Roundup
Journalist’s Resource has compiled a Rural Healthcare and COVID-19 research roundup, which includes multiple rural health stories describing how COVID-19 has affected hospitals, such as the stories described below. Rural hospitals are less equipped to react to a pandemic than its urban counterpart due to fewer hospitals, fewer specialty care physicians, and fewer intensive care unit beds per capita. Before the pandemic, rural hospitals struggled financially, and measures to combat COVID-19 further complicate the crisis.
The Supply and Rural-Urban Distribution of the Obstetrical Care Workforce in the U.S.
Monitoring the rural and urban supply and distribution of clinicians who provide obstetrical (OB) services is important for identifying areas that may lack access to OB care and identifying solutions. A new brief, produced by the Washington, Wyoming, Alaska, Montana, and Idaho Rural Health Research Center (WWAMI), on the obstetric care workforce shortages describes the supply and geographic distribution of four types of OB care clinicians – obstetricians, advanced practice midwives, midwives (not advanced practice), and family physicians – using data from the 2019 National Plan and Provider Enumeration System and the American Board of Family Medicine. They monitor rural and urban supply and distribution of physicians who provide OB services by linking to county level Urban Influence Codes (UICs), and provide estimates of each clinician type per 100,000 women of child-bearing age (15 through 49 years), describing supply and distribution for rural versus urban counties and among rural counties, micropolitan versus non-core counties. Their findings reveal that significant disparities exist between rural and urban areas in the supply of clinicians who provide OB services, such as more rural areas without Obstetrical Service Clinicians, with less Obstetricians per 100,000 women of child bearing age, few advanced practice Midwives, etc.
NRHA Appropriations Update
According to the Coalition for Health Funding, the Senate Appropriations Committee (SAC) had intended to meet this week to begin marking up the 12 FY 2021 bills. However, partisan fights over what should be included, specifically but not limited to coronavirus and criminal justice funding matters, have caused the SAC to pause consideration of the FY 2021 bills. Congress is internally debating if the spending levels set in the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2010, particularly the limit set for non-defense discretionary programs, are sufficient to meet the nation’s needs in the era of COVID-19. The Senate appropriations process may be stalled until September (after the August recess). Meanwhile, House Appropriations Committee (HAC) Chair Nita Lowey (NY-17) recently advised Members that subcommittee and full committee markups of the 12 federal appropriations bills will take place the weeks of July 6th and July 13th and House consideration of the FY 2021 appropriations bills are then expected the weeks of July 20th and July 27th. While progress on FY 2021 appropriations is encouraging, crises, elections, and politics will make enactment of these spending bills unlikely before September 30th—the end of the federal fiscal year.
Reps. Thompson and Butterfield Introduce the HEALTH Act
Representatives Glenn ‘GT’ Thompson (PA-15) and G.K. Butterfield (NC-01) introduced the bipartisan Helping Ensure Access to Local TeleHealth, or the HEALTH Act, which will codify Medicare reimbursement for community centers and rural health clinics for telehealth services. Rep. Thompson remarks that, “The HEALTH Act will cut red tape and provide community health centers and rural health clinics the ability to offer these vital services to their patients on a more permanent basis.” Rep. Butterfield further states, “I am proud to join Congressman GT Thompson in introducing this vital legislation to address the telehealth needs of Medicare patients during this pandemic and beyond.” NRHA supports the passage of this bipartisan bill because telehealth has proven vital during COVID-19 and remain necessary in the future as well. However, issues like poor bandwidth internet connectivity and access to appropriate technology for rural providers and their patients must be addressed.
Increasing Rural Health Access During the COVID-19 Public Health Emergency Act
Representatives Xochitl Torres Small and Dan Newhouse (R-WA) introduced the bipartisan bill, Increasing Rural Health Access During the Covid-19 Public Health Emergency Act. By investing $50 million in rural communities, this bill, introducing a pilot grant program, would help expand access to telehealth in rural areas by increasing remote patient monitoring. Senators Martha McSally (R-AZ) and Dan Jones (D-AL) also introduced the bill to the legislature, stating that it will aid rural health clinics, community health centers, community behavioral health centers, long-term care facilities, and rural hospitals. According to McSally, “Provider shortages, especially among specialists who care for Americans living with chronic conditions, are painfully evident in rural America and on tribal lands, where the prevalence of chronic conditions like diabetes and hypertension is often higher than the rest of the country.” She advocates that increasing access to telehealth in rural areas will “remedy these shortages” by allowing vulnerable populations to benefit from health care remotely.
New Analysis Highlights Rural and Racial Disparities in Accessing COVID-19 Testing
According to a new Surgo Foundation analysis: Nearly two-thirds (64%) of all rural counties in the United States do not have a COVID-19 testing site, leaving 20.7 million people in a ‘testing desert.’ Of the rural population without a COVID-19 testing site, 8.5 million (41% of this population, 20% of the total rural population) live in highly vulnerable areas geographically concentrated in four states: Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina, and Arkansas. Drilling deeper, 1.27 million rural Black Americans (35% of the rural black population) live in highly vulnerable testing deserts. Compared to the average rural American, Black Americans are 1.7 times more likely to live in these areas. And rural Black Americans are 2.7 times as likely to be living in a vulnerable area with a lack of testing sites and increasing deaths, compared to the average rural American.