- 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?
Find Health Centers with COVID-19 Testing
HRSA has updated the Find a Health Center tool to allow users to filter for health center sites that offer COVID-19 testing. In addition to displaying all health centers, users can now see only those with testing. Visit the site to see if your health center’s COVID-19 capabilities are accurately reflected. If you have questions or need the information for your FQHC, contact Amanda Tekely, PACHC’s Events and Communications Manager.
Fact Sheet on Developing Hospital Alternate Care Sites (ACS)
Last week, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) released instructions for State and local governments, hospitals, and other providers to obtain payments for inpatient and outpatient care furnished at an alternate care site through CMS programs – Medicare, Medicaid, and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP). An ACS is any building or structure of opportunity that is temporarily converted for healthcare use. Urban and rural governments and providers may use these structures to expand capacity for providing care during the COVID-19 public health emergency. Read more here.
Access to Medicare Part D Plans: A Comparison of Metropolitan and Nonmetropolitan Areas
The Medicare Part D program allows Medicare beneficiaries to add prescription drugs to their Medicare coverage. Within Medicare, two plans – Part D prescription plans and Medicare Advantage prescription plans– offer an array of payment options and benefits. Researchers at the RUPRI Center for Rural Health Policy Analysis found that Medicare Advantage prescription drug coverage plans were offered in lower numbers of noncore counties, had higher monthly premiums, and were less likely to offer enhanced benefits. Read more here.
Learning About Local Health Workforce Through Commute Patterns
To learn more about the available supply of nurses and allied health workers at local levels, researchers at the University of Washington Center for Health Workforce Studies looked at commute patterns found in the American Community Survey. The report says a key takeaway for researchers and workforce planners is a need to measure local supply based not only on where people report working, but also where they live. Read the report here.
ARHQ: Hospital Burden of Opioid-Related Inpatient Stays
The Agency for Healthcare Research Quality (AHRQ) examines the costs of opioid-related hospitalizations, with a comparison of metropolitan and rural hospitals. The report is part of AHRQs Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project, a collection of data and analysis tools to enable research on a broad range of health policy issues. Read the report here.
GAO: Infection Control Deficiencies in Nursing Homes Before the Pandemic
The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) is an independent, nonpartisan agency that works for Congress. For this report, the GAO found that about 40 percent of surveyed nursing homes had infection prevention and control deficiencies from 2013 to 2019. Read the report here.
TRACIE Report on COVID-19 Challenges to Rural Health
The Technical Resources, Assistance Center, and Information Exchange (TRACIE) is a site created by the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response at the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services. In this report, TRACIE explains and provides data for pandemic challenges specific to rural populations and health care facilities. Find the report here. More information and resources for emergency preparation and response can be found on the TRACIE website.
HHS Makes Awards to Expand the Addiction Workforce
On June 2, 2020, the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) awarded $20.3 million to 44 recipients to increase the number of fellows at accredited addiction medicine and addiction psychiatry fellowship programs. The awardees will train addiction specialists at facilities in high need communities that integrate behavioral and primary care services. Addiction specialists have the knowledge and skills to provide comprehensive behavioral healthcare to under-served populations during the COVID-19 pandemic. Read more here.
ECHO Diabetes in the Time of COVID-19
The ECHO Model for health professions training uses interactive video technology to connect remote providers with specialists at centers of excellence in real-time collaborative sessions. The Stanford Center for Continuing Medical Education is providing credits for this series of free webinars using the ECHO model to support primary care providers and their patients with diabetes during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. Read more here.
Medicare Advantage (MA) and Part D 2021 Final Rule
Last week, CMS issued the first final rule for MA and Part D plan changes for 2021. The agency will issue a second final rule later this year. This first rule focuses on immediate regulatory actions for the contract year 2021 bid deadline in June, codifying several existing policies, and implementing other technical changes. The changes include reducing the required percentage of beneficiaries that must reside within the maximum time and distance standards for plans operating in rural counties and providing MA plans with a credit towards this percentage of beneficiaries when plans contract with specified specialty and primary care telehealth providers.