- CMS: Medicare Program; Prospective Payment System and Consolidated Billing for Skilled Nursing Facilities; Updates to the Quality Reporting Program for Federal Fiscal Year 2026
- CMS: Medicare Program; FY 2026 Hospice Wage Index and Payment Rate Update and Hospice Quality Reporting Program Requirements
- Public Inspection: CMS: Medicare Program: Prospective Payment System and Consolidated Billing for Skilled Nursing Facilities; Updates to the Quality Reporting Program for Federal Fiscal Year 2026
- Public Inspection: CMS: Medicare Program: Fiscal Year 2026 Hospice Wage Index and Payment Rate Update and Hospice Quality Reporting Program Requirements
- CMS: Request for Information; Health Technology Ecosystem
- VA: Staff Sergeant Fox Suicide Prevention Grant Program Funding Opportunity
- State: 60-Day Notice of Proposed Information Collection: J-1 Visa Waiver Recommendation Application
- Public Inspection: CMS: Request for Information: Health Technology Ecosystem
- HHS: Request for Information (RFI): Ensuring Lawful Regulation and Unleashing Innovation To Make American Healthy Again
- VA: Solicitation of Nominations for the Appointment to the Advisory Committee on Tribal and Indian Affairs
- GAO Seeks New Members for Tribal and Indigenous Advisory Council
- VA: Staff Sergeant Fox Suicide Prevention Grant Program Funding Opportunity
- 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
There’s Not Just One Kind of Vaccine Hesitancy
According to Axios, around 10 percent of Americans aren’t very eager to get the vaccine, but they’re not really hesitant either — they’re just waiting to get it until they get around to it, according to new Harris polling. The findings show that making vaccination more convenient will be a big part of the difficult process of getting more shots in arms, now that many of the most eager Americans have gotten their shots. As of late April, 43 percent of respondents said they’d already gotten a shot, 12 percent said they plan to go to get one the first day they’re able to, 10 percent said they’ll get the vaccine whenever they get around to it, and 21 percent said they will wait a while and see before getting the vaccine. Unfortunately, 14 percent of respondents said they won’t get a vaccine, a number that is virtually unchanged since January. In the real world, about 56 percent of U.S. adults had received at least one shot as of Saturday, per the CDC.
Federal Medicaid Outlays During the COVID-19 Pandemic
The Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) released a data note analyzing federal Medicaid outlays before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. Specifically, the data note analyzes the Treasury data on outlays of the federal government classified as “grants to states for Medicaid.” The analysis examines quarterly and yearly outlays to understand the implications of the pandemic and the enhanced federal matching funds. The full data note is available here.
American Rescue Plan Savings Through Pennie
Pennsylvania Medicaid Enrollment Swells by More than 400,000
WITF reported on May 3, 2021, that Medicaid enrollment in Pennsylvania increased 14.7 percent, or 400,000 individuals, to 3.2 million since February 2020. The economic fallout from COVID-19 and federal rules preventing states from disenrolling Medicaid members during the pandemic drove the membership gains. Read More.
U.S. House Appropriations Committee Introduces Earmark Database
Following new earmark (community project funding) guidelines calling for transparency in Member requests, the U.S. House of Representatives Appropriations Committee created a new website that will list all spending earmarks requested by House members. To see what earmarks your Representatives requested, click here.
It Truly Has Been a Year of the Nurse
By serendipity, the World Health Organization designated 2020 the Year of the Nurse, in honor of the 200th anniversary of Florence Nightingale’s birth. As we all know, the year, whether designated or not, truly did prove to be the year of the nurse. As we celebrate National Nurses Week 2021, to honor the special nurses working in Community Health Centers across the nation, NACHC has released a new publication: 52 Weeks In The Life Of A Community Health Center Nurse. While every community health center nurse is unique, they all have one thing in common: to provide their patients with the highest level of care, regardless of the challenges in front of them. From persistence and resilience to courageousness and heroism, these 52 stories provide examples of the awe-inspiring nurses working in our FQHCs and honor and celebrate their contributions and commitment to their patients and community.
Report Pushes for Investment in Primary Care Infrastructure
The federal government must aggressively bolster primary care and connect more Americans with a dedicated source of care, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine warn in a new major report that sounds the alarm about an endangered foundation of the U.S. health system. The urgently worded report calls for a broad recognition that primary care is a “common good” akin to public education. The plan’s five objectives are:
- Pay for primary care teams to care for people, not doctors to deliver services.
- Ensure that high-quality primary care is available to every individual and family in every community.
- Train primary care teams where people live and work.
- Design information technology that serves the patient, family and interprofessional care team.
- Ensure that high-quality primary care is implemented in the United States.
The authors recommend that all Americans select a primary care provider or be assigned one, a landmark step that could reorient how care is delivered in the nation’s fragmented medical system. And the report calls on major government health plans such as Medicare and Medicaid to shift money to primary care and away from the medical specialties that have long commanded the biggest fees in the U.S. system. Currently, only about five percent of U.S. health care spending goes to primary care, versus an average of 14 percent in other wealthy nations, according to data collected by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. Read more.
Congress Fixed an Old Bill Threatening Fiscal Health of Rural Clinics
New Covid-19 Cases Drop by 5% in Rural Counties While Urban Areas See a 15% Drop
By Tim Murphy and Tim Marema
The number of new Covid-related deaths increased last week by 14%. Urban areas saw an increase of only 1%.
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Biden’s First Budget Proposal Recognizes Some Rural Needs
By Leslie Strauss and Joe Belden
The president’s first budget proposal, separate from his infrastructure plan, addresses rural housing, e-connectivity, and economic development.
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