- Rural Children Struggle to Access Hospital Services, Say Researchers
- Outlining the Intersection between Health Care and Missing and Murdered Indigenous People
- Biden-Harris Administration Announces Critical More Than $1.5 Billion State and Tribal Opioid Response Funding Opportunities
- RPHARM Program Fulfills Need for Rural Pharmacists
- Farmers Don't Do Mental Health
- A Pilot Program in Rural Vermont Hopes to Build a Blueprint for Substance Abuse Recovery
- Rural Telehealth Extension Reintroduced in Congress
- Students From Across the State Emphasized the Need for Mental Health Resources in Rural Alaska During a Conference
- The South Was the Center of Rural Population Growth Last Year
- How HHS SUD Confidentiality Regulations Will Impact Rural Providers
- VA Announces Expansion of "Close to Me" Cancer Program as Part of the Cancer Moonshot, Bringing Cancer Diagnosis and Treatment Closer to Thousands of Veterans
- Navajo Psychiatrist Bridges Gaps Between Native American Culture and Behavioral Health Care
- Biden-Harris Administration Releases National Strategy for Suicide Prevention and First-Ever Federal Action Plan
- Biden Administration Sets Higher Staffing Mandates. Most Nursing Homes Don't Meet Them.
- Rural Communities Face Primary Care Physician Shortage
Good Faith Estimates and the Surprise Billing Act
On October 7, 2021, the Departments of Treasury, Labor and Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) published in the Federal Register proposed Requirements Related to Surprise Billing, Part II https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2021/10/07/2021-21441/requirements-related-to-surprise-billing-part-ii
National Association of Community Health Centers is hosting a webinar on Friday, December 17, 2021 at 3:00 p.m. to go over the main areas of the “No Surprise Billing Act” and the Good Faith Estimate provision challenges. Register here https://nachc.webex.com/mw3300/mywebex/default.do?nomenu=true&siteurl=nachc&service=6&rnd=0.6403768472681355&main_url=https%3A%2F%2Fnachc.webex.com%2Fec3300%2Feventcenter%2Fevent%2FeventAction.do%3FtheAction%3Ddetail%26%26%26EMK%3D4832534b00000005b5e9c1b132c95d26e441b77ffaf1560d19607e9499c4d806b764ce7d35723dfb%26siteurl%3Dnachc%26confViewID%3D212595861152118779%26encryptTicket%3DSDJTSwAAAAWXK2m5w4k_Tp9dXNMIGc0uS46qzEMm-q3nLhjkp-wfNw2%26
Strategies to Prepare for Public Health Emergency Unwinding
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) released a “punch list” of strategies states and the U.S. territories can adopt to maintain coverage of eligible individuals as they return to normal operations after the end of the public health emergency. The strategies are organized around seven topics areas:
- strengthening renewal processes
- updating mailing addresses
- improving consumer outreach, communication, and assistance
- promoting seamless coverage transitions
- improving coverage retention
- addressing strains on the eligibility and enrollment workforce
- enhancing oversight of eligibility and enrollment operations
In the resource, CMS also flagged strategies expected to have the biggest impact on mitigating coverage losses. https://www.medicaid.gov/state-resource-center/downloads/strategies-for-covrg-of-indiv.pdf
COVID-19 Reporting Revised to Better Track Trends
The Pennsylvania Department of Health will now provide weekly summaries of COVID-19 cases, deaths, hospitalizations and vaccine data, in addition to their daily updates of the interactive dashboards on the website to provide a clearer picture of what is happening than daily snapshots alone provide. The data reveals:
- Between November 29 and December 5, almost 422,000 vaccine doses were administered across the commonwealth; nearly half were boosters and about 76,000 were to children ages 5-11.
- According to the Pennsylvania Department of Health weekly report, this is a 47.2% increase in vaccines administered from the previous week.
- As of Tuesday afternoon, there were 4,298 people hospitalized with COVID-19 across the state.
- In the past seven days, the number of patients hospitalized for COVID-19 increased by 9%, the state averaged 7,338 new cases per day and a total of 654 deaths were reported.
- To date, there have been almost 1.8 million cases of COVID-19 in Pennsylvania and 34,107 virus-related deaths.
Note: the state’s vaccine data includes information from all counties except Philadelphia, which operates as a separate vaccine jurisdiction.
Acting Pennsylvania Health Secretary to Resign December 31, 2021
Alison Beam will resign as acting Pennsylvania health secretary at the end of the year. https://www.inquirer.com/news/pennsylvania/alison-beam-resign-pa-health-secretary-keara-klinepeter-20211213.html
HIV Discrimination, Privacy and Confidentiality: Impact on the Delivery of Oral Healthcare
The New England AIDS Education and Training Center is hosting a webinar: “HIV Discrimination, Privacy and Confidentiality: Impact on the Delivery of Oral Healthcare” on January 11, 2021 at 11 am ET. Persons with HIV are protected by a variety of state and federal laws against discrimination, especially in places of public accommodation. The 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act classified this as a national mandate to eliminate discrimination against persons with disabilities. Speakers will discuss the impact on the delivery of oral healthcare during the webinar.
To register for the webinar: https://www.neaetc.org/events/view/19571?mc_cid=c8f998257c&mc_eid=3de0fb2a18
Dental Public Health Leadership
The American Institute of Dental Public Health (AIDPH) is developing a leadership program aimed at rising oral health professionals seeking formal training and support. The goal is to tailor the programming to the needs of the community with an intention to launch in the spring of 2022. In order to design curriculum and frame this experience, they are requesting feedback through a brief survey. Click the following link to complete the survey: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/F3M3WJJ
Successful Community Health Worker Programs
The National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) and the Penn Center for Community Health Workers with support from the Commonwealth Fund and the Community Health Acceleration Partnership (CHAP), have published a white paper, “Critical Inputs for Successful Community Health Workers Program.” The white paper will be presented during a webinar on December 14, 2021 at 4 pm ET. Organizations employing or looking to hire Community Health Workers can learn about how to support Community Health Workers and maximize their impact. Speakers will discuss the process of developing inputs, share reactions from the field, and discuss ways to incorporate the information into current and future work.
For more information and to register for the webinar: https://ncqa-org.zoom.us/webinar/register/7816376153451/WN_6BABThWqScCdBHbB-thaLA?mc_cid=c8f998257c&mc_eid=3de0fb2a18
Cholesterol Management: Improving Patient Adherence to Statin Therapy
Quality Insights has developed their 2021 Cholesterol Management Practice Module https://improve.qualityinsights.org/Files/Projects/PA-DOH/PA_CholesterolModule_WFM_FINAL_508.aspx that offers a variety of strategies and tools care teams can utilize to improve patient-adherence outcomes. Review the module and visit the links below to learn more:
- Updated for 2021: Care Team Interventions to Implement American Heart Association Cardio Vascular Disease Primary Prevention Guidelines https://mcusercontent.com/3c9fc473fc413830f0c7ccfaf/files/f56d7db0-0ea3-13da-6429-f3684eb6b434/Care_Team_Workflow_PA_2021_508.pdf
- White Paper-Team Up for Quality Care: The Role of Primary Care Teams in Prevention of Cardiovascular Disease https://improve.qualityinsights.org/CMSPages/GetFile.aspx?guid=e33d8be5-de73-48bc-af66-70d461c5b9d8
- National Association of Community Health Centers: Statin Therapy for High-Risk Patients Provider Training Package https://www.nachc.org/clinical-matters/nachc-million-hearts-initiative/#highrisk
- American College of Cardiology Low-density Lipoprotein – Cholesterol (LDL-C) Manager App: A free app that guides clinicians through one continuous lipid-lowering process by linking three tools – the Atherosclerotic Cardiovascular Disease (ASCVD) Risk Estimator, Statin Intolerance app, and the Lipid Lowering Therapy Pathway tool – all based on up-to-date ACC clinical policy. https://www.acc.org/LDLCmanager
- The Adherence Estimator: a patient-centered tool designed to help care teams gauge a patients’ likelihood of adhering to newly prescribed oral medication for certain chronic, asymptomatic conditions https://www.ehidc.org/sites/default/files/resources/files/Adherence%20Estimator%20Kit_%20Interactive%20PDF.pdf
CDC Correction Shows Fever Pennsylvanians Vaccinated
A data correction made by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention last week made a dent in the state’s perceived progress on vaccinating the adult population. Under a data adjustment disclosed by the Pennsylvania Department of Health (DOH), the number of people considered fully vaccinated dropped from 73.7% of those 180and-older to 68.9% because of a reduction of about 1.2 million doses after removal of duplicate information and correction of data on first, second and booster doses.
CDC Strengthens Booster Recommendation
On November 19, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) strengthened its guidance to recommend a booster shot https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/covid-19/clinical-considerations/covid-19-vaccines-us.html#considerations-covid19-vax-booster of the Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna vaccines for all adults ages 18 years or older who completed their primary vaccination more than six months ago. See the CDC statement https://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2021/s1119-booster-shots.html This recommendation aligns with and follows the Federal Drug Administration’s authorization of the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines as a booster and supplements previous guidance on boosters for other COVID-19 vaccines, covered in this bulletin https://content.govdelivery.com/accounts/USHHSHRSA/bulletins/2f91b54 The following resources are available to help health centers understand what this means: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/vaccines/booster-shot.html and https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/covid-19/clinical-considerations/covid-19-vaccines-us.html