- 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
Read About JAMA Viewpoint: The Emergence of Rural Emergency Hospitals
An open-access opinion in the online Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA Network) examines the new federal designation that would convert eligible rural hospitals to facilities that exclusively provide emergency and outpatient services. The authors identify potential benefits that may prevent closure of a growing number of at-risk hospitals. They also describe a number of potential unintended consequences that will need to be monitored, such as increasing the difficulty of recruiting and retaining rural clinicians.
New Study Reseraching Factors Affecting Recruitment, Retention of Rural Clinicians
The Economic Research Service at the U.S. Department of Agriculture surveyed healthcare professionals in 150 small towns across nine U.S. states: Arkansas, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Minnesota, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Texas, and Wisconsin. Researchers learned that, among those surveyed, personal and professional relationships were the most important factor for moving to and staying in a rural practice.
New Funding Begins for Rural Communities Opioid Response Programs – Child and Adolescent Behavioral Health
HRSA is accepting applications for the FY 2023 Rural Communities Opioid Response Program – Child and Adolescent Behavioral Health (RCORP-CABH). The purpose of this program is to establish and expand sustainable behavioral health care services for children and adolescents aged 5-17 years who live in rural communities, and to prevent substance misuse. Over the four-year period of performance, award recipients will use RCORP-CABH funding to establish and expand service delivery, provide training and peer mentorship, and develop community partnerships. Eligible applicants include all domestic public or private, non-profit or for-profit entities. Applications are due May 12, 2023.
The Exploring Rural Health Podcast: Behavioral Health Has Been Released!
An episode of the Exploring Rural Health podcast featuring Holly Andrilla, Deputy Director of the FORHP-supported WWAMI Rural Health Research Center. Focuses on rural availability of psychiatrists, psychologists, psychiatric nurse practitioners, social workers, and counselors, as well as recent developments in access to medication for opioid use disorder.
RHCs & the Medicare Shared Savings Program – What You Need to Know
Recording of a March 7 webinar providing an overview of the transition to value-based care, Accountable Care Organizations, and the Medicare Shared Savings Program. Discusses considerations for Rural Health Clinic (RHC) participation in the Shared Savings Program.
A New Podcast Has Been Released, Rural Roads – The RCORPodcast
Get an inside look at the Rural Communities Opioid Response Program (RCORP) in this series of interviews with federal project officers (our own Kim Nesbitt in episode 2), grantees, and experts from the organization that provides technical assistance to community-based organizations in rural areas across the country.
Here You Can Read About A New Focus on Hepatitis
The White House’s budget request to Congress included an $11 billion ask to tackle the spread of the hepatitis C virus (HCV) over the next five years. Though it’s not a crisis that’s well-known or understood, public health efforts in the last 10 years have made strides toward prevention and treatment. Direct-acting antivirals developed less than a decade ago have been proven effective in 95 percent of the people who take a curative pill for 8 to 12 weeks. The challenge has been getting infected persons in for diagnosis and moving them toward treatment. For rural communities, the rise in prevalence has been labeled epidemic and closely related to injection drug use. Data show a substantial number of people are unaware they’re infected; of those with some kind of public or private insurance, only a third are actually treated. Left untreated, HCV can lead to liver failure, cancer, and death. The proposed federal program includes a significant push for screening and treatment – accelerating the availability of point-of-care diagnostic tests and providing broad access to medication – with a focus on populations at greatest risk for infection: Medicaid beneficiaries, justice-involved populations, people without insurance, and American Indian and Alaska Native individuals who are treated through the Indian Health Service. Also last week: the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention updated recommendations for hepatitis B virus screening and testing. Considered more common than HCV, hepatitis B causes more liver-related cancer and death.
Here You Can Read About Long COVID’s Lingering Effects on Rural Health
The latest feature article in The Rural Monitor shares what’s known about the post-COVID illness that’s estimated to affect as many as 3 million in rural areas. As of December 2022, data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show that the top five states for self-reported symptoms are mostly rural: Montana, Wyoming, Mississippi, Kentucky, and Alaska.
Explore Rural Perspectives of Buprenorphine Here!
Researchers at Indiana University conducted one-on-one interviews with clinical providers and other stakeholders in the recovery arena to better understand the slow uptake of the drug most used to treat opioid use disorder. Biases against buprenorphine were the most consistent theme, though the reason for bias differed amongst stakeholders. Clinical providers and behavioral health care providers preferred the abstinence approach rather than the use of medications. Hospital administrators, peer recovery coaches, and criminal justice representatives tended to hold a bias against substance use in general and/or had a lack of knowledge of how buprenorphine was administered and how it works. Similar responses were reported in a 2020 study of attitudes in rural Ohio.
Read About the Changes HRSA has Made to the Budget
The U.S. Department of Health & Human Service’s budget request for FY 2024, Building a Healthy America, was released on March 9, 2023, and HRSA’s FY 2024 Congressional Budget Justification was released on March 13, 2023. The total request for the Federal Office of Rural Health Policy (FORHP) was a budget of $416 million, an increase of $63 million from the FY 2023 enacted budget. This budget request would enable FORHP to continue funding to our technical assistance partners, expand our reach to additional rural communities, and develop three new programs.
Notable increases would include:
- Rural Outreach Grants – $2 million increase
- Rural Communities Opioids Response Program – $20 million increase
The budget proposes three new programs targeting the unique and emerging needs of rural communities.
- Rural Health Clinic Behavioral Health Initiative: Rural areas represent nearly 60 percent of Mental Health Professional Shortage Areas, encompassing more than 25 million people who do not have adequate access to mental healthcare providers. $10 million would support an initiative to expand access to mental health services in rural communities where Rural Health Clinics serve as a key access point.
With 143 hospital closures since 2010, including 19 closures in 2020, the FY 2024 budget requests an investment of $30 million towards helping rural communities sustain their hospital (including Critical Access Hospitals and Rural Emergency Hospitals) healthcare infrastructure.
- Financial and Community Sustainability for At-Risk Rural Hospitals Program: $10 million would support rural hospitals at-risk for imminent closure through targeted technical assistance, and
- Rural Hospital Stabilization Pilot Program, $20 million would go toward new pilot program supporting to at-risk rural hospitals to enhance and or expand needed service lines.
The request also proposes significant investments in the health workforce. HRSA’s Bureau of Health Workforce would see an overall increase of $892 million from the FY 2023 budget, of which National Health Service Corps would receive a $548 million increase to ensure even more providers are incentivized to practice in underserved and rural communities. Additionally, $125 million would be added to the Ending the HIV Epidemic in the United States Initiative, specifically to increase evidence-based practices and support HIV care for clients including those in the seven states with substantial rural HIV burden.