More than a week after Election Day, final results show that Democrats have won control of the Pennsylvania state House for the first time in more than a decade. Three of the General Assembly’s caucuses – Senate GOP and Democrats and the House Democrats – announced their leadership teams for the 2022-23 legislative session on Tuesday. The House Democratic Caucus unanimously re-elected its current leadership team to serve in the 2023-24 legislative session: Rep. Joanna E. McClinton, D- Phila/Delaware, Democratic Leader; Rep. Jordan Harris, D-Phila, Democratic Whip; Rep. Matt Bradford, D-Montgomery, Democratic Chairman, House Appropriations Committee; Rep. Ryan Bizzarro, D-Erie, Chairman, House Democratic Policy Committee; Rep. Tina Davis, D-Bucks, -Democratic Caucus Secretary; Rep. Mike Schlossberg, D-Lehigh, Democratic Caucus Administrator; Rep. Dan Miller, D-Allegheny, Democratic Caucus Chairman. There will be a significant turnover of committee chairs and the impact remains to be seen. Committee chairs play a vital role in the legislative process, and they bring to the job their own styles, policy positions and decisions on whether to move or bottle up bills. On the Senate side, Sen. Kim Ward, R-Westmoreland, was elected Senate President Pro Tem, becoming the first woman in the state’s history to hold the top spot in the chamber. With Ward’s move, and the departure of Senate Appropriations Committee chair Pat Browne, R-Lehigh, the Senate GOP leadership team was the only one with substantial changes. Sen. Joe Pittman, R-Indiana, will succeed Ward as Senate Majority Leader, while Sen. Scott Martin, R-Lancaster, will replace Browne as chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee.

  A new interactive mapping tool provides rural-specific information on COVID-19 vaccination rates, including newly released data on bivalent boosters, COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations, and other health and sociodemographic information at the community level.  The tool was created by the NORC Walsh Center for Rural Health Analysis – with support and data provided by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention – to help decision-making about vaccination efforts and resources.  All data can be downloaded for free; every county also has an individual fact sheet comparing all county-level data to the rest of their state and the nation.

  Each quarter, The Rural Monitor features an in-depth look at the work of FORHP grantees. This edition of Grants in Motion focuses on the South Dakota Palliative Care Network, a grantee of the Rural Health Network Development Program (RHND).  The RHND program supports integrated healthcare networks that collaborate with other local providers and services to achieve efficiencies and strengthen the rural healthcare system as a whole.

This report from CMS highlights (1) rural-urban differences in Medicare beneficiaries’ health care experiences and clinical care, (2) how rural-urban differences in quality of care vary by race and ethnicity, and (3) how racial and ethnic differences in quality of care vary between rural and urban areas.

  The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has a collection of tools for helping individuals and families get health insurance during the Marketplace Open Enrollment period, November 1, 2022, through January 15, 2023.  Graphics, social media messages, and customizable posters and fact sheets, are available in English, Spanish, Chinese, Korean, and Vietnamese.  Marketplace plans are an important source of coverage for people in rural areas, who represent approximately 15 percent of Marketplace enrollees in states using HealthCare.gov.

  HRSA’s Maternal and Child Health Bureau is asking providers to share an important message about an unprecedented surge of respiratory illness in children. While the typical RSV season begins in late fall, this year’s outbreak started in the spring and severe illness continues to increase. Most children are exposed to the respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV, in the first year of life and almost all have been infected within 2 years.  While RSV infections can be severe in the first 6 months, subsequent infections are usually milder, causing cold-like symptoms.  During the first 18 months of the pandemic, masking and distancing measures kept the virus from circulating. But this year and last, as in-person gatherings increased and children when back to school and daycare without masks, the virus has affected kids with little to no immunity.

Over its 36-year history, the Federal Office of Rural Health Policy has provided billions of dollars in funding to increase healthcare access, strengthen health networks, and focus on care quality improvements for Critical Access Hospitals and small rural hospitals.  In the fiscal year 2022, the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) – through the Federal Office of Rural Health Policy (FORHP) – provided approximately $408 million in funding to increase healthcare access, strengthen health networks, and focus on care quality improvements for Critical Access Hospitals and small rural hospitals as detailed in this HRSA Rural Health Fact Sheet.

FORHP is also supporting HRSA’s goal to achieve health equity by supporting efforts to strengthen healthcare delivery systems, reduce the morbidity and mortality associated with substance use disorder, and provide COVID-19 pandemic relief in rural communities.  See this State-by-State summary for grants to rural communities and states.