Announced at the Sept ember 9 Pennie Community Workgroup, new system enhancements will be available beginning October 2022. Pennie plans to pilot a Live Chat feature and add organ donor and voter registration information to the end of the Pennie enrollment application. The Pennie system will also use current monthly income when assessing potential eligibility for Medicaid and CHIP. On previous applications, yearly income was used to determine eligibility. This change will result in a more accurate assessment of likely eligibility due to fluctuating income. To listen to the recording or view slides, click here.

In a new issue brief, the Commonwealth Fund explores how changing the benchmark plan might affect consumers’ deductibles and out-of-pocket limits and how those costs would compare to those in employer health plans. The benchmark plan refers to the second lowest-cost silver plan in the marketplace in each area or in the individual/family insurance market to define essential health benefits within that state for individual/family and small group plans. According to the researchers, “Modest changes like these could encourage more people to get the care they need and keep them from incurring medical debt.” Read more here.

FamiliesUSA published a white paper discussing the importance of Community Health Workers (CHW) and the need for sustainable funding to address health disparities. Community Health Centers employ CHWs to address enabling services, including disease-specific education, translation issues, transportation coordination, language services, enrollment assistance and other non-clinical services.

Congressional negotiators released the full text of the CR on September 27. After several weeks of debate, Congress decided to permanently extend the Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA) coverage for Volunteer Health Professionals. This is a big victory and will ensure that qualified Volunteer Health Professionals can continue providing critical primary and preventative care at health centers in communities impacted by natural disasters or provider shortages.

Acting Secretary of Health and Physician General Dr. Denise Johnson joined representatives from Feeding Pennsylvania and the Second Harvest Food Bank of Northwest Pennsylvania to showcase the Pennsylvania Healthy Pantry Initiative (PA HPI) program in action. This program has supported tens of thousands of pantry clients to increase their consumption of healthy foods by highlighting the healthy food choices within the food pantries, equipping clients with reliable and helpful information, and providing displays and storage equipment to showcase healthier options. Program materials include shelf talkers, signage, produce information, and recipe cards that are instrumental in food demonstrations, tastings, and nutrition classes hosted through local food pantries. In April 2022, PA HPI was added as a nationally recognized program offering a practice-tested intervention in the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s SNAP-Ed toolkit. Click here to learn more.

The Rural Health Information Hub collaborated with NORC Walsh Center for Rural Health Analysis to create resources for developing, implementing, evaluating, and sustaining rural health literacy programs.

The Federal Communications Commission provides easy-to-understand material – flyers, social media content, videos, audio PSAs – in English and Spanish to help consumers understand the federal program that helps households pay for internet service.

This report from the Center for Economic Analysis of Rural Health explores the relationship between health care and local economies, as well as the economic implications associated with COVID-19.

Last week, the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) introduced the Roadmap for Behavioral Health Integration, to advance the White House Strategy to Address our National Mental Health Crisis announced earlier this year. The HHS paper explains policy and programs that will build three pillars of the national strategy: 1) Strengthen System Capacity by developing a diverse workforce; 2) Connect Americans to Care through health financing; and 3) Support Americans by Creating Healthy Environments with investments in behavioral health, upstream prevention, and recovery.  The Roadmap includes rural communities as part of its cross-cutting equity priority, but does not cover all of the behavioral health initiatives across the Department; important efforts already underway include the HHS Overdose Prevention Strategy and the new three-digit 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline.