- Weathering the Storm Together: Community Resiliency Hubs Hold the Promise of Local Self-Sufficiency and Supportive Mutual Aid
- Virginia Tech Researchers Bring Rural Families into the Nation's Largest Study of Early Brain and Child Development
- Expanding Access to Cancer Care for Rural Veterans
- VA: Veterans Rural Health Advisory Committee, Notice of Meeting
- Scaling Rural Wellness with Clever Collaboration
- Stroudwater Associates Enhances Rural Healthcare Dashboard with New Data to Support State Rural Transformation Grant Applications
- Harvest Season Is Here: Busy Times Call for Increased Focus on Safety and Health
- HHS Dispatches More Than 70 Public Health Service Officers to Strengthen Care in Tribal Communities
- Wisconsin Rural Hospitals Team up to Form Network
- CMS Launches Landmark $50 Billion Rural Health Transformation Program
- American Heart Association Provides Blood Pressure Kits at Southeast Arkansas Regional Libraries to Support Rural Health
- Broadening Access to Minimally Invasive Surgery Could Narrow Rural-Urban Health Gaps
- Instead of Selling, Some Rural Hospitals Band Together To Survive
- Help Line Gives Pediatricians Crucial Mental Health Information to Help Kids, Families
- Rural Health: A Strategic Opportunity for Governors
New CDC Resources Launched for Rural Public Health Data Analysis
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Office of Rural Health has released new resources designed for public health professionals and others working with data. The Rural Health Science Tip Sheets provide guidance and examples for selecting and applying rural-urban classification variables, accounting for demographic differences, and strengthening the rigor and relevance of rural data analyses.
These resources can help researchers approach their work with greater confidence and accuracy, leading to improved analytic studies and interpretation of results.
Add the Rural Health Science Tip Sheets to your research and data analysis toolkit. Share these resources with colleagues in your network to help ensure rural communities are accurately reflected in public health data reporting and program decisions.
Better rural health research and analysis start with good data and the right tools to understand it. That is why the CDC Office of Rural Health has developed tip sheets to help you:
- Define and understand what makes an area rural.
- Apply rural categories when analyzing data.
- Present rural findings clearly and accurately.
Share these tools with your network to foster collaboration, improve accuracy, and strengthen efforts in public health. https://bit.ly/4uihVUS.
For more information about CDC’s ongoing work in rural public health, please visit www.cdc.gov/rural-health, and check our web page regularly for new rural health science tip sheets. For additional support or to explore collaboration opportunities, contact the CDC Office of Rural Health at ruralhealth@cdc.gov.
Pennsylvania Budget Continues Support for Free Period Products in Schools
The Pennsylvania Departments of Health and Education announced that $3 million allocated in the 2025/26 budget will be distributed to more than 750 Pennsylvania school districts, intermediate units, career and technical centers, and brick-and-mortar charter schools to continue providing free period products for their students.
Building on historic, first-time investments of $3 million over each of the past two years, Governor Shapiro’s budget proposal for 2026/27 includes another $3 million to help schools provide free period products for students.
The funding enables schools to provide students with access to period products at no cost, in line with efforts to improve health equity.
PA Physicians Are Still “On Call” for Childhood Immunizations
The Pennsylvania Department of Health is continuing to work with physicians across the Commonwealth to create a series of short social media videos on Facebook, X, Instagram, and YouTube to provide health care providers’ perspectives on the value of vaccines that are available to prevent diseases.
The Shapiro Administration remains committed to standing with medical experts, to trust science, and to support evidence-based vaccine guidance. The Administration continues to recommend following the vaccine schedule for children developed by the American Academy of Pediatrics to protect Pennsylvania’s children from vaccine-preventable diseases.
For more information on vaccinations in Pennsylvania, visit www.pa.gov/vaccines.
Proposed SAM.gov Registration Adds DEI and Immigration Certifications for Federal Grantees
Federal grantees should be aware that the General Services Administration (GSA) has proposed requiring applicants, both when initially registering in the System for Award Management (SAM.gov) and during each annual renewal, to agree to three new certifications.
These certifications would affirm that grantees:
- Do not operate programs promoting “illegal DEI” or “discriminate on the basis of race or color” in violation of federal anti-discrimination laws;
- Will not knowingly transport, conceal, harbor, shield or hire “an illegal alien;” and
- Will not “fund, subsidize or facilitate violence, terrorism… or threaten public safety or national security.”
GSA’s proposal, “Information Collection; System for Award Management Registration Requirement for Financial Assistance Recipients,” seeks to align longstanding financial assistance representations and certifications in SAM.gov with the Administration’s new policies.
CMS Releases Guidance on 6-Month Medicaid Redeterminations
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) released a letter outlining operational considerations for implementing 6-month Medicaid renewals.
States will have two options for updating the process for adult expansion beneficiaries already in a 12-month eligibility period as of January 1, 2027, with renewals scheduled that year.
Pennsylvania Medicaid Agency Receives Letter Requesting Information on Potential Fraud
The House Energy & Commerce Committee has launched an investigation into alleged Medicaid fraud in 10 more states – including Pennsylvania.
The Committee sent Governor Shapiro and Department of Human Services (DHS) Secretary Arkoosh a letter on Tuesday, March 3. The letter to Pennsylvania cites “In fiscal year 2024, Pennsylvania Medicaid spending totaled over $44 billion ($26.8 billion in federal funding) and covered over 3 million people. Between 2018 and 2025, the state budget for the Pennsylvania Department of Human Services increased 58 percent, despite the population only growing 2 percent in that time.”
CMS Issues Guidance on Medicaid Eligibility Redeterminations
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) issued new guidance explaining how states must implement Medicaid eligibility redetermination rules under Section 71107 of Public Law 119-21, which requires most adult beneficiaries in the Medicaid expansion states to have their eligibility redetermined every six months instead of annually.
The six-month renewal requirement applies to renewals scheduled on or after January 1, 2027. The guidance reminds states of existing renewal steps they must follow and provides operational guidance on transitioning to 6-month renewals. It also discusses implications for related requirements, such as community engagement, and special situations like households with different renewal schedules.
CMS released a series of letters to help states implement various provisions of this law.
CMS Issues Toolkit on Behavioral Health Services for Children in Medicaid, CHIP
Last week, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) released a new State Medicaid & Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) Toolkit for Children’s Behavioral Health Services and the Early and Periodic Screening, Diagnostic, and Treatment (EPSDT) Requirements.
This toolkit was developed to support states in implementing Federal EPSDT requirements and includes actionable strategies and state examples across key areas such as early intervention, care coordination, telehealth, workforce capacity, and network adequacy. It also highlights approaches states have used to expand access in less-populated areas — for example, coverage of behavioral health services delivered via telehealth and network adequacy standards that account for travel distances in rural and frontier regions.
HHS Releases Cybersecurity Toolkit RISC 2.0
The Administration for Strategic Preparedness & Response (ASPR) within the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services announced an updated version of its Risk Identification and Site Criticality (RISC) toolkit to help health care facilities identify threats and hazards specific to their site.
CDC Data Brief Reviews Common Cancers in Metropolitan and Non-metropolitan Counties
The Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) Office of Rural Health released a new data brief, Common Cancers in Metropolitan and Non-metropolitan Counties, which highlights differences in cancer incidence and death rates between metropolitan and non-metropolitan communities.
The brief examines the four most common cancers—breast, prostate, lung, and colorectal—and shows that while some cancers are diagnosed more often in metro areas, death rates for these cancers are higher in non-metro counties. This information may help to inform rural cancer prevention, screening, and control efforts.