- Biden-Harris Administration Releases National Strategy for Suicide Prevention and First-Ever Federal Action Plan
- Biden-Harris Administration Takes Historic Action to Increase Access to Quality Care, and Support to Families and Care Workers
- Biden Administration Sets Higher Staffing Mandates. Most Nursing Homes Don't Meet Them.
- Rural Jails Turn to Community Health Workers To Help the Newly Released Succeed
- Rural Communities Face Primary Care Physician Shortage
- Miles for Milk: How Student-Run Grocery Store Reshaped Rural Community's Food Access
- Native Americans Have Shorter Life Spans, and It's Not Just Due to Lack of Health Care
- Promotoras Play Essential Role in Connecting Farmworkers with Health Care in Rural NorCal
- Using Medicaid to Address Young People's Mental Health Needs in School Settings
- Across the Country, Amish Populations Are on the Rise
- Sunsets, Wildlife and Limited Care: Challenges of Aging in Place in Rural America
- City-Country Mortality Gap Widens amid Persistent Holes in Rural Health Care Access
- Tribal Environmental Impact Network
- Minnesota's Rural Ambulance Providers Look to State Capitol for Their Own Lifeline
- Biden-Harris Administration Takes Action to Support the Primary Care Workforce
2023 PA Oral Health Summit Video Now Available!
We hope you will check out our video recap of the 2023 PA Oral Health Summit, whether you were able to attend or not. The video is now available on our YouTube channel and can be shared with others!
Click here to see the video.
Pennsylvania Broadband Authority BEAD Challenge Portal Is Open!
The Pennsylvania Broadband Development Authority (PBDA) opened its BEAD Challenge Submission Window this morning. The Challenge Portal is available online. If you are an eligible participant for the challenge process and have not registered, you will need to complete a registration before you can submit challenges.
The PBDA strongly encourages that all Internet Service Providers (ISPs) register for the challenge portal so they may be notified of challenges they may receive through the portal.
Please visit the BEAD Challenge webpage for additional details to include registering for the BEAD Challenge portal, review the public map that identifies those areas deemed unserved, underserved, served, funded and statewide Community Anchor Institutions (CAIs). You can also watch the recording of the BEAD Challenge webinar that was held on March 29, 2024 and download the PowerPoint presentation used during the webinar.
The PBDA would like to remind eligible entities interested in submitting bulk challenges to consider requesting a license from CostQuest Associates. Tier D licenses are available here. Tier E licenses are available here. While a license is not required to participate and access the BEAD Challenge portal, it will help to simplify the submission of bulk challenges.
The timeline for the BEAD Challenge process is broken down into 3, 30-day windows which are as follows:
- Challenge Submission Period: Eligible entities will be able to submit challenge for 30 days. (April 24 – May 23)
- Rebuttal of Challenges: Entities that have been challenged will have 30 days to respond (May 24 – June 22)
- Final Determinations: The PBDA will decided if challenges and rebuttals are valid or not within 30 days (June 23 – July 22)
Lastly, as a reminder, the PBDA will be holding the last of three Office Hour Sessions tomorrow, please click on the link below to obtain additional details and to register.
Rural Jails Turn to Community Health Workers To Help the Newly Released Succeed
Garrett Clark estimates he has spent about six years in the Sanpete County Jail, a plain concrete building perched on a dusty hill just outside this small, rural town where he grew up.
He blames his addiction. He started using in middle school, and by the time he was an adult he was addicted to meth and heroin. At various points, he’s done time alongside his mom, his dad, his sister, and his younger brother.
“That’s all I’ve known my whole life,” said Clark, 31, in December.
Clark was at the jail to pick up his sister, who had just been released. The siblings think this time will be different. They are both sober. Shantel Clark, 33, finished earning her high school diploma during her four-month stay at the jail. They have a place to live where no one is using drugs.
And they have Cheryl Swapp, the county sheriff’s new community health worker, on their side.
“She saved my life probably, for sure,” Garrett Clark said.
Swapp meets with every person booked into the county jail soon after they arrive and helps them create a plan for the day they get out.
She makes sure everyone has a state ID card, a birth certificate, and a Social Security card so they can qualify for government benefits, apply to jobs, and get to treatment and probation appointments. She helps nearly everyone enroll in Medicaid and apply for housing benefits and food stamps. If they need medication to stay off drugs, she lines that up. If they need a place to stay, she finds them a bed.
Then Swapp coordinates with the jail captain to have people released directly to the treatment facility. Nobody leaves the jail without a ride and a drawstring backpack filled with items like toothpaste, a blanket, and a personalized list of job openings.
“A missing puzzle piece,” Sgt. Gretchen Nunley, who runs educational and addiction recovery programming for the jail, called Swapp.
Swapp also assesses the addiction history of everyone held by the county. More than half arrive at the jail addicted to something.
Nationally, 63% of people booked into local jails struggle with a substance use disorder — at least six times the rate of the general population, according to the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. The incidence of mental illness in jails is more than twice the rate in the general population, federal data shows. At least 4.9 million people are arrested and jailed every year, according to an analysis of 2017 data by the Prison Policy Initiative, a nonprofit organization that documents the harm of mass incarceration. Of those incarcerated, 25% are booked two or more times, the analysis found. And among those arrested twice, more than half had a substance use disorder and a quarter had a mental illness.
Pennsylvania Broadband Authority Releases BEAD Challenge
The Pennsylvania Broadband Development Authority (PBDA) has released the details of the BEAD Challenge process. Please visit the BEAD Challenge webpage for additional details to include registering for the BEAD Challenge portal, review the public map that identifies those areas deemed unserved, underserved, and statewide Community Anchor Institutions (CAIs). You can also watch the recording of the BEAD Challenge webinar that was held on March 29, 2024 and download the PowerPoint presentation used during the webinar.
The PBDA would like to remind eligible entities interested in submitting bulk challenges to consider requesting a license from CostQuest Associates. Tier D licenses are available here. Tier E licenses are available here. While a license is not required to participate and access the BEAD Challenge portal, it will help to simplify the submission of bulk challenges.
The timeline for the BEAD Challenge process is broken down into 3, 30-day windows which are as follows:
- Challenge Submission Period: Eligible entities will be able to submit challenge for 30 days. (April 24 – May 23)
- Rebuttal of Challenges: Entities that have been challenged will have 30 days to respond (May 24 – June 22)
- Final Determinations: The PBDA will decided if challenges and rebuttals are valid or not within 30 days (June 23 – July 22)
As a reminder, the PBDA will be holding three Office Hour Sessions, please click on each below to obtain additional details and to register.
Please don’t hesitate to reach out with questions to PABroadbandAuthority@pa.gov.
New Report: Race and Ethnicity May Affect Where Hospitals Transfer Patients
A new study in #HSR @WileyHealth examines racial/ethnic differences in emergency department (ED) transfers to public hospitals and factors explaining these differences.
Black transfer patients were more likely to be transferred to public hospitals compared with White patients in most models tested. For instance, Black transfer patients were 0.5–1.3 percentage points (pp) more likely to be transferred to public hospitals than White patients treated in the same hospital with the same payer. In comparison, Hispanic transfer patients were − 0.6 pp to −1.2 pp less likely to be transferred to public hospitals than White patients treated in the same hospital with the same payer.
This study suggests large population-level differences in whether ED patients of different races/ethnicities were transferred to public hospitals were largely explained by hospital market and the initial hospital, suggesting that these factors may play a larger role in explaining differences in transfer to public hospitals, compared with other external factors.
The study authors include Charleen Hsuan JD PhD, David J. Vanness PhD, Alexis Zebrowski PhD, Brendan G. Carr MD, Edward C. Norton PhD, David G. Buckler MS, Yinan Wang MPP, Douglas L. Leslie PhD, Eleanor F. Dunham MD, MBA, and Jeannette A. Rogowski PhD.
Find more details about the article here.
Doctors Take on Dental Duties to Reach Low-income and Uninsured Patients
From CBS News
Pediatrician Patricia Braun and her team saw roughly 100 children at a community health clinic on a recent Monday. They gave flu shots and treatments for illnesses like ear infections. But Braun also did something most primary care doctors don’t. She peered inside mouths searching for cavities or she brushed fluoride varnish on their teeth.
“We’re seeing more oral disease than the general population. There is a bigger need,” Braun said of the patients she treats at Bernard F. Gipson Eastside Family Health Center, which is part of Denver Health, the largest safety-net hospital in Colorado, serving low-income, uninsured, and underinsured residents.
Braun is part of a trend across the United States to integrate oral health into medical checkups for children, pregnant women, and others who cannot afford or do not have easy access to dentists. With federal and private funding, these programs have expanded in the past 10 years, but they face socioeconomic barriers, workforce shortages, and the challenge of dealing with the needs of new immigrants.
With a five-year, $6 million federal grant, Braun and her colleagues have helped train 250 primary care providers in oral health in Colorado, Montana, Wyoming, and Arizona. Similar projects are wrapping up in Illinois, Michigan, Virginia, and New York, funded by the federal Health Resources and Services Administration’s Maternal and Child Health Bureau. Beyond assessment, education, and preventive care, primary care providers refer patients to on- or off-site dentists, or work with embedded dental hygienists as part of their practice.
Read more.
Apply Now for the Appalachian Leadership Institute
Calling current and future community leaders! Applications for our Appalachian Leadership Institute (ALI) are now open.
This no-cost, nine-month leadership development training opportunity is centered on economic development. During six sessions in communities across the region, participants will learn how to better:
- Identify and implement strategies to strengthen their communities.
- Collaborate with a network of leaders across Appalachia.
- Recognize and utilize unique assets in their communities to build economic development plans.
- Appreciate the diversity and shared experiences of Appalachians.
Anyone living or working in Appalachia’s 423 counties is eligible to apply now. We look forward to building a stronger future for the region together!
New Oral Health Resources Available in Pennsylvania
PCOH staff have been working on a number of print projects this spring that we hope will be helpful to you in your own advocacy and work.
- Medicaid Provider Brochure: This tri-fold flyer helps explain the many reasons that dentists and PHDHPs should participate in Medicaid and provides information on recent updates to the program.
- Medicaid Patient Brochure: Many adults enrolled in Medicaid don’t even know they have a dental benefit. This flyer helps explain some of the dental benefits offered and shares links to additional resources.
- Finding Dental Care: This flyer is available in English and Spanish and lists high-level resources in PA to help everyone find care.
Thank you to CareQuest Institute for Oral Health for helping to fund this work. These materials are all able to be printed and shipped, or you can use the PDF file to share electronically or print yourself. Email info@paoralhealth.org to request printed materials.
Policy Alert! CMS Publishes Final Rule to Allow States to Select Adult Dental Coverage as an Essential Health Benefit
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) released the 2025 Notice of Benefit and Payment Parameters final rule, designed to enhance accessibility and reliability within the Affordable Care Act (ACA) Marketplaces. In Pennsylvania, we use Pennie (pennie.com).
One significant aspect of the new policies is the expansion of access to health care services, particularly the inclusion of adult routine dental care as a state option. Effective January 1, 2027, states can include adult routine dental services as an essential health benefit (EHB) within their plans offered through the marketplaces. However, states can begin the EHB benchmark application process on January 1, 2025.
Navigating Health Policy in an Election Year: Insights From a Health Policy Expert
On the April 2, 2024 episode of Managed Care Cast, we talked with Dennis Scanlon, PhD, the editor in chief of The American Journal of Accountable Care® and a health policy professor at Penn State University. Topics discussed include President Biden’s recent prescription drug proposals, prior authorization practices, price transparency, and the potential impact of health policy on the upcoming election.
Listen to the Podcast here.