- 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
- Unleashing Prosperity Through Deregulation of the Medicare Program (Executive Order 14192) - Request for Information
- Dr. Mehmet Oz Shares Vision for CMS
COVID-19 Vaccine Access in Long-term Care Settings
The federal government is committed to ensuring that residents and staff in long-term care settings, such as nursing homes, assisted living, residential care communities, group homes and senior housing, have access to COVID-19 vaccines to receive primary series and booster shots.
Long-term care providers are encouraged to consider the option that works best for their residents and staff when coordinating access to COVID-19 vaccines, either in the local community or on-site. The CDC has additional details on these options. Find Medicare billing and payment information.
As a reminder, through enforcement discretion, CMS will allow Medicare-enrolled immunizers, including but not limited to pharmacies working with the United States, to bill directly and receive direct reimbursement from the Medicare program for vaccinating Medicare skilled nursing facility residents.
Introducing the Patient-Provider Dispute Resolution Process: Guidance Available
The patient-provider dispute resolution (PPDR) process is meant to protect uninsured (or self-pay) individuals from unexpectedly high medical bills. Effective January 1, 2022, providers, facilities, and providers of air ambulance services will need to give an uninsured (or self-pay) individual, or their authorized representative, a good faith estimate of expected charges after an item or service is scheduled, or upon request. The good faith estimate will include a list of items and services expected to be provided as part of the primary care, and items and services expected to be provided in conjunction with the primary care, for that period of care.
If an uninsured (or self-pay) individual receives a bill that is at least $400 more than the expected charges on the good faith estimate, they can choose to initiate the PPDR process, engaging a third-party entity certified by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to arbitrate their dispute. This company will decide how much the uninsured (or self-pay) individual will pay to the provider or facility: the amount on the good faith estimate, the billed amount, or another amount in between the estimated amount and billed amount. To utilize this dispute process, there is a $25 administrative fee that the individual has to pay at the start of the process.
This PPDR process provides important consumer protections for the uninsured (or self-pay) individual from billed charges that are substantially in excess of the expected charges in the good faith estimate.
HHS has created PPDR guidance for different audiences. These guidance documents help providers and facilities and uninsured or self-pay individuals, and those who will help them, to better understand what information must be included in the good faith estimate, how to initiate the PPDR process, and address any questions you may have.
Guidance for Providers and Facilities: link available here
Guidance about Selected Dispute Resolution Entity: link available here
Guidance for Uninsured or (Self-Pay) Individuals: link available here
Guidance about the Administrative Fee: link available here
HHS intends to hold webinars in the future about the PPDR process. We’ll share webinar information in the coming weeks.
The Impact of Pandemics on Oral Health
An article in the latest issue of the Journal of the American Dental Association (JADA) explores the role of pandemics on societal behavior and their impact on oral health care. The analysis explores the past, present, and future of pandemic and what measures the dental community should adopt moving forward. The latest issue also features articles about ultrasonic scaler aerosol and spatter mitigation, the use of teledentistry with older patients, and the promotion of community water fluoridation.
Highchair Dental Care: A Model for Infants and Toddlers
The American Dental Association (ADA) is offering a new interactive continuing education course, “Highchair Dental Care: A Revolutionary Practice Model for Infants and Toddlers.” The course teaches dental professionals an alternate way to provide oral health care for young children by introducing the highchair as a tool to use with children starting at 8 months old. The course is discounted for ADA members and offers 4 CEs.
Veteran Oral Health: Expanding Access and Equity
Gaps in veteran oral health have been long overlooked. Now is the time for change. A forward-thinking white paper from the CareQuest Institute and the American Institute of Dental Public Health (AIDPH), “Veteran Oral Health: Expanding Access and Equity,” focuses on the need to better understand the significant deficits surrounding veteran oral health. The goal of the paper is to catalyze oral health professionals and policymakers toward advancing health equity for veterans. The social, structural, and individual drivers of disparate oral health outcomes experienced by veterans deserve more attention from the oral health community. This paper delineates the struggles veterans face with oral health care every day.
USDA Seeks Applications to Advance Equity and Expand Regional Economies in Distressed Rural Communities
U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Under Secretary for Rural Development Xochitl Torres Small announced the Department is accepting grant applications that will advance equity in rural America by creating new opportunities in distressed communities.
USDA is offering priority points to projects that advance key priorities under the Biden-Harris Administration to help communities recover from the COVID-19 pandemic, advance equity and combat climate change. These extra points will increase the likelihood of funding for projects seeking to address these critical challenges in rural America.
The Rural Innovation Stronger Economy (RISE) grant program encourages a regional, innovation-driven approach to economic development by funding job accelerator partnerships in low-income rural communities. This includes communities that have been historically underserved, marginalized and adversely affected by persistent poverty and inequality.
RISE provides grants of up to $2 million to consortiums of local governments, investors, industry, institutions of higher education, and other public and private entities in rural areas. The funding may be used to support innovation centers and job accelerator programs that improve the ability of distressed rural communities to create high-wage jobs, form new businesses, and identify and maximize local assets.
USDA encourages applications that serve the smallest communities with the lowest incomes.
The deadline to submit applications is 11:59 p.m. Eastern Standard Time, April 19, 2022. Applications must be submitted through Grants.gov.
Potential applicants may submit a concept proposal for review by the agency to SM.USDA-RD.RISE@usda.gov no later than February 18, 2022.
For additional information, see page 71868 of the Dec. 20, 2021, Federal Register.
Applicants are encouraged to contact their nearest USDA Rural Development State Office ahead of the application deadline for more information about the program or the application process.
USDA Rural Development provides loans and grants to help expand economic opportunities and create jobs in rural areas. This assistance supports infrastructure improvements; business development; housing; community facilities such as schools, public safety and health care; and high-speed internet access in rural areas. For more information, visit www.rd.usda.gov.
If you’d like to subscribe to USDA Rural Development updates, visit our GovDelivery subscriber page
New Bulletin with Oral Health Resources Published
The National Maternal and Child Oral Health Resource Center (OHRC) recently published the “Oral Health Resource Bulletin: Volume 47.” The bulletin contains briefs, guidelines, manuals, standards, reports, and videos published in 2020 and 2021. Topics include the COVID-19 pandemic, data and surveillance, policy, professional and education practice, program development, public awareness and education, and systems integration. Resources include a toolkit on community water fluoridation, a user’s guide on teledentistry, and more.
Data Estimates from National Survey of Children’s Health Released
The Data Resource Center for Child and Adolescent Health (DRC), a project of the Child and Adolescent Health Measurement Initiative (CAHMI), under a cooperative agreement with the Health Resources and Services Administration’s (HRSA) Maternal and Child Health Bureau (MCHB), announced the release of the combined “2019-2020 National Survey of Children’s Health (NSCH) Child and Family Health Measures.” The combined 2019-2020 NSCH is the fourth multi-year dataset since the redesign of the NSCH in 2016 and includes data from 72,210 children ages 0-17 years. The combined 2019-2020 NSCH downloadable data sets and codebooks with constructed variables displayed in the DRC Interactive Data Query will be available in early 2022.
Pennsylvania to Fund Sexual Violence Prevention at Colleges and Universities
Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf announced that 34 institutions of higher education will receive up to $30,000 in funding to protect students from sexual violence. You can learn more about It’s On Us PA and add you name to the statewide pledge here. You can also read more about school-specific initiatives.
Biden Administration Announces Plans to Distribute Free At-Home COVID Testing Kits Through RHCs
The Biden Administration announced that they will be making 50 Million COVID-19 at-home testing kits available – free of charge – for distribution by Rural Health Clinics and Federally Qualified Health Centers to the communities they serve.
In September, President Biden announced that his administration was going to make 25 Million at-home COVID testing kits available free-of-charge to individuals receiving care at Federally Qualified Health Centers. National Association of Rural Health Clinic (NARHC) Executive Director Bill Finerfrock wrote a letter to President Biden on September 24 expressing disappointment that a similar effort was not being undertaken for patients living in rural underserved communities served by RHCs.
In the letter, Finerfrock said,
“While this is welcome news for the millions of low-income uninsured individuals who receive care from Community Health Centers, it ignores the millions of individuals who reside in rural, underserved communities who receive care from Federally Certified Rural Health Clinics (RHCs) or Critical Access Hospitals (CAHs).
We commend our CHC colleagues for the work they are doing to help meet the COVID testing needs of underserved individuals residing in urban areas, but it is Rural Health Clinics and Critical Access Hospitals that are meeting those needs in underserved rural America.
NARHC looks forward to working with your Administration to ensure that individuals living in rural underserved areas have access to free in-home COVID testing kits through their federally certified Rural Health Clinic.”
NARHC would like to thank the Biden Administration for recognizing that RHCs are an important part of our nation’s health care safety net and that RHCs play a vital role at ensuring access to quality health care for individuals living in rural underserved areas.
NARHC has been in touch with Administration officials about the distribution of these kits and how best to get these at-home testing kits into the hands of individuals living in rural underserved areas. The details on the distribution plan are still being worked out and NARHC anticipates being involved in these deliberations. However, it may be several months before the Testing Kits become available for distribution. As we learn more about how and when RHCs can access these COVID testing kits, we will share that information with the RHC community as soon as possible.