Rural Health Information Hub Latest News

New Data Available from Pennsylvania’s Health Care Containment Center!

The Pennsylvania Health Care Cost Containment Council (PHC4) has released quarter four 2024 data.  This data includes facility charges and treatment information from Pennsylvania hospitals and ambulatory surgery centers. Inpatient and ambulatory/outpatient administrative and revenue Q4 2024 data files are available for purchase.

First quarter 2025 data is scheduled to be released October 2025.

For a fee, businesses, organizations, or individuals can request from PHC4’s Special Requests unit standard “ready-to-use” data or custom data that is generated based on specific populations. The data can also be linked to other data sources, such as the Pennsylvania vital statistics data from the Pennsylvania Department of Health, to provide even greater value to you. Our analysts will work with you to meet the needs of your health care study or project.

By fostering a data-driven approach to health care, PHC4 envisions a healthier, more resilient society where resources are allocated effectively, and lives are improved. PHC4 aims to continue to serve its mission of empowering Pennsylvanians through transparency and welcomes you to review its public reports at phc4.org.

PHC4 is an independent council formed under Pennsylvania statute (Act 89 of 1986, as amended by Act 15 of 2020) in order to address rapidly growing health care costs. PHC4 continues to produce comparative information about the most efficient and effective health care to individual consumers and group purchasers of health services. In addition, PHC4 produces information used to identify opportunities to contain costs and improve the quality of care delivered.

For more information, visit phc4.org or contact Special Requests and click here to request data.

Media contact:

Barry D. Buckingham, Executive Director, PHC4, bbuckingham@phc4.org

Pennsylvania Managed Care Operations Memo: Dental Benefit Limit Exception Process Clarification: 

The Pennsylvania Department of Human Services (DHS) Office of Medical Assistance Program (OMAP) released an operations memo on June 25 to clarify the benefit limit exception (BLE) process and to ensure that more comprehensive services are covered for those who need it. They have also included a decision flow chart to help with the process.

Click here to view the memo.

New Report Examines School Dental Services and Medicaid Billing in Pennsylvania

We are pleased to announce the release of a new report, “School Dental Services and Medicaid Billing in Pennsylvania.” This PCOH report examines challenges and opportunities related to children’s access to dental care. The project aimed to assess the scope of dental services currently provided in public schools, identify barriers to implementation and sustainability, support schools in serving as access points for preventive care, and advocate for policy changes that would allow Medicaid reimbursement for services delivered in school settings.

This report was made possible through the generous support of the CareQuest Institute for Oral Health. We would like to acknowledge the contributions of Corinna Culler, RDH, DrPH, a PCOH consultant who served as the lead author.

The Rural Health Ecosystem Includes Broadband, EMS, and Busted Bridges

This article is part of a series titled Unpacking Rural Health: Stories and Systems Woven Across America. To start from the beginning, read the introduction here.

On Christmas night, a man in Pickens County, Alabama, began struggling to breathe. His family dialed 911—but the county’s only ambulance was on another call, nearly 40 minutes away having just dropped someone off in Tuscaloosa.

With no backup nearby and even medical helicopters grounded by fog, the nearest help wouldn’t arrive for over an hour. By then, Rodney Hall Sr. had passed away, his children watching in sorrow as time ran out.

Pickens County lost its only hospital in 2020—the closure not only cost a facility, but also crippled EMS funding and staffing. That night, a paramedic who’d served the county for 30 years said:

“If we were local… if we’d been in the county and gotten to the location in a timely manner, he would have survived. There’s no doubt in my mind about that.”

This wasn’t a breakdown by people—it was a breakdown by design. Rural EMS systems are stretched thin by long distances, limited staff, and logistical hurdles like weather or geography. No one planned for an hour-long wait on Christmas night. And the metrics and funding models didn’t either.

It’s not that emergency responders failed—it’s that the ecosystem around them wasn’t built to support their work.

Rural EMS response times are often twice as long as those in urban areas. Not because responders are any less trained or any less committed—they provide the same quality of care. But they’re doing it with fewer resources, over larger distances, and with a volunteer base that’s shrinking by the year.

Dispatch centers are centralized. Ambulances may be hours apart. And the EMT who shows up might have driven 30, 50, even 70 miles to get there—after finishing a full shift at another job.

That delay isn’t always fatal—but it often is. For cardiac arrest, trauma, or stroke, every minute lost cuts into survival odds. And for rural communities, the clock doesn’t start at the ER. It starts when someone calls 911 and waits.

When we talk about saving lives, we often focus on where care is delivered. But in rural communities, how they get there matters just as much. A well-trained paramedic can only do so much if the GPS signal drops. If the road is washed out. If the bridge is weight-restricted. If the cell tower fails.

And care doesn’t start at the ambulance door—it starts when someone makes a call. If there’s no broadband for telehealth, or no signal to call 911, that call might never go through at all.

That’s why rural health is more than medicine. It’s power lines and pavement. Cell towers and snow plows. Water systems. Road shoulders. The unglamorous stuff that makes healthcare possible—but never shows up in a grant report.

In rural places, health outcomes aren’t shaped by a single failure. They’re shaped by layers of small obstacles that build on each other—a quiet cascade.

A narrow bridge adds five minutes. A detour adds ten more. A poor connection delays dispatch. A lack of broadband means no GPS reroute. A broken-down ambulance means calling the next one over—which might already be busy.

Each barrier on its own might seem manageable. But stacked together, they gather speed like runoff down a slope—turning delay into danger.

Urban systems are built with buffers: alternate routes, more responders, backup units. But in rural areas, there’s often no plan B. And sometimes, not even a plan A that holds when pressure hits.

Not every rural community needs a hospital. Not every town needs a trauma center or a full surgical suite. But every rural community deserves a system that sees them—and reaches them.

That might look like broadband strong enough for telehealth, roads that stay open in the winter, or helicopter coverage for emergencies. It means local responders who are trained, supported, and close enough to make a difference.

Rodney Hall Sr. didn’t die because anyone failed him personally. He died in the space between systems—between the call and the ambulance, between the facility that closed and the one too far away.

We can’t design for the best outcomes if we don’t design for stories like his.

Because when we build systems for what rural actually is, we give people a real chance—not just to survive, but to thrive.

 

States Ranked by Share of Healthcare Workers

From Becker’s Hospital Review

West Virginia employs the largest percentage of healthcare workers compared to its total workforce of any U.S. state, according to a new analysis from KFF.

KFF examined May 2024 data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ State Occupational Employment Statistics Survey. The survey offers wage and employment estimates by state and industry for research purposes only and excludes self-employed workers.

Nationwide, 12% of workers were employed by ambulatory health care services, hospitals and nursing or residential care facilities.

Here’s how every state and the District of Columbia stack up:

Note: Colorado’s data was not included due to quality concerns tied to the state’s ongoing modernization of its unemployment insurance system.

  • West Virginia — 16% healthcare workforce share
  • New York — 15%
  • Maine — 14%
  • Pennsylvania — 14%
  • Rhode Island — 14%
  • Massachusetts — 14%
  • South Dakota — 14%
  • Louisiana — 14%
  • Ohio — 14%
  • Minnesota — 13%
  • Alaska — 13%
  • Connecticut — 13%
  • Delaware — 13%
  • Michigan — 13%
  • Indiana — 13%
  • Vermont — 13%
  • Florida — 12%
  • Idaho — 12%
  • New Jersey — 12%
  • North Dakota — 12%
  • Kentucky — 12%
  • Maryland — 12%
  • Missouri — 12%
  • Montana — 12%
  • Arkansas — 12%
  • Arizona — 12%
  • Kansas — 12%
  • United States — 12%
  • Mississippi — 12%
  • New Hampshire — 12%
  • Nebraska — 12%
  • Alabama — 12%
  • Tennessee — 12%
  • New Mexico — 12%
  • Oklahoma — 12%
  • Illinois — 12%
  • Iowa — 12%
  • North Carolina — 12%
  • Oregon — 11%
  • Wisconsin — 11%
  • South Carolina — 11%
  • Texas — 11%
  • California — 11%
  • Georgia — 11%
  • Virginia — 10%
  • Washington — 10%
  • Hawaii — 10%
  • Utah — 10%
  • Wyoming — 10%

CMS Seeks Input on the Estimated Burden to Meet Emergency Preparedness Requirements

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is announcing an opportunity for the public to comment on CMS’s intention to reinstate the information collection requirements established in the 2016 emergency preparedness rule. Specifically, CMS would like input on the burden for existing providers and suppliers to maintain their emergency preparedness requirements and for new providers to develop and implement the requirements. They also intend on adding Rural Emergency Hospitals to the list of facilities required to report.

Comments are due by August 19, 2025.

USDA and the National School Lunch Program Partnership Analyzed

The Economic Research Service at the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) breaks down the federal-state partnership that delivers meals to about 100,000 public and private not-for-profit schools.  The report examines supply and demand in the last decade, the flow of funding, and challenges during and after the pandemic.

Click here to read the report.

Latest Pennsylvania Farm Fatality Report Underscores Agricultural Hazards

In 2024, 19 people died of injuries suffered in farm-related incidents in Pennsylvania, according to researchers in Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences.

The Penn State Agricultural Safety and Health Program in the Department of Agricultural and Biological Engineering — which also is affiliated with Penn State Extension — releases the “Pennsylvania Farm Fatal Injury Summary” annually. Researchers and extension educators use these data to identify hazards and risks associated with agricultural production and to inform the development of trainings and resources.

The 19 farm-related deaths in the state last year is lower than the 25-year average of 28 deaths per year. However, agricultural fatalities can fluctuate significantly from year to year, and reported incidents may represent just the tip of the iceberg, experts noted, as injuries — another concern — are not well tracked.

Read more.