Rural Health Information Hub Latest News

ARC Awards $16.9 Million to Grow Appalachia’s Infrastructure, Businesses, Workforce and Tourism Across 10 States

Five new Appalachian Regional Commission ARISE grants drive multi-state collaboration to transform the regional economy.

The Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC) announced $16.9 million in funding for five collaborative projects to expand the region’s infrastructure, tourism, business development and workforce opportunities. Funded through ARC’s Appalachian Regional Initiative for Stronger Economies (ARISE), these projects bring together more than 60 partners representing at least 270 counties across 10 Appalachian states—including one of Appalachia’s federally recognized Tribal Communities—to drive large-scale economic transformation. ARISE grantees announced today include:

Federal Co-Chair Gayle Manchin announced the awards during ARC’s 2024 Annual Conference in Chattanooga, Tennessee. She was joined by ARC’s 2024 States’ Co-Chair Governor Bill Lee and 600 federal, state and community leaders from across the 13-state Appalachian Region.

“By combining multi-state collaboration with innovative partnerships, ARC’s ARISE projects serve as models for how we can work as one, united Appalachia to maximize economic growth,” said ARC Federal Co-Chair Gayle Manchin. “I congratulate our newest ARISE grantees and am proud to have announced them in the presence of many of our federal, state, and local partners at ARC’s annual conference. I have no doubt that these ARISE projects—which include both planning and implementation grants—will build on previous successes and result in greater opportunities for our Appalachian people and communities.”

With today’s package, ARC has invested $88.2 million in 34 ARISE projects to support the development of new economic opportunities across all 13 Appalachian states.

Made possible through support from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, ARISE drives large-scale, regional economic transformation through collaborative multi-state projects.

To learn more about the new ARISE grantees, visit www.arc.gov/grants-and-opportunities/arise/arise-project-summaries/.

About the Appalachian Regional Commission
The Appalachian Regional Commission is an economic development entity of the federal government and 13 state governments focusing on 423 counties across the Appalachian Region. ARC’s mission is to innovate, partner, and invest to build community capacity and strengthen economic growth in Appalachia to help the region achieve socioeconomic parity with the nation.

Pennsylvania Action Coalition Refreshes, Introduces Pennsylvania Nursing Workforce Coalition

The Pennsylvania Action Coalition is excited to announce that as an outcome of the thorough strategic planning process that we engaged in over the past several months, we have a new 5-year strategic plan and we will be refreshing our brand as the Pennsylvania Nursing Workforce Coalition (PA-NWC)!

A few notes about this change:

  • We are calling this a “brand refresh” and not a “rebrand” because we want to be clear that the components of our structure are not changing. This includes the PA-NWC’s functioning as a program of the National Nurse-Led Care Consortium (NNCC), and our Advisory Board structure as a coalition with organizations as members and individual representatives.
  • We look forward to strengthening our position as Pennsylvania’s Nursing Workforce Center. The PA-AC has “housed” Pennsylvania’s Nursing Workforce Center since 2016 when we became a part of the National Forum of State Nursing Workforce Centers. The “brand refresh” is just making this work more front and center.
  • The PA-NWC will continue its strong relationship with the Future of Nursing reports and the Future of Nursing Campaign for Action. Our feedback expressed that one of our core strengths was our anchor in the national framework of the Future of Nursing’s goals and that our participants continue to feel connected to and inspired by its principles. Many other nursing workforce centers across the country are simultaneously their state’s Action Coalition and workforce center.

Learn more about our new strategic plan and the process that we followed at the link below! Stay tuned for additional materials and communications as well. We are excited to work with you in our new chapter as the PA-NWC.

NIH Now Accepting Extramural Loan Repayment Applications

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is now accepting applications for the Extramural Loan Repayment Program (LRP)! Awardees can receive up to $100,000 in qualified educational debt repayment with a two-year award.

To learn more about eligibility requirements, application dates, and the benefits of receiving an LRP award, be sure to visit the LRP website, check out our overview video, and attend one of our upcoming events:

Please note that the deadline to submit your Extramural LRP application is November 21, 2024.

USDA Launches Farmer Debt Consolidation Toolkit

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has launched the Debt Consolidation Tool, an innovative online tool available through farmers.gov that allows agricultural producers to enter their farm operating debt and evaluate the potential savings that might be provided by obtaining a debt consolidation loan with USDA’s Farm Service Agency (FSA) or a local lender.

See USDA Launches Online Debt Consolidation Tool to Increase Farmer and Rancher Financial Viability for the press release.

 

HRSA Announces Steps to Overhaul the Nation’s Organ Transplant System

The Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) announced that for the first time in the 40-year history of the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network (OPTN), the OPTN Board of Directors—the governing board that develops national organ allocation policy—is now separately incorporated and independent from the Board of long-time OPTN contractor, the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS). HRSA has awarded an OPTN Board Support contract to American Institutes for Research to support the newly incorporated OPTN Board of Directors.

These critical actions to better serve patients by breaking up the monopoly that ran the nation’s organ allocation system are part of the OPTN modernization plan announced by HRSA in March 2023. Prior to these steps, the national body responsible for developing organ allocation policy for the country—the OPTN—and the corporate entity contracted to implement the policy—UNOS—shared the exact same Board of Directors. The new board support contractor will be accountable to HRSA and will organize a special election for a new OPTN Board of Directors with a focus on eliminating conflicts of interest and ensuring that data, evidence, and the voices of clinical leaders, scientific experts, patients, and donor families are driving action and accountability. Moving forward, no member of the OPTN Board can sit on an OPTN vendor’s board of directors.

“Families anxiously waiting for a life-saving transplant for their loved one shouldn’t have to worry about how the system that determines who gets what organ is managed and governed,” said HRSA Administrator Carole Johnson. “That’s why we in the Biden-Harris Administration launched our major reform initiative to ensure patients, families, and clinicians have access to a best-in-class system that is fair, reliable, and transparent. Today’s announcements are an essential step forward in this work to make the system work better for patients and families.”

Under the Biden-Harris Administration, HRSA launched its Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network Modernization Initiative to address systemic issues that have plagued the national organ allocation system for years, including inequities in access to transplant, lost organs, conflicts of interest, system reliability issues, and lack of transparency.

Last year, the President’s Budget included both legislative and funding reforms to implement the Administration’s vision for reform, which bipartisan leaders in Congress embraced—leading to the enactment of the Securing the U.S. Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network Act in Fall 2023 and new appropriations commitments to implement the law.

With this new authority and funding, HRSA has worked swiftly to launch new opportunities to engage best-in-class expertise to support modernization. The OPTN Board Support contract awarded today will not only support the work associated with a new board election but also will provide logistical and governance support to the OPTN Board of Directors to improve the accountability and transparency of OPTN policymaking and governance processes.  Additional separate, multi-vendor contracts to manage various functions of the OPTN will be awarded in the coming months.

Appalachian Universities Accepted Into Research Initiative

Fall semester is here, and the Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC) is excited to announce the selection of 16 Appalachian colleges and universities to participate in the research program this year!

Since 2001, 30+ schools (and 3K+ students!) from across the region have participated in our Appalachian Collegiate Research Initiative.

This program gives students the applied research tools they need to solve economic development challenges in their communities. 🔎

The full list of this year’s participating schools is online now. Stay tuned for more information about each of their research projects!

Build Capacity With Appalachian Community Foundations

The Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC) is excited to announce that 30 local philanthropic organizations from across 10 Appalachian states have been selected to participate in READY Community Foundations, the fourth and final learning track of our READY Appalachia capacity-building initiative. ✨

Participating organizations will receive no-cost training to improve their programming, operations, fundraising and financial impact. Upon successful completion, they will be eligible to apply for up to $25K in funding (no-match required) for internal capacity-building projects.

All of the organizations serve at least one of the following:

Learn more about the participants and READY Community Foundations!

Crest and Oral-B Accepting Nominations for Promising Researcher Award

The Crest and Oral-B Promising Research Award promotes and recognizes excellence in oral health research. This annual award provides $5,000 to a promising researcher focused on preventive dentistry. Candidates must be enrolled in one of the following degree programs at an eligible institution: D.D.S., D.M.D., Ph.D. or equivalent, M.P.H., M.S., Advanced Dental Degree, or foreign-equivalent. The application deadline is September 16.

Click here for more information.

57% of Rural Hospitals Lack Maternity Care: 19 States with the Biggest Gaps

From Becker’s Hospital Review

In the past five years, over 100 rural hospitals have stopped delivering babies, contributing to the 57% of rural U.S. hospitals that lack labor and delivery services.

This finding comes from the Center for Healthcare Quality and Payment Reform. Its July report details the number of rural hospitals by state that lack maternity care services, those that do offer such services, the financial losses incurred from maternity care and the travel time to the nearest hospital providing OB services.

“Over 80% of pregnancy-related deaths are preventable with appropriate prenatal, labor & delivery, and post-partum care,” the CHQPR report notes. “Although improvements in maternity care are needed in all parts of the country to reduce mortality rates, one of the greatest challenges is in rural areas, because most rural hospitals are no longer providing maternity care at all.”

Of the 978 rural hospitals that offer labor & delivery services, almost 40% lost money on patient services overall in 2022 through 2023, meaning their ability to continue delivering maternity care is at risk.

Below are the 19 states with the highest percentage of rural hospitals lacking OB or maternity care. In each of these states, the percentage of rural hospitals without OB care exceeds the U.S. average of 57%. There are ties below, resulting in 19 states with 12 rankings for the greatest proportion of hospitals without OB care.

Readers can find CHQPR’s report on maternity care deserts among rural hospitals in full here.

1. Florida 
Total rural hospitals: 22
Number without OB services: 20
Percentage without OB services: 91%

2. North Dakota 
Total rural hospitals: 39
Number without OB services: 31
Percentage without OB services: 79%

3. Louisiana
Total rural hospitals: 56
Number without OB services: 42
Percentage without OB services: 75%

4. Illinois
Total rural hospitals: 74
Number without OB services: 55
Percentage without OB services: 74%

West Virginia
Total rural hospitals: 31
Number without OB services: 23
Percentage without OB services: 74%

5. Nevada
Total rural hospitals: 14
Number without OB services: 10
Percentage without OB services: 71%

6. Virginia
Total rural hospitals: 30
Number without OB services: 21
Percentage without OB services: 70%

7. Alabama
Total rural hospitals: 52
Number without OB services: 36
Percentage without OB services: 69%

Oklahoma
Total rural hospitals: 81
Number without OB services: 56
Percentage without OB services: 69%

8. Mississippi
Total rural hospitals: 72
Number without OB services: 49
Percentage without OB services: 68%

9. Arkansas
Total rural hospitals: 50
Number without OB services: 32
Percentage without OB services: 64%

Georgia
Total rural hospitals: 72
Number without OB services: 46
Percentage without OB services: 64%

Montana
Total rural hospitals: 55
Number without OB services: 35
Percentage without OB services: 64%

10. South Dakota 
Total rural hospitals: 49
Number without OB services: 31
Percentage without OB services: 63%

Pennsylvania
Total rural hospitals: 43
Number without OB services: 27
Percentage without OB services: 63%

11. Iowa
Total rural hospitals: 94
Number without OB services: 58
Percentage without OB services: 62%

12. Texas
Total rural hospitals: 164
Number without OB services: 97
Percentage without OB services: 59%

Kansas
Total rural hospitals: 100
Number without OB services: 59
Percentage without OB services: 59%

California 
Total rural hospitals: 58
Number without OB services: 34
Percentage without OB services: 59%