- VA Announces Expansion of "Close to Me" Cancer Program as Part of the Cancer Moonshot, Bringing Cancer Diagnosis and Treatment Closer to Thousands of Veterans
- Navajo Psychiatrist Bridges Gaps Between Native American Culture and Behavioral Health Care
- 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
- Across the Country, Amish Populations Are on the Rise
- Using Medicaid to Address Young People's Mental Health Needs in School Settings
- 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
CDC: Reports to National Poison Data Center Related to COVID-19
In its most recent Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported an increase in chemical exposures related to cleaners and disinfectants for the period January-March 2020. Last week, the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services announced $5 million to support Poison Control Centers.
Read the report here.
HHS Launches New COVID-19 Workforce Toolkit
On April 22, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and the Assistant Secretary of Preparedness and Response (ASPR) released a new toolkit to help state and local healthcare decision makers maximize workforce flexibilities when confronting COVID-19 in their communities. The toolkit contains a number of “Resource Collections” on topics that have been of particular interest to rural providers including scope of practice expansions, licensure, EMS resources, and volunteer workforce needs, among other workforce and training resources.
HHS Launches COVID-19 Uninsured Program Portal
The U.S. Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) through the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), launched a new COVID-19 Uninsured Program Portal, allowing health care providers who have conducted COVID-19 testing or provided treatment for uninsured COVID-19 individuals on or after February 4, 2020 to submit claims for reimbursement. Providers can access the portal at COVIDUninsuredClaim.HRSA.gov.
Rural Development Community Facilities and Distance Learning Resources
Rural Development (RD) 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.
Select upcoming RD deadlines:
- Distance Learning and Telemedicine Grant Program – Application Deadline: July 13.
- Community Facilities Technical Assistance and Training Grant – Electronic Application Deadline: April 30, 2020 via grants.gov | Paper Application Deadline: May 5, 2020.
- Community Facilities Technical Assistance and Training Grant: Supplemental 2019 Disaster Relief Act Funding: Deadline: April 30, 2020 via grants.gov | Paper Application Deadline: May 5, 2020.
Pennsylvania Governor’s Administration Expands Food Recovery Infrastructure Grants to Help the Charitable Food System
Governor Wolf’s administration is making immediate changes to the Food Recovery Infrastructure Grant Program to help ensure food banks are adequately supplied to meet the needs of Pennsylvania residents.
Increased demand on the charitable food system related to COVID-19 has demonstrated an immediate need for resources to support additional cold storage space, and more flexibility and changes to this grant program. The changes also encourage partnerships between nonprofit organizations such as food banks and farms, processors and cooperatives that continue to experience challenges within the food supply chain as a result of the COVID-19 emergency.
Changes to the grant solicitation process include:
- Closing the round of grant eligibility on May 8 to review applications and deliver awards as soon as possible;
- Expanding the list of potential partners beyond retailers and wholesalers to also include farms, processors and cooperatives; and
- Removing pre-application meeting requirements to expedite applications.
To apply, the applicant must describe its current food recovery operation and explain how the food infrastructure equipment will enhance its current program. The organization must also provide a description of the proposed program and provide what food retailers, wholesalers, farms, processors and cooperatives will be partners for the project. Additionally, the organization must provide a description of how the program will be operated by staff and or volunteers.
The deadline to apply is Friday, May 8. Learn how to apply for the Food Recovery Infrastructure Grant Program.
Cities with the Biggest Growth in Unemployment Due to COVID-19 – WalletHub Study
With over 22 million jobs wiped out so far during the COVID-19 pandemic, WalletHub today released its report on the Cities with the Biggest Growth in Unemployment Due to COVID-19, along with accompanying videos.
In order to identify where workers have been most affected by the coronavirus pandemic, WalletHub compared 180 cities based on how their unemployment rate has changed over time. We compared unemployment during the latest month for which we have data (March 2020) to March 2019 and January 2020 in order to see the difference from the beginning of the year and from last year. Below, you can see highlights from the report, along with a WalletHub Q&A.
|
Most Affected Cities |
|
| 1. Seattle, WA | 11. Reno, NV |
| 2. Hialeah, FL | 12. Dover, DE |
| 3. North Las Vegas, NV | 13. Orlando, FL |
| 4. Miami, FL | 14. Port St. Lucie, FL |
| 5. Henderson, NV | 15. Salt Lake City, UT |
| 6. Las Vegas, NV | 16. Long Beach, CA |
| 7. Aurora, CO | 17. Santa Clarita, CA |
| 8. Denver, CO | 18. Los Angeles, CA |
| 9. Cleveland, OH | 19. Chicago, IL |
| 10. Colorado Springs, CO | 20. Fort Lauderdale, FL |
To view the full report and your city’s rank, please visit: https://wallethub.com/edu/cities-with-the-biggest-growth-in-unemployment-due-to-covid-19/73647/
Major-City Growth Slows, but That Doesn’t Mean a Rural Rebound
By Bill Bishop and Roberto Gallardo
Nearly 1.9 million people moved out of the central parts of major cities from 2010 to 2019. But they only got as far as the suburbs.
One of the undeniable facts of the past decade is that the nation’s biggest cities had the biggest gains in population.
But demographer Bill Frey has noticed a recent kink in the inexorable growth of the giant metropolitan areas, those with a million or more people. In a recent report for the Brookings Institution, Frey writes that “growth has diminished in recent years” in the nation’s largest cities.
“Major metropolitan areas with populations exceeding one million sustained the biggest growth slowdowns and, in several cases, population losses over the last four years, as have the urban cores within them,” Frey writes.
Does this mean there has been yet another “rural rebound,” with people fleeing cities for the countryside?
Rural Hospitals Worry $10 Billion Infusion from CARES Act Just a ‘Band-Aid’
By Liz Carey
As financial aid for hospitals begins to be deployed across the country, some of the rural administrators worry it’s only a temporary fix, not a long term solution.
Rural Counties Account for Increasing Share of New Covid-19 Cases
By Tim Marema, Bill Bishop and Tim Murphy
The percentage of the nation’s new Covid-19 cases that originated in rural counties more than doubled in the last month. The infection rate in rural counties remains significantly lower than the nation’s overall infection rate. But rural hotspots, plus a gradual increase across most nonmetropolitan counties, is making rural infections a greater share of the nation’s caseload.
HHS Launches COVID-19 Uninsured Program Portal
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), through the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) has launched a new COVID-19 Uninsured Program Portal, allowing health care providers who have conducted COVID-19 testing or provided treatment for uninsured COVID-19 individuals on or after February 4, 2020 to submit claims for reimbursement. Providers can access the portal at COVIDUninsuredClaim.HRSA.gov.
The Trump Administration is committed to ensuring that individuals are protected against financial obstacles that might prevent them from getting the testing and treatment they need for COVID-19. As part of the Families First Coronavirus Response Act and the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, health care providers can request claims reimbursement electronically through the COVID-19 Uninsured Program Portal and receive reimbursement, generally at Medicare rates for testing uninsured individuals for COVID-19 and treating uninsured individuals with a COVID-19 diagnosis.