– Ongoing.  Through a cooperative agreement with the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), the National Rural Health Association (NRHA) supports technical assistance for rural hospitals to identify and address local health care needs and strengthen health care systems.  The overall goal of the program is to enhance hospital systems for improved efficiency and financial performance, bolster quality of care, and support communities.

The Economic Research Service (ERS) at the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) regularly updates data on population, income, poverty, food security, education, employment/unemployment, farm characteristics, farm financial indicators, and agricultural exports for all states and includes breakouts for rural and metropolitan areas.  County-level Data Sets include poverty estimates, unemployment, and median household income.  A separate ERS report examines the Trends and Patterns of Job Quality in the United States, including wages, employer sponsored health insurance coverage, and retirement benefits between 2000 and 2022.

The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) are amending their regulations to expand the circumstances under which practitioners registered by the Drug Enforcement Administration are authorized to prescribe schedule III-V controlled substances approved by the Food and Drug Administration for the treatment of opioid use disorder via telemedicine, including an audio-only telemedicine encounter. Under these new regulations, after a practitioner reviews the patient’s prescription drug monitoring program data for the state in which the patient is located, the practitioner may prescribe an initial six-month supply of such medications (split amongst several prescriptions totaling six calendar months) through audio-only means.

The Wright Center for Community Heath’s Clarks Summit and Mid Valley locations have learned national recognition from the National Committee for Quality Assurance for delivering top-quality, patient-centered care. Read more about the recognition.

Block grants, per Capita Medicaid funding, choices to expand Medicaid eligibility but receive less federal support, and Medicaid Work Requirements were hallmarks of the American Health Care Act which passed in the US House but failed in the US Senate in 2017. Per capita caps are fixed amounts of money per person enrolled in Medicaid that may or may not cover the cost of care. Block grants are a single lump sum to cover Medicaid expenses regardless of enrollment or cost of care. While some states have explored additional mechanisms to reduce the number of recipients by not expanding Medicaid to those in the coverage gap between 100% and 138% of the Federal Poverty Guidelines, more than 40 states have Medicaid Expansion, including Pennsylvania, with more almost 750,000 enrollees. Under the ACA, the federal government paid 100% of the cost of Medicaid expansion coverage from 2014 to 2016, with the federal share then dropping gradually to 90% for 2020 and each year thereafter, leaving states to cover the small remaining share. In 2014, Pennsylvania floated the idea of work requirements with gradual loss of coverage in year 2 if recipients were non-compliant, a mix of eligibility exemptions for special circumstances, and a 20-hour per week of work or 12 hours of job training. In 2018, analysts estimated work requirements would cost Pennsylvania Taxpayers 3.4 billion dollars over 6 years and would result in 85,000 consumers losing health coverage. With the current inflation rate, the cost would be over $4.2 billion and put more than 1.2 million at risk of losing coverage.  Pennsylvania has 2.9 million enrollees in Medicaid with 42% children and 33% representing people with disabilities, and pregnant women.

Consumer Affairs Journal of Consumer Research reports Pennsylvanians have the third most affordable healthcare costs in the United States. The state’s average combined annual costs for family coverage (premium plus deductible) are some of the lowest in the nation, and the state is the most affordable in other metrics like lower health insurance premiums and deductibles. According to recent polls from Kaiser Family Foundation, about half of US adults say it’s difficult to afford health care costs and 1 in 4 say they or a family member in their household had problems paying for health care in the past 12 months. Affordability is indicated as a barrier for many potential enrollees in coverage and the cause for disenrollment. Pennsylvania has taken steps to offer additional flexibility and afford options through Pennie, the state-based marketplace. Thousands have also benefited from Medicaid expansion for those falling between 100% and 138% of the Federal Poverty Limit. For more go to https://pennie.com/affordability/

Last week, Senators Tim Kaine (D-VA), Todd Young (R-IN), Jack Reed (D-RI), and Roger Marshall (R-KS) introduced bipartisan legislation to reauthorize the Dr. Lorna Breen Health Care Provider Protection Act, a law that had been successfully passed in 2022 to help prevent suicide, burnout, and mental and behavioral health conditions among healthcare professionals. Provisions of this law that made funding possible expired last year, and this new legislation would reauthorize grant programs for education on strategies to reduce burnout, peer-support programming, and mental and behavioral health treatments. Communities with a shortage of health care workers, rural communities, and those experiencing burnout due to administrative burdens will be prioritized. Read more about this bill.

Federal Poverty Level (FPL) guidelines are issued each year by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) based on information gathered by the Census Bureau. The Bureau uses that data to calculate the total cost of essential resources used by an average person in a year. FPLs are used to determine eligibility for certain programs and benefits, including savings on Marketplace Health Insurance, Medicaid, and CHIP coverage, as well as a basis for FQHC sliding fee scales. The 2025 guidelines establish $32,150 as the FPL for a family of four, a 2.9% increase from the previous FPL. View the full HHS chart.

Funding delays have pushed several community health centers nationwide to close or cut back on staff, citing issues accessing federal funding. The financial problems, the centers say, appear to stem from last week’s temporary domestic funding grant freeze and the implementation of new executive orders. Many grant programs, including Head Start and Title X, continue to experience financial shortfalls despite an injunction issued against the freeze. The community health center funding issues come as Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has targeted programs, grants and even entire agencies across the administration that it believes are not an efficient use of government funding. A White House spokesperson said the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the administration are aware of the problem, and that it isn’t related to DOGE. The system is up and running now, but some users are experiencing lags because of high volume of requests, which HHS is working to resolve, the spokesperson said. Click here to learn more.