The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) updated the Rural Health Clinic (RHC) all-inclusive rate for calendar year (CY) 2025. The payment limit per visit for independent and provider-based RHCs in hospitals with 50 or more beds is $152.00. The payment limit per visit for specified provider-based RHCs, with an April 1, 2021 established payment limit, that continue to meet the qualifications in section 1833(f)(3)(B) of the Social Security Act is the greater of these amounts: 1) Your payment limit per visit starting January 1, 2024, increased by 3.5 percent; 2) The national statutory CY 2025 payment limit per visit of $152.00. For more information see the Medicare Claims Processing Manual, Chapter 9, section 20.2 and Instruction to your Medicare Administrative Contractor.

 – Comment by February 17.  The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is soliciting comments to inform future decision-making regarding how the agency can best protect Medicare Beneficiary Identifiers (MBIs) and Medicare beneficiaries. MBIs have been targeted by individuals seeking to commit Medicare fraud, including the use of MBI lookup tools to commit MBI theft. CMS is seeking input and information related to the following topic areas:

• Organizations that operate an externally-controlled MBI lookup tool;
• Users of MBI lookup tools, both CMS-operated and externally-controlled;
• Potential benefit or impact of prohibiting or restricting externally-controlled MBI lookup tools;
• Safeguards or best practices from inside or outside healthcare that CMS should consider for preventing MBI theft and misuse.

Visit the link in the headline for more information and the full list of questions.  To provide comments, fill out and submit the survey by Monday, February 17.

This policy brief from the University of Minnesota Rural Health Research Center examines elements of state-level elder abuse statutes’ definitions and reporting requirements to investigate potential differences in these policies by state rurality.

Research and analysis from the Kaiser Family Foundation shows rural hospital margins continue to lag relative to urban hospitals, confirming prior findings on rural hospital financial status by the North Carolina Rural Health Research and Policy Analysis Center.

– Apply by February 11, 2025.  FORHP’s Community Based Division will make up to 15 awards to support clinics in reducing the morbidity and mortality associated with occupation related coal mine dust lung disease through the provision of quality medical, outreach, educational, and benefits counseling services for active, inactive, retired, and disabled coal miners. FORHP will hold a technical assistance webinar for applicants  on Thursday, December 19 at 1:00 pm Eastern.  A separate opportunity, HRSA’s Black Lung Data and Resource Center Program, also has a February 11 deadline and will award one cooperative agreement to strengthen the operations of Black Lung Clinics Program grantees with data collection and analysis. A webinar for Data and Resource Center applicants will be held  December 18 at 1:00 pm Eastern. If you were not able to join the webinars, you can request a recording by emailing BlackLung@hrsa.gov.

SAMHSA released a new national career navigator tool to help Behavioral Health professionals identify state-by-state job requirements for credentialing, licensing, and renewal information.

Surgeon General Murthy’s new report, Eliminating Tobacco-Related Disease and Death: Addressing Disparities, finds that, despite substantial progress in reducing cigarette smoking and secondhand smoke exposure in the overall population, progress has not been equal. These factors continue to cause nearly half a million deaths a year — nearly one in five of all deaths in the U.S. Visit the CDC’s website for related resources.

The Pennsylvania Department of Drug and Alcohol Programs (DDAP), in partnership with Penn State Harrisburg’s Douglas W. Pollock Center for Addiction Outreach and Research, Shatterproof, and PGP, also known as The Public Good Projects, announced findings from the fourth year of the Life Unites Us campaign, an evidence-based approach to reducing the stigma of substance use disorder (SUD). Life Unites Us is a people-forward, research-driven campaign that DDAP launched in Sept. 2020. The campaign utilizes social media to spread stories of individuals in recovery, their family members and allies who support those with SUD. Additionally, the campaign gives local organizations an opportunity to learn through webinars, fosters community partnerships to promote recovery-focused support at the local level, and maintains an interactive data dashboard detailing the campaign’s progress.

CMS recently released guidance to permanently extend SUD treatments and other improvements to Medicaid. Rules surrounding medications for opioid use disorder (MOUD) treatments, increased medical assistance at institutions for mental diseases (IMDs), and managed care provisions will now continue permanently beyond the original end date of Sept. 30, 2025.

HRSA published a final notice with updates to the criteria for defining rural areas. This notice responds to comments on the proposed inclusion of terrain factors published in April 2024. Changes implemented by this final notice took effect Nov. 21^st, 2024. FORHP uses this rural definition for determining rural health grant eligibility. This update incorporates a new Road Ruggedness Scale (RRS) from the Economic Research Service in the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The update also includes a technical clarification about treatment of Census Bureau-defined urban areas in the definition given the removal of the term Urbanized Areas following the 2020 Census. See How We Define Rural for more information. We are updating the Rural Health Grants Eligibility Analyzer at the end of the day on Nov. 21^st.