The nonprofit Addiction Policy Forum explains the risks of fentanyl exposure and steps communities and families can take to prevent overdose. The evidence-based resources are available in 12 languages to ensure all communities have access to the information.

This guide from the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services covers the advantages of telehealth accreditation, clinical and technical standards, and educational and training standards.

The toolkit is intended to help Critical Access Hospitals (CAHs) and other rural providers improve workforce recruitment and retention efforts with resources that address four topics: organizational culture and leadership, leveraging partnerships, emergency medical services workforce, and administrative and support staff workforce. The Flex Monitoring Team is a FORHP-supported consortium of researchers who evaluate the impact of HRSA’s Medicare Rural Hospital Flexibility Program.

The Government Accountability Office (GAO), a federal agency that examines how taxpayer dollars are spent, issued a new report with recommendations on rural communities known as Colonias.  These are predominantly rural, Hispanic communities near the U.S.-Mexico border. Many have poor access to drinking water, inadequate sewage systems, and substandard housing.

– Submit by December 6. If you are a clinician or health official with a background in primary care, oral health, or mental/behavioral health, we invite you to apply for the National Advisory Council on the National Health Service Corps (NHSC). Rural communities are often the least represented on the board, and the NHSC wants your input! Self-nominations are accepted.

A study published in the Journal of Graduate Medical Education evaluates the outcomes of 25 grantees in cohort 1 of HRSA’s program to create new residency training programs in rural areas.  Results indicate sufficient success to support program continuation; about a third of placed residents were from the states where the residency programs are located, and these residency programs filled at similar rates as more established residency programs. View a list of RRPD grantees from 2019 to 2024.

On Tuesday of this week, HRSA and the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services announced new funding administered by the Federal Office of Rural Health Policy that will:

• Expand rural access to services for pregnant women and new mothers.  Cooperative agreements between HRSA and rural organizations within the federal Delta Regional Authority will help build community-level networks that support care coordination for perinatal health.
• Help rural hospitals stay open. Over the next three years, the Rural Hospital Stabilization Pilot Program will provide in-depth technical assistance to rural hospitals to enhance or expand service lines to meet local needs.
• Launch and expand services for SUD.  New awards extend the federal effort to improve access to treatment and recovery for substance use disorder (SUD) in rural communities in 13 states.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services is planning oversight of third-party healthcare vendors in the wake of the Change Healthcare cyberattack, said Jonathan Blum, the agency’s principal deputy administrator. Blum, who also serves as chief operating officer for CMS, said that the agency is working to determine what levers it can pull to ensure severe disruptions in care like those linked to the cyberattack on the UnitedHealth Group subsidiary aren’t repeated. CMS declined to provide any details of its oversight strategy, but said it is collaborating with other partners across the Health and Human Services Department to “promote high-impact cybersecurity practices and enhance accountability for healthcare organizations and their vendors.”

This week, the National Association of Community Health Workers introduced the CHWConnector tool where Community Health Workers and networks can share information, insights, and resources across social media platforms including Apple App Store, Google Plan and the Web. Stakeholders and partners created this tool to connect CHWs, on a state and local level to receive critical alerts related to public health emergencies and focus on policy and advocacy opportunities. The Connector is available in Spanish and has a toolkit. To join, go to www.CHWConnector.org

During the Public Health Emergency (PHE), Medicaid increased by almost 1 million enrollees in Pennsylvania. With the end of the Medicaid Continuous Coverage Requirement on April 1, 2023, enrollment in Medicaid began to steadily decline due to the disenrollment of those who were maintained due to the PHE and then deemed ineligible. In June, enrollment began to increase.  As of August 3, 2024,384 enrollees are accessing Medicaid with 22% of total enrollees from Philadelphia County, 8% from Allegheny, 4% from Delaware and Montgomery and 3% from Berks County. Of these numbers 58% are adults and 42% are children. This represents a 0.1% change over July 2024. Of note, CHIP Enrollment has increased as well to 195,320.