Axios writes that health care in America is deeply unequal, and it might get worse. That matters because all of the innovation in the world won’t make any difference to patients if it’s unaffordable or inaccessible. “It’s not only inequities in access to the system, but then also differential experiences even within the system,” said Samantha Artiga, vice president and director of the Racial Equity and Health Policy Program at KFF. When you look at health outcomes, “you will see persistent and long-standing disparities in health … really from the beginning of life to end of life.” These disparities are evident in insurance, hospitals, prescription drugs, access, aging, mental health, addiction, workforce, and emerging technologies – all of which add up to inequity in life expectancy. Learn more.

The Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) has released the FY 2025 Budget Period Progress Report (BPR) Non-Competing Continuation (5-H80-25-001) for Health Center Program award recipients with a January 1 budget period start date. These award recipients have a BPR submission available for completion in EHBs with a deadline of 5:00 pm on Friday, August 16. Technical assistance materials and deadlines for all FY 2025 BPRs are available on the BPR TA webpage.

In December 2022, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) released its online tracking bulletin which was revised in March of this year. This bulletin restricted healthcare providers from using standard third-party web technologies that capture IP addresses on portions of their public-facing webpages. In response to the bulletin, many health centers removed website analytics like Google Analytics from their websites causing them to lose the ability to track the traffic and engagement on their own websites. Last week, a United States District Court Judge in Texas ruled in favor of the American Hospital Association (AHA), Texas Hospital Association, and hospital plaintiffs, who began their lawsuit in early 2024. The judge agreed that the HHS bulletin was unlawful and vacated the March 2024 revised online tracking bulletin. Read the full press release about the ruling on the AHA’s website.

The Pennsylvania Insurance Department’s (PID) Independent external review established by Act 146 of 2022 allowed PID to oversee the process of reviewing eligibility determinations. After customers complete an internal appeal process through their insurer for denied services, they can submit a review request online to PID at no cost detailing why their health plan should cover a service, treatment, or benefit. Once the request for external review is received by PID and processed, consumers will know within five business days if their denial is eligible for review. More than 100 Pennsylvanians successfully appealed denied services in the first six months of the launch of the process. Consumers with questions about this process should go to PID’s Consumer Services Bureau at pa.gov/reviewmyclaim or by calling 1-877-881-6388.

There is credible news that a Senate version of the Workforce Innovation Act (H.R. 7307) will likely be introduced in early July by Senator Wyden (D-OR) and Senator Blackburn (R-TN). Like the House bill, the Senate bill would scale up community-based workforce programs, including partnerships between Community Health Centers and schools, preceptorships, and career laddering programs. NACHC is currently working to add additional Republican cosponsors to the House bill and Republican co-leads to the Senate bill.

Pennsylvania’s unemployment rate remained unchanged over the month at 3.4% in May, the Department of Labor and Industry announced last Friday. This was the eighth consecutive month at 3.4%. The U.S. unemployment rate rose by one-tenth of a percentage point from its April rate to 4.0%. The state’s unemployment rate was one-tenth of a percentage point above its May 2023 level of 3.3%, while the national rate was up three-tenths of a percentage point over the year. Pennsylvania’s civilian labor force – the estimated number of residents working or looking for work – was up 9,000 over the month and hit a record high of 6.6 million. Pennsylvania’s total nonfarm jobs were up 19,800 over the month to a record high of 6,167,700, setting the tenth consecutive record high for Pennsylvania’s jobs count.

The House and Senate approved telemedicine legislation this week, sending the bill to the Governor for his signature. The legislation, SB 739, amends Title 40 (Insurance) of the Pennsylvania Consolidated Statutes, in regulation of insurers and related persons generally, providing for telemedicine. This legislation does not impact the telemedicine requirements for Medicaid recipients per MA Bulletin 99-22-02.

This resource from the nonprofit Grantmakers in Aging offers guidance on private nonprofit grant funds for rural aging work, with a look at the scale of current funding, rural assets, sustainability, and partnership building.  Issues related to rural aging are highlighted, including cultural sensitivities, transportation, broadband, housing, institutional care, and social isolation.

The FORHP-funded Rural Emergency Hospital Technical Assistance Center (the Rural Health Redesign Center) provides a recording of the June 6 webinar.  Technical experts discuss a new federal designation, the Rural Emergency Hospital, a provider type designed to address concerns that some rural hospitals would not be able to sustain operations and could be at risk of closure. The Rural Health Redesign Center provides free financial, clinical and operational assessments to facilities considering the REH designation to inform their decision making.   The session includes two CEOs who consulted with the Center and decided to convert, and one CEO who went through the process and decided against converting.

– Submit by July 10.  The Government Accountability Office (GAO) is accepting nominations for the Physician-Focused Payment Model Technical Advisory Committee (PTAC).  This independent federal advisory committee consists of eleven members from a wide-range of backgrounds who make recommendations to the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) on stakeholder-submitted physician-focused payment models and related topics. The group is supported by staff from the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE) within HHS.  Last year, the group held meetings in September addressing challenges facing patients and providers in rural communities, approaches for incorporating rural providers in provider-based total cost of care (PB-TCOC) model design, provider perspectives on payment issues related to rural providers in PB-TCOC models, incentives for increasing rural providers’ participation in PB-TCOC models, and successful interventions and models for encouraging value-based transformation in rural areas.