- Ways and Means Members Put Forth Solutions to Strengthen Telehealth Access and Improve Health Care for Rural Communities
- In Rural Texas, ERs Are Facing a Growing Mental Health Crisis
- Sage Memorial Hospital in Navajo Nation Constructs New Facility to Improve Health Care
- How the State, Tribes and Federal Government Are Working to Curb SD's Syphilis Epidemic
- Rural Children Struggle to Access Hospital Services, Say Researchers
- RPHARM Program Fulfills Need for Rural Pharmacists
- A Pilot Program in Rural Vermont Hopes to Build a Blueprint for Substance Abuse Recovery
- Farmers Don't Do Mental Health
- Biden-Harris Administration Announces Critical More Than $1.5 Billion State and Tribal Opioid Response Funding Opportunities
- Outlining the Intersection between Health Care and Missing and Murdered Indigenous People
- USDA Rural Development Seeks Input to Improve Access to Grants and Help More Communities Thrive
- Rural Telehealth Extension Reintroduced in Congress
- The South Was the Center of Rural Population Growth Last Year
- Students From Across the State Emphasized the Need for Mental Health Resources in Rural Alaska During a Conference
- How HHS SUD Confidentiality Regulations Will Impact Rural Providers
HHS: All Provider Relief Funds Must be Used by July 31, 2021
In an FAQ published on July 30, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced that all funding received from the Provider Relief Fund must be fully expended by July 31, 2021. Any funds not fully expended by that date must be returned to HHS. The FAQ is under the heading “Terms and Conditions” on the FAQ website.
Public Charge Regulation Back in Effect with Exceptions
The public charge litigation roller coaster continues. On July 29, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York issued a nationwide injunction blocking the federal government from implementing the public charge rule during the COVID Public Health Emergency. Then on Aug. 12, a Circuit Court judge narrowed the District court’s ruling, applying the injunction only in New York, Connecticut and Vermont. The regulation’s status may continue to change as other cases work their way through the courts.
Judge Blocks Attempt to End Transgender Health Protections
A federal judge this week blocked an effort by the Trump administration to erase protections for transgender patients against discrimination by doctors, hospitals and health insurance companies, dealing a blow to the broader legal reasoning it has used to try to roll back transgender rights across the government. Read more.
State Releases Health Disparity Report
In mid-April, Gov. Tom Wolf and Lt. Governor John Fetterman announced the creation of a COVID-19 Response Task Force for Health Disparity to help communicate issues about how the pandemic is affecting the state’s minority and marginalized populations. After months of weekly meetings and outreach from task force members to marginalized community members, the task force completed its report and presented it to the governor earlier this week. The report includes six recommendations focused on these policy topics related to health disparity, ranked in order of urgency: housing, criminal justice, food insecurity, health disparity, education and economic opportunities. According to the report, each area either directly or indirectly affects the health of Pennsylvanians and must be addressed to appropriately remove the disparities that have existed for generations and have only been exacerbated by the pandemic. The work of the task force will help inform an internal steering committee on dismantling racism that Gov. Wolf established recently. Read the Governor’s press release.
Pennsylvania Set to Launch Contact Tracing App
This week, the commonwealth announced plans to launch a coronavirus exposure-notification app in early Sept. to more quickly break chains of transmission by using the new technology to notify people who may have been exposed. The state has a $1.9 million contract, using federal grant dollars, to deploy and maintain the app with software developer NearForm Ltd, the Ireland-based company whose app there has been downloaded by more than one-fourth of that country’s residents. The app is based on smartphone technology developed by Apple and Google, and will undergo a pilot project next week using state government employees and public health students, staff and faculty. In Sept., you can find the COVID Alert PA app for free to download in the Google Play store or Apple App store. This app is voluntary, but the more Pennsylvanians age 18 and older who adopt the app, the more successful efforts can be. The app does not enable any location services and is designed to be completely anonymous.
NACCHO National Profile of Local Health Departments
The National Association of County & City Health Officials (NACCHO) received funding support from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to profile approximately 2,800 local health departments (LHDs) across the country. Each LHD is coded as urban or rural based on the population it serves. Find more information here.
NIHB: Resources for Adverse Childhood Experiences in Indian Country
The National Indian Health Board (NIHB) provides information, tools, and resources to help tribal communities learn about and respond to these ordeals. The resource hub was created in collaboration with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
SAMHSA Training and Technical Assistance Related to COVID-19
The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) created this list of resources, tools, and trainings.
Catch-Up to Get Ahead on Childhood Immunizations
In support of National Immunization Awareness Month, the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services recently launched Catch-Up to Get Ahead: A National Immunization Initiative for Children. This campaign aims to increase childhood immunization rates in the wake of significant declines due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Use messages and graphics in the Catch-Up to Get Ahead Toolkit to help spread awareness to parents and caregivers.
Federal Resources to Improve Living at Home in Rural Areas
On Wednesday, three federal departments – the Departments of Health & Human Services, Agriculture, and Housing and Urban Development –released a joint informational bulletin summarizing the federal resources available to improve home safety for older adults and people with disabilities in rural areas. It describes how states can improve accessibility of home environments through Medicaid, programs that can facilitate home repair and modification, initiatives to reduce and prevent falls, resources to support aging in place, and loan opportunities for mortgages and housing repair.