Can the economic impact of anchor institutions across the state help in attracting global companies? Assist in developing plans for growing small businesses and creating jobs in underserved communities? Or uncover new ideas for potential partnerships with local hospitals and universities?

Higher education institutions and hospitals, so-called “eds and meds,” are two types of anchor institutions that researchers at the Philadelphia Fed are studying to learn more about how these public-serving institutions impact their local and state economies. This includes developing an interactive dashboard that allows users to explore the economic impacts of anchor institutions across 524 U.S. regions and state profiles that detail the economic impacts of anchor institutions state-level measures of anchor institution economic impacts.

Deborah Diamond, director of the Philadelphia Fed’s Anchor Economy Initiative, shares insights from three experts who are using data on the economic impact of anchor institutions to start conversations, support greater collaboration, and drive economic growth in their regions and states.

Read the article.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announces the latest annual release of the U.S. Cancer Statistics, the official federal cancer statistics, providing cancer information on the U.S. population. The data release is a culmination of a tremendous amount of effort by cancer registrars, reporting facilities, central cancer registry staff, and CDC NPCR and NCI SEER staff and contractors.

This year’s data release includes Minnesota’s county-level cancer case data for the first time. The data release also includes cancer deaths presented by single race group from 2018 through 2022. The USCS Stat Bites present incidence, mortality, prevalence, and relative survival statistics for the four most common cancers (breast, prostate, lung, and colorectal).

The data show that the number of new cancer cases diagnosed in 2021 was higher than in 2020 but was slightly lower than pre-pandemic trends. Read the USCS Data brief for highlights from the 2021 data.

How can I access the latest U.S. Cancer Statistics data?

• Data Visualizations Tool

Using the Data Visualizations tool, you can create and export presentation-ready trend graphs, maps, and tables by state, county, and demographic characteristics. Watch this video for an overview of the Data Visualizations Tool.

• Public Use Database

Researchers can use the public use database to take a deeper dive into cancer incidence and population data for the United States. With more than 37 million cases and 20 plus years of data available (2001 to 2021), this is a valuable resource for examining populations by demographic and cancer characteristics.

Questions? Please contact us at uscsdata@cdc.gov.

The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force released a final recommendation statement on interventions for high body mass index in children and adolescents. The Task Force recommends that healthcare professionals provide or refer children and teens to behavioral interventions to help them manage their weight and stay healthy. To view the recommendation, the evidence on which it is based, and a summary for clinicians, please go here.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is issuing this Health Alert Network (HAN) Health Advisory to notify healthcare providers, public health authorities and the public of an increased risk of dengue virus (DENV) infections in the United States in 2024. In the setting of increased global and domestic incidence of dengue, healthcare providers should take steps including:

·     Maintain a high suspicion for dengue among patients with fever and recent travel (within 14 days before illness onset) to areas with frequent or continuous dengue transmission.

·     Consider locally acquired dengue among patients who have signs and symptoms highly compatible with dengue in areas with competent mosquito vectors.

·     Order appropriate FDA-approved dengue tests and do not delay treatment waiting for test results to confirm dengue.

·     Know the warning signs for progression to severe dengue.

·     Recognize the critical phase of dengue. The critical phase begins when fever starts to decline and lasts for 24–48 hours. During this phase, some patients require close monitoring and may deteriorate within hours without appropriate intravenous (IV) fluid management.

·     Hospitalize patients with severe dengue or any warning sign of progression to severe dengue and follow CDC/WHO protocols for IV fluid management. 

From Becker’s Financial Management

Since January 2005, 192 rural hospitals have closed or converted, according to data compiled by the University of North Carolina’s Cecil G. Sheps Center for Health Services Research.

Of those hospitals, 105 have completely closed, and 87 have converted, meaning the facilities no longer provide inpatient services, but continue to provide some services, such as primary care, skilled nursing care or long-term care. Since 2020, 36 hospitals have closed or converted. Find the list here.

Here are the states along with their number of rural hospital closures or conversions since 2005:

Alabama

• Closure: 5
• Conversion: 2

Alaska

• Closure: 1

Arkansas

• Closure: 2

Arizona

• Closure: 2
• Conversion: 2

California

• Closure: 3
• Conversion: 6

Florida

• Closure: 4
• Conversion: 4

Georgia

• Closure: 2
• Conversion: 7

Illinois

• Closure: 1
• Conversion: 3

Indiana

• Closure: 2
• Conversion: 2

Iowa

• Closure: 1

Kansas

• Closure: 5
• Conversion: 5

Kentucky

• Closure: 4

Louisiana

• Closure: 2

Maine

• Closure: 2
• Conversion: 1

Maryland

• Closure: 1

Michigan

• Closure: 2
• Conversion: 2

Minnesota

• Closure: 3
• Conversion: 3

Mississippi

• Closure: 3
• Conversion: 3

Missouri

• Closure: 9
• Conversion: 1

Nebraska

• Closure: 2

Nevada

• Closure: 1
• Conversion: 1

New Jersey

• Closure: 1

New Mexico

• Closure: 1

New York

• Closure: 3
• Conversion: 2

North Carolina

• Closure: 6
• Conversion: 6

North Dakota

• Conversion: 1

Ohio

• Closure: 1
• Conversion: 2

Oklahoma

• Closure: 5
• Conversion: 3

Pennsylvania

• Closure: 3
• Conversion: 3

South Carolina

• Conversion: 4

South Dakota

• Closure: 2
• Conversion: 1

Tennessee

• Closure: 7
• Conversion: 8

Texas

• Closure: 14
• Conversion: 11

Virginia

• Closure: 1
• Conversion: 1

Washington

• Conversion: 1

West Virginia

• Closure: 3
• Conversion: 2

Wisconsin

• Closure: 1

 

As part of its mandate from Congress, the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC) reports each June on improvements to Medicare payment systems and issues affecting the Medicare program, including changes to health care delivery and the market for health care services. This year’s report addresses approaches for updating clinician payments and incentivizing participation in alternative payment models, rural considerations for network adequacy standards and prior authorization in Medicare Advantage, assessing health care utilization data sources for Medicare Advantage enrollees, paying for software technologies in Medicare, and Medicare’s Acute Hospital Care at Home program.

New data we released today (June 26, 2024) show that income, labor force participation and employment, educational attainment, and more continue to improve in Appalachia, while rates of poverty decline.

These new data come as part of our 14th annual update of The Appalachian Region: A Data Overview from the 2018-2022 American Community Survey, also known as “The Chartbook.”

For the third year in a row, more than half of small businesses in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware said their financial conditions were poor or fair. Their top operational challenges? Hiring or keeping qualified staff. Reaching customers or growing sales. Supply chain issues.

Distilling data from the Fed’s national 2024 Report on Employer Firms: Findings from the 2023 Small Business Credit Survey, these briefs offer a view into business conditions in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, the Philadelphia metro, and the Third District states overall (Delaware, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania).

Additional findings from the survey for Delaware, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania:

• More firms said they experienced no change in their revenues between 2022 and 2023 than did between 2021 and 2022.
• Fewer firms carried debt, although about the same number of firms applied for loans, lines of credit, or merchant cash advances compared with the previous year.

Read the briefs.

In March 2021, Jellico, TN, a town of about 2,000 residents in the hills of east Tennessee, lost its hospital, a 54-bed acute care facility. Campbell County, where Jellico is located, ranks 90th of Tennessee’s 95 counties in health outcomes and has a poverty rate almost double the national average, so losing its health care cornerstone sent ripple effects through the region.

“Oh, my word,” said Tawnya Brock, a health care quality manager and a Jellico resident. “That hospital was not only the health care lifeline to this community. Economically and socially, it was the center of the community.”

Since 2010, 149 rural hospitals in the United States have either closed or stopped providing in-patient care, according to the Cecil G. Sheps Center for Health Services Research at the University of North Carolina. Tennessee has recorded the second-most closures of any state, with 15, and the most closures per capita. Texas has the highest number of rural hospital closures, with 25.

Each time a hospital closes there are health care and economic ripples across a community. When Jellico Medical Center closed, some 300 jobs went with it. Restaurants and other small businesses in Jellico also have gone under, said Brock, who is a member of the Rural Health Association of Tennessee’s legislative committee. And the town must contend with the empty husk of a hospital.

Dozens of small communities are grappling with what to do with hospitals that have closed. Sheps Center researchers have found that while a closure negatively affects the local economy, those effects can be softened if the building is converted to another type of health care facility.

Read more.