The Pennsylvania Coalition for Oral Health (PCOH) collected and summarized data from free and charitable clinics that provided free dental care to Pennsylvanians in 2025.
Since 2018, we have collected annual data on free dental services to help measure the gap between funding provided and services needed, advocate for more state funding for dental services, and encourage participation of dentists accepting Medicaid. Thank you to the participating clinics!
A new, interactive Contraceptive Access Map from Power to Decide and the Guttmacher Institute provides county-level data on contraceptive care gaps. This tool helps health center leaders and providers better understand local needs and opportunities to improve access to contraceptive care. Additional information on contraceptive support can be found here.
Rural healthcare organizations are making critical technology investment decisions as value-based care continues to evolve. To support those efforts, the Rural Health Value team is pleased to share a new resource:
Rural Health Value Virtual Summit: Rural Healthcare Information Technology and Value-Based Care
Developed from a national convening of rural healthcare leaders, this report offers practical lessons and recommendations for leveraging health information technology (HIT) to support value-based care success. A key takeaway from participants: effective technology investments begin with people and processes, not technology alone.
Related resources on the Rural Health Value website:
Guide to Selecting Population Health Management Technologies for Rural Care Delivery
This guide from Rural Health Value that walks you through the process to plan for and implement technology to support better health management for patient populations.
MaineHealth ACO – Integrating and Using Data to Support Care Delivery
A predominantly rural network of hospitals and clinics in Maine integrates clinical and claims data to support improvements in care delivery and target patient needs as part of their Accountable Care Organization.
Rural Health Value facilitates the transition of rural healthcare organizations, payers, and communities from volume-based to value-based health care and payment models. Visit www.ruralhealthvalue.org. For more information, contact Clint MacKinney, MD, MS, Co-Principal Investigator, clint-mackinney@uiowa.edu
The Pennsylvania Health Care Cost Containment Council (PHC4) releases the Outpatient Procedures Report, displaying the volume of surgeries performed at Pennsylvania hospital outpatient departments and ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs) for 10 procedures that are commonly performed in the outpatient setting. The data included is from calendar year 2025 (January 1, 2025, through December 31, 2025) and is reported individually for each facility.
Displayed in the Outpatient Procedures Report, alongside individual facility name, county, and type of facility, are total surgical cases performed in 2025.
PHC4 produced an interactive display, visualizing the data in the Outpatient Procedures Report, supporting stakeholders by enabling ease of access and understanding of the report components. This new online resource allows users to select a type of procedure from a drop-down menu and use a map to select the reported facilities. One can look to gain insight into individual procedures and facilities, examine statewide volume, and interact with new online features. This ability to quickly locate facilities, access quality metrics, and identify choices serves PHC4’s mission to empower Pennsylvanians by making it easier to understand the value of its reporting and publicly available data.
PHC4 is an independent council formed under Pennsylvania statute (Act 89 of 1986, as amended by Act 15 of 2020) in order to address rapidly growing health care costs. PHC4 continues to produce comparative information about the most efficient and effective health care to individual consumers and group purchasers of health services. In addition, PHC4 produces information used to identify opportunities to contain costs and improve the quality of care delivered. For more information, visit phc4.org or review the resources and report here.
Researchers analyzed the 2024 National Survey on Drug Use and Health and found that estimates for prevalence of rural substance use were frequently higher than national and non-rural averages. This brief seeks to inform policies, strategies, and interventions that are tailored to rural communities, taking health-related differences and service gaps into account.
These findings underscore the importance of rural–urban data analysis and adequate rural representation in public health surveillance to better identify geographic variation, inform targeted policy and programmatic responses, and maximize community and population health. The findings come from JBS International, Inc., the technical assistance provider to grantees of the Federal Office of Rural Health Policy’s Rural Communities Opioid Response Program.
The Federal Office of Rural Health Policy-funded Rural Maternal Health Data Support program launched a new tool that allows users to build customized maternal health profiles for any selection of U.S. counties.
The repository includes indicators on population demographics, health care provider capacity, and maternal health outcomes, as well as state maps showing county-level availability of hospital obstetric services.
The primary purpose of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s research arm is to anticipate trends and emerging issues across four core areas under USDA’s purview: agriculture, food, the environment, and rural America. The ERS provides data and analysis to policymakers, evaluates Federal food and nutrition programs, and monitors factors that impact rural life and development. Recent reports include:
A new entry to the library of Models and Innovations at the Rural Health Information Hub (RHIhub) describes a program that sends trained outreach workers to meet with people experiencing homelessness in southern Rhode Island, connecting them to services, distributing food and clothing, and providing case management.
According to the 2026 Appalachian Region Commission (ARC) Chartbook, nearly 88% of Appalachian households have a broadband internet subscription. This lags behind the national rate of 91%.
Help ARC better understand broadband opportunities and challenges that impact Appalachia’s economic future by completing a short survey today! 🌐
Quick surveys are available for:
Interested in sharing more? Check out ARC’s events page for upcoming broadband virtual listening sessions. 📅
The CareQuest Institute for Oral Health released a report on the relationship between GLP-1s, or glucagon-like-peptide-1, and oral health.
With GLP-1 medications becoming increasingly common, it is important for dental providers to recognize the positive impacts as well as the risks.
