The Flex Monitoring Team released a new policy brief, Care Coordination and Community Partnerships for Cancer Care in Critical Access Hospitals. This brief presents data from a survey of 135 CAHs across the U.S. and provides specific data on care coordination services provided in CAHs and staff providing these services, as well as information related to CAH partnerships with community organizations in community cancer initiatives.
New Brief Highlights Changes to Urban Areas in Pennsylvania
The U.S. Census Bureau released an updated list of urban areas, boundary maps and other related material this month. Read more on our Research Briefs page or click here to go straight to the brief.
Census Bureau Updates
The 2017-2021 ACS 5-year PUMS were released this month. PUMS files allow data users to create custom estimates and tables that are not available through ACS pretabulated data products. Click here to explore options for accessing the latest data.
The Census Bureau released new social, economic, housing, and demographic statistics for the 118th Congress. The four Data Profiles are available for all 435 congressional districts and are available in the Census Bureau’s FTP site and through a web-based lookup tool on the ACS website.
The U.S. Census Bureau released new data tables from the 2016-2020 American Community Survey (ACS) highlighting the geographic mobility of people. Click here to learn more.
Click here to access the 2021 Current Population Survey (CPS), Civic Engagement and Volunteering (CVC) Supplement Microdata File. This is the most robust longitudinal survey about volunteerism and other forms of civic engagement in the United States.
 Among the findings in this brief from the Rural & Minority Health Research Center: Hispanic adults had the lowest health insurance rates; non-Hispanic Black individuals reported higher levels of forgoing medical care due to cost; non-metropolitan individuals ages 18-64 were more likely to report forgoing medication due to cost.
Summary: Physical activity is important in health promotion and disease prevention; rural-urban and regional disparities among adults in meeting the combined leisure time physical activity guidelines exist. Analysis of 2020 National Health Interview Survey data found a low proportion of U.S. adults met leisure-time aerobic, muscle-strengthening, and combined physical activity guidelines. Residents in larger metropolitan areas and in the West U.S. Census Bureau region were more likely than were those in less populated urban and rural areas or other regions to meet these guidelines. Rural residents might benefit from investments in structural capacity and policy, systems, and environment change to support leisure-time physical activity.
Suggested Citation: Abildso CG, Daily SM, Umstattd Meyer MR, Perry CK, Eyler A. Prevalence of Meeting Aerobic, Muscle-Strengthening, and Combined Physical Activity Guidelines During Leisure Time Among Adults, by Rural-Urban Classification and Region — United States, 2020. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep 2023;72:85–89. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.15585/mmwr.mm7204a1.
 This policy brief from the RUPRI Center for Rural Health Policy Analysis examines differences in COVID-19 mortality rates across rural-urban designations and stratifications by geography, county-level sociodemographic factors, and county-level health care factors. Between December 2020 and January 2021, COVID-19 deaths were at their peak, hospital capacity was stretched, and COVID-19 vaccines were not widely available, making this a critical time period to examine.
During the 90th meeting of the National Advisory Committee on Rural Health & Human Services (NACRHHS), members explored two topics of importance to rural areas. The first was access to emergency medical services in rural areas. The second was the integration of behavioral health and primary care services. This 75-minute webinar will highlight the rural context related to these topics, and discuss the policy brief and recommendations submitted to the Secretary of Health & Human Services. Update coming Tuesday, January 24 at 1:00 pm ET.
PCOH released the second part of a workforce report that uncovers some Pennsylvanians have wait times up to three years to receive dental treatment for tooth decay. The “Access to Oral Health Workforce Report” determined that the average wait time for a new dental appointment in PA is two months with an additional month wait to have a filling placed. Rural residents can face up to a two to three year wait. Over the last three years, Pennsylvania has been affected by a significant number of dental hygienists and dental assistants leaving dentistry as well as increases in dentist retirements. This has resulted in dwindling availability of dental appointments.
Early in the Pandemic, Private Insurers Paid Similarly for In-Person and Telemedicine Services, Including for Mental Health Therapy
Telehealth use surged as the COVID-19 pandemic hit, though the shift toward virtual physician and mental health care did not materially affect how much insurers paid for each patient encounter in 2020, a new KFF analysis finds.
Using data from the Health Care Cost Institute, the analysis examines nearly 100 million claims to compare the average paid amount for in-person and telehealth evaluation and management services and mental health therapies.
In each case, the average payments were similar in 2020.
The analysis suggests that the expanded use of telehealth services did not lead to significant cost savings early in the pandemic though likely provided other benefits by making services more convenient and accessible for patients. Whether insurers have continued to pay similar rates for telehealth and in-person services is not yet clear. The analysis also does not assess the extent to which the availability of telehealth substitutes for in-person services or leads to greater use of health care overall.
The analysis is available through the Peterson-KFF Health System Tracker, an online information hub that monitors and assesses the performance of the U.S. health system or by clicking here.
Check out our data webpage to access recent Pennsylvania KIDS COUNT® Data Center updates! We have updated information from various sources across the Economic Well-Being, Education & Health categories, including data from the American Community Survey, Small Area Income and Poverty Estimates, and Pennsylvania Departments of Education, Health and Labor & Industry.
 Researchers interviewed administrators and participants in 20 rural nurse practitioner residency programs to determine the effect of federal- and state-based programs on rural placement post-training. Though nurse practitioners make up one-quarter of the rural primary care workforce, few studies have investigated factors supporting their transition from training to practice.
