Research shows that communities of color, older adults, people with lower educational levels, and families of low-income are more likely to experience limited digital access. The Association of State and Territorial Health Officials (ASTHO) published a brief on how federal agencies and states are expanding digital access to improve digital equity and access to care through funding investments, unique partnerships and other innovative interventions. In addition, the ASTHO interview with Craig Settles, a broadband expert with more than 30 years of experience, explores ‘broadband redlining,’ how pervasive it can be, and why the solutions will need to be community-driven. The Health Resources and Services Administration’s National Organizations of State and Local Officials cooperative agreement provided support for these resources.
Medicare Covers a Lower Percentage of Outpatient Costs in Hospitals Located in Rural Areas
A new brief from the North Carolina Rural Health Research and Policy Analysis Center examines the difference in payments between rural and urban hospitals.
Click here to access the brief.
New Report: Oral Health Care of People with Special Health Care Needs
The Association of State and Territorial Dental Directors (ASTDD) released a report, “Best Practice Approach: Oral Health Care of People with Special Health Care Needs (SHCN).” People with SHCN often have complex medical and behavioral issues that require specialized training and appropriate settings to provide comprehensive oral health care. This report describes a public health strategy and uses practice examples to illustrate successful implementation.
Report: Provider and Public Perceptions of Silver Diamine Fluoride
Silver diamine fluoride (SDF) is highly effective in arresting the progression of active caries as well as preventing new lesions. It has been commonly used as a treatment for children, and many parents appreciate its ease of use. But SDF has downsides: it leaves a black stain on these lesions and may burn or stain the soft tissue surrounding them. How, then, do dental providers and patients view the treatment? A new visual report from CareQuest Institute for Oral Health offers details on their attitudes.
Rebuilding Children’s Oral Health Care
The National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) released a new legislative brief, “Rebuilding Children’s Oral Health Care.” It primarily covers state legislative action on children’s oral health over the last year. There is also background information on how COVID-19 has affected access to children’s oral health services.
ED Visits Involving Dental Conditions
The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) published a new statistical brief, “Emergency Department (ED) Visits Involving Dental Conditions, 2018.” This brief updates a similar report from 2009 and provides valuable information about dental-related ED visits. The brief reports that in 2018, there were more than 2 million dental-related emergency department (ED) visits, which represented 615.5 visits per 100,000 population. It is important to note that Pennsylvania is not one of the 40 states that participates in this database.
ERS: Rural Poverty Has Distinct Regional and Racial Patterns
A study from the Economic Research Service (ERS) at the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) found that, out of 310 counties with high and persistent poverty in 2019, 86 percent were rural. Nearly half of rural residents who identify as Black or African American and American Indian or Alaska Native lived in these persistent poverty counties; by comparison, 20 percent of poor Hispanics and 12 percent of rural non-Hispanic Whites resided in those counties.
Small Rural Hospital Blueprint for Performance Excellence and Value Published
With the assistance of the Federal Office of Rural Health Policy (FORHP) and Stratis Health, the National Rural Health Resource Center’s Technical Assistance and Services Center (TASC) is excited to share their new Small Rural Hospital Blueprint for Performance Excellence and Value.
For nearly a decade, the U.S. health care industry has been undergoing profound change in payment and service delivery; and growing increasingly complex. The past year has layered several additional opportunities and challenges including the need for pandemic and emergency preparedness, massive growth in the acceptance and use of telehealth, spotlighting of social needs as a core component of health, and the systemic and persistent disparities facing people of color. Small rural hospitals face the challenge of being successful in fee-for-service payment systems while preparing for and entering into value-based payment arrangements, at a time of financial stress and uncertainty.
The Blueprint is intended to be a tool to assist rural hospital leaders in implementing a comprehensive systems approach to achieving organizational excellence. It contains an outline of the key inter-linked components of the Baldrige Framework, along with critical success factors relevant to small rural hospitals. Challenges and strategies are also addressed.
New Study Places U.S. at Bottom of Health System Rankings
The U.S. health system trails far behind health systems in 10 peer countries when it comes to affordability, administrative efficiency, equity and health care outcomes, according to the Commonwealth Fund’s latest international rankings of high-income countries. Unique in measuring and comparing patient and clinician experiences across nations, Mirror, Mirror 2021 shows that in the U.S., an individual’s chance of getting good health care depends to a large extent on income — more so than in any other wealthy country. The U.S., which spends the most per person on health care, has ranked last in every edition of the report since 2004. And the U.S. has fallen even further behind on certain measures, especially health outcomes linked to primary care access and equity in care delivery. Read the report to get the complete health system rankings and discover what the U.S. could learn from other nations to improve health care for all Americans.
New Data: Oral Health Care in Children with Special Needs
Contemporary Pediatrics reported that data from the 2016-18 National Survey of Children’s Health showed 84% of children with special health care needs had received a preventive dental visit in the past year, compared with 78% of those who did not have special health care needs. While the study found that children with special health care needs did receive preventive care more often than children with special needs, also found children with special health care needs had higher rates of oral health problems.