Provides an overview of the unique challenges rural communities face serving parents with substance abuse issues, including provider shortages, limited access to health insurance, transportation and technological barriers, and lack of routine cross-systems collaboration with the child welfare system. Offers strategies to overcome these challenges in rural communities.

Jan 14, 2020 — Discusses the projected decline in the number of physicians in rural areas, a Montana State University professor attributes the drop to minimal career opportunities for spouses, isolation, and lack of entertainment in rural areas. Describes how policy and recruitment programs have attempted to lure physicians to rural areas, but the need is more prominent as health disparities increase.

Feb 3, 2020 — Many rural residents struggle to access healthcare services, often traveling far distances, due to a shortage of providers. Features strategies used by medical schools across the country that encourage young doctors to practice in rural areas.

 

National Rural Health Association CEO Alan Morgan discusses his organization’s work on the national and global stages and shares his rural health predictions for 2020.

The 2019 Monitoring the Future Survey results were released in December 2019. Tracking annual drug use and attitudes among 8th, 10th, and 12th grade students, the survey noted encouraging trends such as prescription opioid misuse among teens continuing to decline and cigarette use down by approx. 20-30 percent compared to the mid- 1990’s. However, survey results show a continued dramatic increase in vaping.  Learn more and view the infographics here.

The State Health Assessment (SHA), originally published in 2013, reports on the health status of the population in Pennsylvania including factors that contribute to health issues, specific populations most impacted, and resources that can be mobilized to address population health improvement. During the past year, three sections were updated to show current health indicators and identifying trends that affect public health. The new sections, along with an updated introduction, can be found at the SHA web page.

The 2019 updates are:

• Major Risks and Protective Factors
• Maternal and Child Health
• Health Care Services

Updates from the Health Care Services section of the Pennsylvania Department of Health’s State Health Assessment (SHA) include information on health insurance coverage in the state. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act was signed into law on March 23, 2010. Expanded Medicaid took effect in Pennsylvania on January 1, 2015.

According to the Pennsylvania Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System survey results, the percentage of Pennsylvania residents reporting no health care coverage has decreased significantly since the act’s passage. Currently, nine percent of Pennsylvanians between 18 and 64 years old are uninsured. The highest rates of uninsured are among residents age 18 to 29, those with a high school education or less, those with family incomes below $25,000 annually, and black and Hispanic residents. Regionally, the highest rates of uninsured are in the northeast in Susquehanna, Wayne, Pike and Monroe counites; southcentral in Fulton, Franklin and Adams counties; and Philadelphia.

The Kaiser Family Foundation has developed a set of questions and answers to address key health and health care disparities.   Click here to access the Executive Summary.

Adults in the U.S. are visiting primary care doctors less often, according to a new study in the Annals of Internal Medicine, a trend that is troubling since primary care is there to keep people healthy.

The study, which focused on adults enrolled with a large commercial insurer, found that:

• Between 2008 and 2016, visits to primary care physicians declined by 24.2%, and nearly half of adults didn’t visit one in any given year by the end of the time frame
• Groups with the largest declines were young adults, adults without chronic conditions, and those living in the lowest-income areas

Meanwhile, visits to alternative facilities like urgent care clinics increased by 46.9%