The U.S. Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) commissioned an in-depth look at the challenges and opportunities for this segment of the health care workforce that includes community health workers, behavioral health peer support, and home health aides. Forecasting a shortage across professions, the report identifies entry-level positions as one option for expanding community-level capacity while also increasing employment opportunities.
New Report from Rural Health Value: How to Design Value‐Based Care Models for Rural Participant Success
The Rural Health Value team recently released a Summit Findings report focused on design of value-based care models to support rural health organization participation and success.
How to Design Value‐Based Care Models for Rural Participant Success: A Summit Findings Report
Based on the input from a two-day virtual summit of rural participants in value-based care models and programs, this report summarizes themes and actionable recommendations that can be used by those designing and supporting value-based care models to improve the viability, relevance, and likelihood of rural health care organization participation and success.
Direct Link: https://ruralhealthvalue.public-health.uiowa.edu/files/Rural%20VBC%20Summit%20Report.pdf
Top resources on the Rural Health Value website:
- Let’s Talk about CHART – The Rural Health Value team has been hosting virtual discussions to help rural communities and stakeholders identify opportunities, questions, and potential next steps regarding the CMMI CHART Community Track Model.
- Value-Based Care Assessment – Assess capacity and capabilities to deliver value-based care. Receive an eight category readiness report.
- Physician Engagement – Score current engagement and build effective relationships to create a shared vision for a successful future.
- Board and Community Engagement – Hold value-based care discussions as part of strategic planning and performance measurement.
- Social Determinants of Health – Learn and encourage rural leaders/care teams to address issues to improve their community’s health.
Contact information:
Keith J. Mueller, Ph.D., Co-Principal Investigator, keith-mueller@uiowa.edu
Childhood Vaccination Rates Have Plummeted
The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has caused worldwide childhood vaccination rates for measles and polio to plummet, according to a November 2020 emergency call to action from the World Health Organization and UNICEF. Even when vaccines are available, the report says, people around the world have trouble accessing services because of lockdowns or fear of contracting COVID-19. If this issue is not addressed, it could lead to outbreaks of polio and measles. Nine million childhood vaccine doses may be missed in the U.S. in 2020. It is imperative that pediatricians make parents aware of established safeguards to prevent the spread of COVID-19, so that their children may continue to receive vaccines. Read more.
U.S. Maternal Death Rate Twice that of Other Developed Nations
The U.S. maternal death rate was 17 per 100,000 live births in 2018—more than double that of other developed countries according to a new report. There is an overall shortage of maternity care providers (including both obstetrician-gynecologists (OBGYNs) and midwives, but midwives in particular) relative to births, the report says. In most other countries, the number of midwives is several times greater than the number of OBGYNs and primary care “plays a central role in the health system.” Maternal deaths in the U.S. frequently occur post-birth, and the United States is the only studied country that does not guarantee access to provider visits or postpartum paid parental leave. Read more.
New Report Finds Nearly Half of All FQHC Patients Qualify for Phase One COVID-19 Vaccinations
For more than five decades, the nation’s community health centers have been a key part of broad scale immunization programs and will play an essential role in COVID-19 vaccination efforts. In a new analysis, researchers from the Geiger Gibson/RCHN Community Health Foundation Research Collaborative estimate that nearly half of all patients served by FQHCs qualify for phase one COVID-19 immunizations, following health care workers, residents of long-term care facilities and other essential workers, under priority guidelines established by the CDC. Health centers are uniquely positioned to reach deeply impoverished, disproportionately minority populations that face elevated health risks for COVID-19. Because of their deep roots in the community, health center clinicians are well positioned to address COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy concerns in historically underserved populations that may not trust the medical establishment, the researchers said. Targeting the highest-risk people and communities for COVID-19 vaccines and ensuring that they are effectively reached is a national public health priority, making FQHCs absolutely essential to a successful vaccine strategy, and funding support for health centers ever more crucial. Read, Nearly Half of Community Health Center Patients – an Estimated 14.1 Million of 29.8 Million People Served – Qualify for Phase One COVID-19 Vaccinations Because They Fall within the CDC’s Highest Risk Categories. Read the press release.
Report: Rural Counties’ Being Reclassified as Urban Can Mask Their Successes
Researchers from Montana say that the well-established narrative about rural decline tells only a part of the story. Looking at the counties that went from rural to urban reveals what propelled growth among some of the rural areas.
Research by Headwaters Economics shows we’ve been measuring rural growth wrong. As rural counties add population, they can grow out of their rural category and take their economic growth with them.
“Rural America is reported as declining in part because we no longer count as Rural those counties that grew into a Metro classification. We are measuring those counties that stay Rural which, by definition, have not grown,” stated the report.
The research showed that 48% of counties that were classified as rural in 1970 grew into metropolitan counties by 2018. But the ones that remained rural had their share of success as well. For example, the average poverty rate in rural counties overall dropped 26% between 1970 and 2018.
The team from Bozeman, Montana found commonalities among counties that switched from rural to urban and among those that remained rural.
While the majority of “switcher” counties are located close to existing cities, they are also more likely to have diversified economies and be home to a university.
Accountable Health Communities (AHC) Model – Two Rural Participants’ Experiences
This Rural Health Value Rural Innovation Profile describes the successes and challenges of two AHCs serving rural populations. The CMS Innovation Center Accountable Health Communities (AHC) Model seeks to identify and address health-related social needs of Medicare, Medicaid, and dual-eligible beneficiaries.
Medical Journal Highlights HRSA Initiatives in Maternal Health
HRSA staff contributed to a recently published special supplement to the Annals of Internal Medicine journal, to focus on evidence-based approaches to reduce maternal mortality and morbidity rates in the United States. Experts at HRSA contributed to the journal articles, which address specific HRSA maternal health initiatives, the impact of opioid use during pregnancy and issues faced by rural populations. External authors include partners from the University of Chicago, Stanford University, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the University of Utah and the World Health Organization.
New Study on Factors that Influence Children’s Healthy Development
The ability of 3- to 5-year-olds to practice self-control is an important developmental milestone predictive of later success. Dr. Reem Ghandour, an epidemiologist with HRSA’s Maternal and Child Health Bureau, collaborated with researchers at the CDC to examine the risks and protective factors that influence this aspect of a child’s development.
The newly published study, Factors Associated with Self-regulation in a Nationally Representative Sample of Children Ages 3–5 Years: United States, 2016, compared the qualities of parents who identify their preschoolers as “on track” to those “not on track” with this developmental skill. Children described as “on track” more often lived in financially and socially advantaged environments and less often experienced family adversity. Only half of children not “on track” received developmental screening and only 25% of children described as “not on track” received educational, mental health, or developmental services.
Learn more about the study, or contact Dr. Reem Ghandour.
HRSA Announces Highest HIV Viral Suppression Rate in New Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program Client-Level Data Report
A new report from HRSA released this week shows that clients receiving Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program medical care were virally suppressed at a record level – 88.1 percent – in 2019.
This means people with HIV who take medication daily as prescribed and reach and maintain an undetectable viral load have effectively no risk of sexually transmitting the virus to an HIV-negative partner. Led by HRSA’s HIV/AIDS Bureau, the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program Annual Client-Level Data Report, 2019, is the sixth annual publication of national client-level data from the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program Services Report (RSR).
The RSR is HRSA HIV/AIDS Bureau’s primary source of annual, client-level data reported by more than 2,000 funded Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program recipients and subrecipients across the United States. The publication provides an in-depth look at demographic and socioeconomic factors among program clients served, including age, race/ethnicity, transmission risk category, federal poverty level, health care coverage and housing status. The report also assesses the demographics of those receiving services and highlights the progress and disparities in HIV-related outcomes – particularly viral suppression.