Developed with input from more than 60 family representatives, this SAMHSA guide helps families understand and navigate the mental health and substance use care system.
Navigating Mental Health and Substance Use Care: An Introductory Guide for Families walks caregivers through finding services, weighing treatment options and supporting a loved one across the whole family.
FDA Broadens Access to Over-the-Counter Naloxone Nasal Spray for Opioid Overdose
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved Rextovy, a 4-milligram over-the-counter naloxone nasal spray, for the emergency treatment of opioid overdose, adding a third nonprescription option that people can buy in pharmacies, convenience stores and online.
Officials said broader availability and market competition could lower costs and put the overdose-reversal medication in more hands as overdose deaths continue their recent decline.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General (HHS OIG) recently issued OIG Advisory Opinion 26-16, a favorable opinion addressing a health center’s “food-as-medicine” program.
The program provides eligible low-income patients with certain chronic conditions free produce boxes or healthy-food vouchers, together with nutrition counseling, health assessments, laboratory testing, and related clinical services.
Click here to learn more.
The Pennsylvania Department of Health (DOH) launched a new online dashboard to keep Pennsylvania families and communities informed about measles cases in the Commonwealth, including case details on county, age, and hospitalizations.
The new dashboard will be updated Monday, Wednesday, and Friday afternoons with the latest data available. In addition to the number of cases per county, the dashboard includes demographic data, hospitalization rate, and vaccination status of the cases.
On July 10, the Health Resources and Serviced Administration (HRSA) announced the “re-establishment” of the National Advisory Committee on Rural Health and Human Services (NACRHHS) and published a notice in the Federal Register re-establishing the committee’s charter, effective July 17, 2026.
The committee’s charter has been renewed through July 17, 2028, authorizing NACRHHS to continue advising the HHS Secretary on the provision and financing of healthcare and human services in rural communities. HRSA notes that the committee will consist of up to 15 members appointed by the Secretary, with the NACRHHS site noting that HRSA will accept nominations for new members “on a rolling basis throughout the year.”
Pennsylvania lawmakers passed a $50.8 billion state budget on on July 12, 2026, utilizing a “cycle roll” accounting maneuver to balance the books without dipping into the state’s rainy-day fund. This tactic involved delaying approximately $2.6 billion in payments to the state’s Medicaid managed care organizations – which manage health care for the majority of Pennsylvania’s Medicaid recipients – over a two-year period.
While House Appropriations Chair Jordan Harris, D-Philadelphia, maintained that the delayed payments would not impact services, Independent Fiscal Office head, Matthew Knittel, warned of potential cash flow issues for the managed care organizations and noted that the move does not resolve the state’s underlying problem of spending more than it earns.
The Primary Care Practitioner Program (PCPP) was flat funded in the state budget at $8.35 million. PCPP funds the state loan repayment program, the Pennsylvania Primary Care Career Center, the Pennsylvania Office of Rural Health, and other programs.
The Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) is notifying Primary Care Offices (PCOs) and Primary Care Associations (PCAs) of an update to the Maternity Care Target Area (MCTA) scoring methodology. This update is consistent with the May 7, 2026 Federal Register Notice of Criteria for Determining Maternity Care Health Professional Target Areas.
The update will be implemented as part of the August 15, 2026, Shortage Designation Management System (SDMS) release and requires no action from PCOs, PCAs, or stakeholders. Additional details are below.
HRSA appreciates your continued partnership in supporting the Shortage Designation program. Additional information about this update will be shared through standard program communications channels.
From Becker’s Hospital Review
Private insurance — not Medicare or Medicaid — is the biggest reason 720 rural hospitals are at risk of closing, according to the Center for Healthcare Quality and Payment Reform (CHQPR).
CHQPR’s analysis, current as of May 2026, found the hospitals, which represent about a third of all rural facilities nationwide, are struggling under three compounding financial problems: losses on patient services, insufficient revenue from other sources to offset those losses, and low financial reserves.
Three pressures land hospitals on the at-risk list.
CHQPR attributes closure risk to a combination of three problems compounding each other:
The real driver
Most proposed fixes for rural hospitals focus on raising Medicare or Medicaid payments or expanding Medicaid eligibility, CHQPR said, based on the belief that most rural patients are covered by public insurance or are uninsured. In reality, about half of the services delivered at the average rural hospital go to patients with private insurance, according to the report. CHQPR’s analysis of 2024-25 hospital cost reports found that, of the three payer categories that lose hospitals money — uninsured patients, Medicaid patients, and private-insurance patients — losses on private-insurance patients are the biggest single cause of at-risk hospitals’ overall losses.
Read the full report.
The Pennsylvania Health Care Cost Containment Council (PHC4) released the Cardiac Procedures Report today, displaying performance ratings and utilization data for several cardiac procedures performed in Pennsylvania acute care hospitals, hospital outpatient departments, and ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs) from January 1, 2023 through December 31, 2024.
The Hospital Results section of the report provides hospital-specific ratings for mortality, readmissions, and postoperative length of stay, as well as statewide Medicare payments for six cardiac procedures. The Volume Results section displays the total number of cases for hospitals and ASCs for all procedures. The various cardiac procedures include cardiac ablation, cardioversion, coronary artery bypass graft, defibrillator implantation, left atrial appendage closure, mitral valve procedure, pacemaker implantation, percutaneous coronary intervention, surgical aortic valve replacement, transcatheter aortic valve replacement, and tricuspid valve procedure.
PHC4 produced an interactive display, visualizing the data and supporting stakeholders by enabling ease of access to the total number of cases performed in inpatient and outpatient settings. This new online resource allows users to select a type of cardiac procedure from a drop-down menu and use a map to select facilities reported. Users will be able to quickly access the procedure types and/or facilities of interest. A drop-down menu by facility name is also available, which enables users to easily locate facilities performing specific procedures and the volume of the selected procedures.
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.
This resource describes community-led on opioid use in rural communities, through conversation, workshops, and other resources for addressing substance use disorder.
The University of Rochester Recovery Center of Excellence is one of three such centers funded through the Federal Office of Rural Health Policy’s (FORHP) Rural Communities Opioid Response Program (RCORP).
