On November 14, the Rural Health Information Hub launches a new resource developed in collaboration with the NORC Walsh Center for Rural Health Analysis with support from HRSA and the CDC. The evidence-based toolkit provides practical guidance for planning for, responding to, and recovering from disasters and emergencies. It also includes guidance and resources for different types of emergencies and considerations for special populations.
The Rural Health Clinic Program Reaches 45 Years.Â
 An article in The Rural Monitor looks at the history of this program which now has more than 5,000 clinics across the country. For a more brief overview, the Rural Health Information Hub provides a short video about the challenges and victories of RHCs, from their origins in the Rural Health Clinic Services Act of 1977, and into the present, as they continue to provide an array of vital services to rural communities.
Person-Centered Innovation – An Update on the Implementation of the CMS Innovation Center’s Strategy.
 This new report from the CMS Innovation Center provides an update on the Innovation Center’s progress in the implementation of its new strategy, describes areas of focus for the coming year, and begins the process of measuring progress against the strategy’s five objectives. This update includes a discussion of the Community Health Access and Rural Transformation (CHART Model). A companion supplemental document describes the rationale, methods, and limitations for each of the metrics, baselines, and targets described in this report. The supplemental document includes information on rural innovation models and the inclusion of safety-net providers like Rural Health Clinics (RHCs).
Racial Disparities in Maternal and Infant Health Read About the Current Status and Efforts to Address Them.
  A new paper from the Kaiser Family Foundation reports on data showing large disparities in maternal and infant health, the factors contributing to these disparities, and recent efforts to reduce them. Despite continued advancements in medical care, maternal and infant mortality rates in the U.S. are far higher than those in similarly large and wealthy countries, and disparities for people of color have only widened over time.  The brief identifies women who are Black, American Indian/Alaska Native, Native Hawaiian, and Other Pacific Islanders as those suffering consistently high rates of mortality with outcomes that worsened during the pandemic. Differences in health insurance coverage and access to care are known factors driving disparities. Less understood, but getting increased attention are significantly higher rates of mistreatment, such as shouting and scolding, and ignoring or refusing requests for help. Current federal efforts include expanded access to Medicaid coverage during the postpartum period and a $350 million investment through HRSA’s Maternal and Child Health Bureau.
Video, Telephone, and In-Person Buprenorphine Treatment for OUD During the Pandemic.
 A study of 17,182 patients from the Veterans Health Administration sought to determine if patient characteristics – age, race/ethnicity, comorbidities, housing status – made a difference in the effectiveness of telehealth-delivered buprenorphine for opioid use disorder (OUD). Effectiveness was determined by 90-day retention; three different telehealth modalities were examined, with each patient receiving at least one video visit, at least one telephone visit but no video, or only in-person. The study was conducted from March 23, 2020, to March 22, 2021, when policy shifted to allow greater use of telehealth to deliver a potentially lifesaving medication for OUD. Results showed significantly higher retention for patients using telehealth versus in-person visits, with higher retention observed in those with video visits. But patient characteristics made a difference in the type of telehealth used, and subsequently their retention in treatment. Among patients who received telehealth, those who were older, male, Black, non–service-connected, or experiencing homelessness and/or housing instability were less likely to have video visits.
CDC Updates Guidelines for Prescribing Opioids
 In their new 2022 Clinical Practice Guideline, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) provides updated evidence and research on the risks and benefits of prescription opioids for acute, subacute, and chronic pain. These include dosing strategies, tapering and discontinuation, comparisons with nonopioid pain treatments, and risk mitigation strategies. At 100 pages long, the guideline goes into some detail about the social, economic, and policy factors contributing to high rates of overdose death in rural areas, indicating that an integral part of effective pain treatment is understanding how social determinants of health influence the care provided to patients and the outcomes they experience.
Spread the Word About Health Insurance: Rural Week of Action
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has a collection of tools for helping individuals and families get health insurance during the Marketplace Open Enrollment period, November 1, 2022, through January 15, 2023. Graphics, social media messages, and customizable posters and fact sheets, are available in English, Spanish, Chinese, Korean, and Vietnamese. There are toolkits for specific audiences – e.g., Latino, Black, Asian, and Indigenous – that will be promoted each week until December 3.  Next week is the Rural Week of Action.
HRSA Celebrates National Rural Health Day this Week
Celebrate National Rural Health Day — November 14-18. Click to find details and register for events happening each day of the week:
- Monday – Mindfulness-Based Stress Mitigation in the Workplace
- Tuesday – Addressing Intimate Partner Violence and Human Trafficking
- Wednesday – FORHP Grantee Stories
- Thursday – HHS Leadership Panel on official National Rural Health Day
See the Events section below for additional NRHD events held by our partners and stakeholders.
View the New Nursing Workforce Dashboard that Has Been Released.
HRSA’s Bureau of Health Workforce (BHW) released a new nursing workforce dashboard. Users can access data from the latest National Sample Survey of Registered Nurses (NSSRN) through multiple visualizations that can be customized by nurse type, status, and area, all while experiencing native 508 compliance and accessibility in an intuitive, user-friendly dashboard.
CMMI Eyes Population-Based Models Aimed at Increasing Primary, Specialty Care Coordination
The Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation (CMMI) is eyeing population-based payment models aimed at increasing care coordination between primary care physicians and specialists, according to its updated strategic vision for value-based care. Other initiatives include accountable care organization (ACO) models that increase primary care access for Medicaid members, specialty-focused models, and improved ways to measure ACO results. Read More.