American Academy of Pediatrics Launches New Fluoridation Webpage

The American Academy of Pediatrics recently launched a new fluoridation webpage. It provides numerous downloadable resources for health professionals and families and tackles frequently asked questions including questions rooted in misinformation. The new webpage also includes videos about fluoridation, infographics, and posters that are able to be printed.

Click here to visit the webpage.

Updated Pennsylvania State Health Assessment Report Published

The Pennsylvania Department of Health Office of Operational Excellence recently published the updated 2023 Pennsylvania State Health Assessment (SHA). The report, “The State of Our Health: A Statewide Health Assessment of Pennsylvania,” was first published in August 2023. The report highlights the need for more dentists in Pennsylvania, especially for those enrolled in Medicaid. It also touches on the importance of oral health and dental caries as one of the most chronic diseases in the country. Thanks to the Pennsylvania Department of Health for including PA Coalition for Oral Health as a stakeholder for this important report.

Click here to read the updated report.

Listen to ‘Tradeoffs’: How the Loss of a Rural Hospital Compounds the Collapse of Care

The share of rural Americans who live in communities without a hospital grows each year. It’s part of an ongoing collapse in rural health care that has persisted for decades and isn’t improving, despite regulatory efforts to shore up small-hospital finances.

Since 2010, about 150 rural hospitals have shuttered and hundreds more have slashed services, leaving a growing number of America’s 60 million rural residents in health care deserts.

In this 2020 encore episode of the “Tradeoffs” podcast, Dan Gorenstein talks with KFF Health News chief rural health correspondent Sarah Jane Tribble about her yearlong effort to document the collapse of one rural Kansas community hospital. Nearly six years later, the residents of Fort Scott, Kansas, still live without a local hospital, a reality visited upon dozens more small towns in the years since.

“We’re talking about millions of lives affected by the kind of health care delivery that’s in these communities,” Tribble said. “Rural America, on a whole, is poorer, sicker and older than urban America. People whose lives are affected daily by chronic health issues.”

Listen to the episode here.

The Philadelphia Fed: Advancing an Inclusive and Resilient Region, Together

The Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia has created innovative programs to grow community capacity, share best practices, and foster the local connections essential to sustaining and expanding our progress in the future.

Below are just a few examples of this, which we look forward to building on in 2024:

  • The Anchors for Equity Research in Action Lab is exploring how anchor institutions, namely hospitals and higher education institutions, can align their business practices with community development goals, promoting inclusive economic growth and enhancing opportunities for underrepresented groups. We’re excited to support inaugural communities in Scranton, PA, and Atlantic City, NJ, as they partner with anchors to address local workforce challenges in 2024.
  • The Reinventing Our Communities (ROC) Cohort Program will launch in 11 communities across nine states in early February. The yearlong program encourages strong local economies by helping communities across the U.S. address structural racism and barriers to economic mobility. Cohorts of cross-sector community leaders participate in workshops and peer learning to gain skills and create a tailored racial equity plan to address local challenges.
  • The Worker Voices Project has provided new insights into how job seekers and workers in lower-wage roles navigated the labor market at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and through the recovery — and how it changed what they expect from a job. Learning about these workers’ firsthand experiences gives us a deeper understanding of economic conditions and labor market dynamics.

CMS Releases Latest Enrollment Figures for Medicare, Medicaid, and Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP)

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) released the latest enrollment figures for Medicare, Medicaid, and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP). These programs serve as key connectors to care for more millions of Americans.

Medicare

  • As of September 2023, 66,472,325 people are enrolled in Medicare. This is an increase of 134,147 since the last report.
  • 33,990,369 are enrolled in Original Medicare.
  • 32,481,956 are enrolled in Medicare Advantage or other health plans. This includes enrollment in Medicare Advantage plans with and without prescription drug coverage.
  • 52,204,330 are enrolled in Medicare Part D. This includes enrollment in stand-alone prescription drug plans as well as Medicare Advantage plans that offer prescription drug coverage.
  • Over 12 million individuals are dually eligible for Medicare and Medicaid, so are counted in the enrollment figures for both programs.

Detailed enrollment data can be viewed here: https://data.cms.gov/summary-statistics-on-beneficiary-enrollment/medicare-and-medicaid-reports/medicare-monthly-enrollment . The data now include counts of Part D enrollees receiving the low income subsidy.

Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP)

  • As of September 2023, 88,414,773 people are enrolled in Medicaid and CHIP. This is a decrease of 1,593,385 since the last report.
    • 81,408,432 are enrolled in Medicaid
    • 7,006,341 are enrolled in CHIP

For more information on Medicaid/CHIP enrollment, including enrollment trends, visit https://www.medicaid.gov/medicaid/program-information/medicaid-chip-enrollment-data/medicaid-and-chip-enrollment-trend-snapshot/index.html

Every state across the country is currently resuming their regular processes for renewing individuals’ Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) coverage. CMS’ goal is to help people stay connected to the coverage for which they are eligible. Read more about data related to renewals at www.medicaid.gov/unwinding-data

See the latest coverage totals across all CMS programs at https://www.cms.gov/pillar/expand-access. This information is updated on a monthly basis. Enrollment data for CMS programs are compiled on different timelines owing to the unique nature of each program.

CMS OCCHE Alert: Climate Change and Health Equity at HHS

CMS OCCHE will be launching a catalytic program  in January 2024 to support health care providers in taking advantage of the tax credits, grants and other supports made available by the historic Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) for projects to address climate change.

The legislation creates unprecedented opportunities for health sector organizations to make investments in clean energy, building efficiency, infrastructure resilience and more. OCCHE’s planned initiative will occur through collaboration with federal partners including the Environmental Protection Agency and Department of Energy and will feature national webinars as well as breakout sessions by provider type to help organizations assess their needs and opportunities.

You can SIGN UP NOW for national sessions (which will begin on January 25th), as well as breakouts for different safety net provider types (which will begin on February 1st), on the program website.

For more details on the initiative, check out the recording from our November 30th information session.

New Brief Published! Advancing Value-Based Payment Policies Relevant to Rural Areas

The Rural Health Value team is pleased to share a policy paper entitled Advancing Value-Based Payment Policies Relevant to Rural Areas – Continued Challenges and New Opportunities.

Building on RHV’s “How to Design Value-Based Care Models for Rural Participant Success: A Summit Findings Report,” this paper suggests potential Innovation Center and CMS policy opportunities to ensure that all fee-for-service Medicare beneficiaries will be in a care relationship with accountability for quality and total cost of care by 2030, and to ensure the inclusion of rural health care providers in CMS models, programs, and quality improvement initiatives.

Related resources on the Rural Health Value website:

New CMS Coverage to Care Resources Available!

The Coverage to Care initiative is excited to release several new and updated resources to assist with care management.

C2C updated and released Medicare chronic care management (CCM) resources for health care providers and patients to raise awareness of the benefits of CCM for Medicare patients with multiple chronic conditions and provide health care providers with information to implement CCM.

Understanding prescriptions is an important part of managing care. C2C also released a new resource focused on understanding prescriptions and drug coverage. View the Tips for Understanding Your Drug Coverage & Prescriptions resource.

Better Understand Your Drug Coverage & Prescriptions

Learning about drug list rules or restrictions, prescription cost, and prescription labels ensure patients, including those with chronic conditions, continue to feel confident in properly managing their care. View the Tips For Understanding Your Drug Coverage & Prescriptions (available in Spanish, with additional languages to be developed) to learn more about the prescriptions and services available under your drug coverage and how to understand your prescriptions once you have them.

Explore these chronic care management resources

  • Read the Tips for Understanding Your Drug Coverage & Prescriptions to learn more about your drug coverage and staying healthy with your medications. (English | Spanish)
  • Download the Chronic Care Management at a Glance fact sheet, which outlines the benefits of CCM, responsibilities for CCM providers, payment information, and more. (English | Spanish)
  • View the Chronic Care Management Presentation for Health Care Professionals to learn more about CCM and how to start a successful program in your practice. (English | Spanish)
  • Share the Chronic Care Management for You and Your Family poster with those you serve, which explains how CCM can help them manage their chronic conditions and outlines the requirements to enroll in CCM services. (English | Spanish)
  • Review the Chronic Care Management Toolkit to learn how you can successfully build out CCM services in your practice and to educate patients, colleagues, and communities about the importance of CCM. (Spanish coming soon!)
  • Consult the CCM Provider Checklist to help you stay organized when providing CCM to those you serve.
  • Help your patients understand how they can benefit from CCM by sharing the Chronic Care Management Video.

To learn more about Coverage to Care, visit https://go.cms.gov/c2c or sign up for our listserv.

Update: National & State Census Bureau Estimates

Nation & State Population Estimates

The U.S. Census Bureau released today estimates of the total population as of July 1, 2023, at the nation and state levels. Population estimates are calculated using administrative records to estimate components of population change such as births, deaths, and migration.

The nation showed a modest growth of 1.6 million (+0.5%) from 2022 to 2023. During that time, Pennsylvania experienced a slight loss of just over 10,000 (-0.1%) which was in line with the Northeast region overall (-0.1%). Pennsylvania was one of 8 states to lose population during this time. As of July 1, 2023, Pennsylvania continued to rank 5th highest among states based on total population.

View the full release HERE and access the data HERE.