The Pennsylvania House Republican Policy Committee hosted a public hearing this week to discuss rural health care challenges and proposed solutions. The goal of the hearing was two-fold: to gain greater insights into the challenges facing rural health care facilities and discuss potential policy solutions to ensure rural residents have affordable and accessible care when they need it. The virtual hearing featured testimony from hospital administrators, including those from UPMC Kane, UPMC Cole, Warren General Hospital and Kaleida Health; area health care providers; and rural health care advocacy organizations. Pennsylvania Acting Secretary of Health Keara Klinepeter also testified. Click here to watch the hearing and read the written testimony.
Repeal or Retool? States Assess Certificate of Need Laws
Certificate of Need (CON) laws are state regulatory mechanisms for approving major capital expenditures and projects for certain health care facilities. In a state with a CON program, a state health planning agency or other entity must review and approve projects like establishing a new health care facility or expanding a facility’s health service capacity in a specified area. CON programs primarily aim to control health care costs by restricting duplicative services and determining whether new capital expenditures meet a community need.
Click here for more information and to access an interactive map of all 50 states.
Health Care Guidelines Announced to Improve Care for Women and Children
Updates Will Result in Additional Services with No Out-of-Pocket Cost, Including Expanded Coverage for Breast Pumps and Adolescent Suicide Risk Screening
The U.S. Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) announced that the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) has updated comprehensive preventive care and screening guidelines for women and for infants, children, and adolescents. Under the Affordable Care Act (ACA), certain group health plans and insurance issuers must provide coverage with no out-of-pocket cost for preventive health services within these HRSA-supported comprehensive guidelines. Among a number of updates, for the first time the guidelines will require such group health plans and insurance plans to provide coverage without a co-pay or deductible for double electric breast pumps.
HHS is also releasing a new report from the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE) highlighting how the ACA has increased access to preventive care for millions of Americans, including vaccinations, contraception, and cancer screening. The ASPE report estimates that more than 150 million people with private insurance, including 58 million women and 37 million children, are receiving preventive services with no cost-sharing, as required by the ACA.
Spread the Word About Vaccine Boosters
The U.S. Department of Health & Human Services released new resources – posters, flyers, videos, and talking points – to help promote the extra protection from COVID-19 boosters. All vaccinated adults aged 18+ are eligible for a booster. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) expanded booster eligibility to include adolescents ages 12 to 17, recommending that they receive a booster shot five months after their initial vaccination.
The CDC also released a new resource, based on input from rural health departments and organizations, with 12 strategies to increase vaccine uptake in rural communities (pdf). Search by zip code to find nearby locations providing adult and pediatric vaccines and boosters for COVID-19 and the flu at vaccines.gov.
Biden-Harris Administration Awards $103 Million in American Rescue Plan Funds to Reduce Burnout and Promote Mental Health and Wellness Among Health Care Workforce
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), through the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), announced $103 million in awards to improve the retention of health care workers and help respond to the nation’s critical staffing needs by reducing burnout and promoting mental health and wellness among the health care workforce. These awards will fund evidence-informed programs, practices and training, with a specific focus on providers in underserved and rural communities. The funds, secured through the Biden-Harris Administration’s American Rescue Plan, will be disbursed to 45 grantees.
COVID-19 has compounded rates of depression and anxiety among health care workers. The relentless physical and emotional demands of treating patients during a pandemic have exacerbated longstanding barriers to workplace well-being. While the challenge is complex, these multi-year awards will support proven strategies for health care providers, academic institutions, and other recipients to reduce burnout and build resiliency. These strategies will include the creation of partnerships and utilization of local resources to directly support health professionals’ response to workplace stressors, and provide training to help individuals manage the constantly changing, high-stress environment of health care.
“Now more than ever, it is critical to support the well-being of our health care workforce, who are working every day to protect each of us,” said HRSA Administrator Carole Johnson. “Today’s awards will provide new tools to help support our health professionals’ resilience as they continue to face the stress and challenges of responding to COVID-19 and other health care needs and provide high quality care.”
HRSA is making these awards through three programs:
- Promoting Resilience and Mental Health Among Health Professional Workforce – HRSA is awarding $28.6 million to 10 grantees to help health care organizations establish, improve, or expand evidence-informed programs and practices to promote mental health and well-being among the health workforce, including their employees.
- Health and Public Safety Workforce Resiliency Training Program – HRSA is awarding $68.2 million to 34 grantees to support tailored evidence-informed training development within health profession and nursing training activities. This curriculum will help reduce burnout and promote resilience among health care students, residents, health care professionals, paraprofessionals, trainees and public safety officers, such as firefighters, law enforcement officers, and ambulance crew members.
- Health and Public Safety Workforce Resiliency Technical Assistance Center – HRSA is awarding $6 million to George Washington University to provide tailored training and technical assistance to today’s awardees.
See a list of the award recipients here: https://bhw.hrsa.gov/funding/health-workforce-resiliency-awards.
Evaluating the Rural HIV/AIDS Planning Program
Evaluating the Rural HIV/AIDS Planning Program. This policy brief from the Minnesota Rural Health Research Center examines the experiences of the first grantee cohort of the Rural HIV/AIDS Planning Program, that began work in 2020. The evaluation focuses on what helped or hindered the program’s implementation and on factors that can inform the planning for future grants.
HRSA Seeking Nominations for Migrant Health Advisory Council
Members of the National Advisory Council on Migrant Health serve four-year terms to advise the HHS Secretary on the selection, funding, and operation of Migrant Health Centers. Seven positions of the 15-member council are currently open. See the Federal Register notice for more details on eligibility; nominations will be accepted on a continuous basis. Click here for more information.
USDA Seeks Applications for Technical Assistance to Expand Access to Safe, Affordable and Equitable Housing for Farmworkers
U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Under Secretary for Rural Development Xochitl Torres Small announced that the Department is inviting applications for technical assistance grants to help organizations apply for funding to develop decent, safe, affordable and equitable housing for year-round and migrant or seasonal domestic farmworkers.
The Department is offering priority points to applications for projects that advance key priorities under the Biden-Harris Administration: in particular, projects that will help communities recover from the COVID-19 pandemic, advance equity and combat climate change. These extra points will increase the likelihood of funding for projects seeking to address these critical challenges facing people living in rural America.
USDA will make $1 million in grants available for eligible nonprofits through the Off-Farm Labor Housing Technical Assistance Grant Program. These nonprofits may use the funds to provide technical expertise, information, and services to help organizations complete USDA loan and grant applications to develop decent, safe, affordable, and equitable housing for farmworkers.
Electronic applications must be submitted by 5:00 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time on March 21, 2022. For additional information on how to apply, see page 3071 of the Jan. 20, 2022, Federal Register or Grants.gov.
USDA Rural Development provides loans and grants to help expand economic opportunities and create jobs in rural areas. This assistance supports infrastructure improvements; business development; housing; community facilities such as schools, public safety and health care; and high-speed internet access in rural areas. For more information, visit www.rd.usda.gov.
If you’d like to subscribe to USDA Rural Development updates, visit our GovDelivery subscriber page.
Statement by CMS Administrator Chiquita Brooks-LaSure On the U.S. Supreme Court’s Decision on Vaccine Requirements
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is extremely pleased the Supreme Court recognized CMS’ authority to set a consistent COVID-19 vaccination standard for workers in facilities that participate in Medicare and Medicaid. CMS’ vaccine rule will cover 10.4 million health care workers at 76,000 medical facilities. Giving patients assurance on the safety of their care is a critical responsibility of CMS and a key to combatting the pandemic.
Vaccines are proven to reduce the risk of severe disease. The prevalence of the virus and its ever-evolving variants in health care settings continues to increase the risk of staff contracting and transmitting COVID-19, putting their patients, families, and our broader communities at risk. And health care staff being unable to work because of illness or exposure to COVID-19 further strains the health care system and limits patient access to safe and essential care.
CMS is already implementing its health care worker vaccination rule in 25 states and territories that were not covered by preliminary injunctions. Today’s decision will enable us to fully implement this rule, and we look forward to working with health care providers and their workers to protect patients. We will continue our extensive outreach and assistance efforts encouraging individuals working in health care to get vaccinated.
CMS is disappointed in the decision on the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) Emergency Temporary Standard, and agrees with President Biden and Secretary Walsh: This is a major setback for the health and safety of workers across the country.
The bottom line is that vaccine requirements work and are an important tool to protect patients – and also to keep our health care workers healthy. We’ve already seen many health care providers successfully implement requirements for their staff. We look forward to working with health care providers to get their workers vaccinated. Protecting vulnerable patients across the country from the devastating effects of COVID-19 remains a top priority for the Biden-Harris Administration and CMS.
Additional Background:
Health care workers and others interested in learning more about or obtaining a COVID-19 vaccination can visit https://www.vaccines.gov/ for additional information.
As a result of today’s decision, health care providers subject to the Omnibus Health Care Staff Vaccination rule in the 24 states (Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Utah, West Virginia, and Wyoming) covered by this decision will now need to establish plans and procedures to ensure their staff are vaccinated and to have their employees receive at least the first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine.
Today’s decision does not affect compliance timelines for providers in the District of Columbia, the territories, and the 25 states where the preliminary injunction was previously lifted. See the guidance released on December 28, 2021, for additional information.
Increasing Female Dentists Improves Health Equity
A study conducted by the Oral Health Workforce Research Center (OHWRC) at the University of Albany’s Center for Health Workforce Studies found that increasing the number of female dentists in the workforce improves health equity. The study, “Evaluating the Impact of Dentists’ Personal Characteristics on Workforce Participation,” found that the percentage of active dentists who are women is increasing with the mean age of female dentists as significantly lower than that of male dentists. Female dentists were also more likely to be racially/ethnically diverse compared to male dentists.