This feature article in The Rural Monitor describes how an urban nonprofit organization collaborated with a regional health care system and a rural physician’s office to create a network that brings comprehensive cancer care to residents in rural Georgia. The Southeastern Rural Cancer Care Network used federal funds administered by FORHP’s Community-Based Division through the Rural Health Care Coordination Program.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced the Medicare Advantage (MA) Value-Based Insurance Design Model (VBID) is ending on December 31, 2025. CMS is ending the model due to negative financial performance. Through the model, participating MA plans have had greater flexibility in serving high needs and underserved beneficiaries, and many of the lessons learned from the model have been incorporated into the MA program as a whole. Upon the model’s end, some beneficiaries in VBID MA plans may need to select a new MA plan or go back to traditional Medicare in 2026.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) released guidance last month providing clarity on how Critical Access Hospitals (CAH) may leverage space sharing arrangements with other healthcare entities, such as private physician practices, to increase access to care and services within the community, while maintaining independent compliance with all applicable Conditions of Participation (CoPs).  Because CAHs must maintain a specified distance from another hospital or CAH, they cannot share space with these types of facilities.  This guidance explains how a CAH may share space with other types of health care providers through either a ‘time share’ arrangement or a ‘leased space’ arrangement and meet requirements of their CoPs.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) updated the Rural Health Clinic (RHC) all-inclusive rate for calendar year (CY) 2025. The payment limit per visit for independent and provider-based RHCs in hospitals with 50 or more beds is $152.00. The payment limit per visit for specified provider-based RHCs, with an April 1, 2021 established payment limit, that continue to meet the qualifications in section 1833(f)(3)(B) of the Social Security Act is the greater of these amounts: 1) Your payment limit per visit starting January 1, 2024, increased by 3.5 percent; 2) The national statutory CY 2025 payment limit per visit of $152.00. For more information see the Medicare Claims Processing Manual, Chapter 9, section 20.2 and Instruction to your Medicare Administrative Contractor.

 – Comment by February 17.  The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is soliciting comments to inform future decision-making regarding how the agency can best protect Medicare Beneficiary Identifiers (MBIs) and Medicare beneficiaries. MBIs have been targeted by individuals seeking to commit Medicare fraud, including the use of MBI lookup tools to commit MBI theft. CMS is seeking input and information related to the following topic areas:

• Organizations that operate an externally-controlled MBI lookup tool;
• Users of MBI lookup tools, both CMS-operated and externally-controlled;
• Potential benefit or impact of prohibiting or restricting externally-controlled MBI lookup tools;
• Safeguards or best practices from inside or outside healthcare that CMS should consider for preventing MBI theft and misuse.

Visit the link in the headline for more information and the full list of questions.  To provide comments, fill out and submit the survey by Monday, February 17.

This policy brief from the University of Minnesota Rural Health Research Center examines elements of state-level elder abuse statutes’ definitions and reporting requirements to investigate potential differences in these policies by state rurality.

Research and analysis from the Kaiser Family Foundation shows rural hospital margins continue to lag relative to urban hospitals, confirming prior findings on rural hospital financial status by the North Carolina Rural Health Research and Policy Analysis Center.

– Apply by February 11, 2025.  FORHP’s Community Based Division will make up to 15 awards to support clinics in reducing the morbidity and mortality associated with occupation related coal mine dust lung disease through the provision of quality medical, outreach, educational, and benefits counseling services for active, inactive, retired, and disabled coal miners. FORHP will hold a technical assistance webinar for applicants  on Thursday, December 19 at 1:00 pm Eastern.  A separate opportunity, HRSA’s Black Lung Data and Resource Center Program, also has a February 11 deadline and will award one cooperative agreement to strengthen the operations of Black Lung Clinics Program grantees with data collection and analysis. A webinar for Data and Resource Center applicants will be held  December 18 at 1:00 pm Eastern. If you were not able to join the webinars, you can request a recording by emailing BlackLung@hrsa.gov.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is accepting new applications for the Rural Community Hospital Demonstration. The demonstration tests cost-based reimbursement for Medicare inpatient services for small rural hospitals with fewer than 51 beds that are not eligible to be Critical Access Hospitals.

As part of a broader rural strategy initiative, CMS hosted a Rural Health Hackathon in August 2024 to collaboratively produce creative, actionable ideas to address health care challenges facing rural communities. This Request for Applications (RFA) is one effort to help address these challenges.

The RFA opens today, December 20, and the application is available on Rural Community Hospital Demonstration webpage. Hospitals interested must apply by 11:59 p.m. Eastern Standard Time on March 1, 2025. Hospitals currently participating in the demonstration do not need to complete a new application.

For the latest information on the demonstration, visit the Rural Community Hospital Demonstration webpage.

If you have questions about the demonstration, please email RCHDemo@cms.hhs.gov