The Missouri Office of Rural Health and Primary Care has partnered with Stroudwater Associates to provide a 10-week webinar series for Missouri’s Rural Health Clinics, focusing on financial, operational, and strategic improvement. The one-hour webinars will be offered once a week, starting the week of April 12, 2021. All sessions will be recorded. Slides and recordings will be available on the Missouri Office of Rural Health, Rural Health Clinic webpage.
Rural Spotlight
7th National Telehealth Summit
October 4-5, 2021
Loews Miami Beach Hotel, Miami Beach, FL
Telehealth today is revolutionizing healthcare delivery through improved patient outcomes, reduced costs, and the ability to deliver the right care at the right time. Telehealth is continuing to advance and expand across the nation and globally, resulting in exciting, innovative and specialized new programs that are transforming patient centric care. Many organizations have embraced Telehealth and others are quickly following suit and planning to develop and implement their own Telehealth platforms.
Telehealth is at the forefront of today’s healthcare, and it is rapidly transforming the way traditional healthcare delivery is provided. It achieves the tenets of value-based patient driven care, enhances patient satisfaction, engagement and outcomes, and reduces healthcare spending. Telehealth and virtual care are evolving at a rapid pace and is facilitating changes in reimbursement and policy.
This is the only conference on Telehealth that will equip you and your organization with exciting and innovative practices, case studies and tools to succeed with implementing telehealth programs, expanding existing platforms, while reducing healthcare costs and improving patient outcomes.
April 1, 2021
Announcing the Health Center COVID-19 Testing Supply Distribution Program
To support President Biden’s National Strategy for the COVID-19 Response and Pandemic Preparedness and following on the successful announcement of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Mask Distribution Program, HHS and the Department of Defense (DoD) have partnered again. The Health Center COVID-19 Testing Supply Distribution Program will supply health centers and look-alikes with free rapid testing supplies, including point-of-care analyzers and test kits. This initiative again recognizes health centers as vital partners in community-based outreach efforts. The goal of this initiative is to ensure that health centers have access to supplies, materials, and real-time information needed to support COVID-19 testing.
The Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) will send a separate communication to health center and look-alike project directors and provide instruction on ordering needed supplies to provide rapid testing throughout the coming months. Health centers are encouraged to respond to the request for information projecting their testing needs. HRSA will work within provided resources to meet the demand across the program.
Over the next few days, HHS expects to add a new category to our COVID-19 FAQs webpage with FAQs about this program.
What’s New?
Fiscal Year 2022 Project/Designation Period Extensions
As you heard during last week’s Today with Macrae, HRSA will extend the project/designation periods of health centers in a 2- or 3-year project/designation period that ends in fiscal year (FY) 2022. Health centers receiving this extension will complete an FY 2022 Budget Period Progress Report/Annual Certification instead of a Service Area Competition/Renewal of Designation (SAC/RD) application.
Your health center will soon receive an extension if:
- Your project/designation period ends between October 1, 2021, and September 30, 2022, AND
- You did not receive an extension last year, AND
- You are not currently in a 1-year project/designation period.
For questions about extensions and FY 2022 required applications/submissions, contact the SAC or RD TA Teams via the BPHC Contact Form.
April 1, 2021
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is announcing the Community Health Access and Rural Transformation (CHART) Model ACO Transformation Track Request for Applications (RFA) release date is delayed from spring 2021 to spring 2022. The CHART Model aims to address disparities by providing a way for rural communities to transform their health care delivery systems by leveraging innovative financial arrangements as well as operational and regulatory flexibilities. This delay applies only to the ACO Transformation Track of the CHART Model. We will notify stakeholders of any updates via the CHART listserv, as information becomes available. Updates for the CHART Model will also be posted to the CHART Model webpage.
April 5, 2021
Preventing Chronic Disease has just released an entire collection of oral health articles. This collection represents the journal’s first ever full-collection focusing exclusively on oral public health. It also includes a guest editorial co-authored by Mr. Casey Hannan and Dr. Lorena Espinoza from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Division of Oral Health, RADM Tim Ricks, and Dr. Jane Weintraub. This editorial and collection of 8 articles discusses contemporary dental public health challenges and opportunities. These include inequities in access to dental care, disparities in prevalence of oral disease, the relationship between oral health and chronic diseases, and the impact of COVID-19 on access to oral health services and disease monitoring.
This editorial’s underlying foundation of the Healthy People 2030 oral health objectives provides solutions for improving oral health and overall health in the United States. The articles provide a snapshot of why oral health needs to be elevated as a policy priority by being integrated into discussions and policy decisions about health. Addressing the social, behavioral, and environmental determinants of health as part of oral health care offers a new approach to prevention and treatment.
April 1, 2021
The Behavioral Health Workforce Education and Training (BHWET) Program for Paraprofessionals develops and expands community-based experiential training to increase the supply of students preparing to become peer support specialists and other behavioral health-related paraprofessionals while also improving distribution of a quality behavioral health workforce.
A special focus is placed on the knowledge and understanding of the specific concerns of children, adolescents, and transitional-aged youth in high need and high demand areas at risk for behavioral health disorders.
April is National Donate Life Month, and the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) is celebrating the wonderful things that happen when someone who needs an organ transplant finds a match! Join HRSA as they celebrate and honor the generosity of organ, eye, and tissue donors, donor families, as well as the lives saved through donation. This year’s theme is “Garden of Life.” Sow seeds of hope in the Garden of Life by sharing the following message and graphic with the communities you serve.
Thank you for all you do to promote organ donation and encourage more donor registrations!
This #NationalDonateLifeMonth, be part of a lifesaving ecosystem. Sign up to sow seeds of hope and save lives—register as an organ, eye, and tissue donor. organdonor.gov/register
Date: May 6, 2021
National Health Service Corps (NHSC) Loan Repayment Programs Application Webinar
Thursday, April 1, 2021
2:00 PM – 3:30 PM CST
Join the webinar
NHSC Loan Repayment Programs Application Online Q & A Sessions
Thursday, April 8, 2021, Tuesday, April 20, 2021, & Tuesday, May 4, 2021
8:00 AM – 4:00 PM CST
Ask a Question
The NHSC is accepting applications through Thursday, May 6, 2021, at 7:30 PM ET for three loan repayment programs: NHSC Loan Repayment Program, NHSC Substance Use Disorder Workforce Loan Repayment Program and NHSC Rural Community Loan Repayment Program.
Thinking about applying? Make plans to participate in one or more of the events below to learn how the NHSC can reduce your educational debt and get answers to questions about eligibility, loan documentation, service requirements, or the application process.
April 5, 2021
Community Care Clinicians Can Take an Online Training Program to Learn How to Better Serve Women Veterans
The Veterans Administration (VA) is dedicated to ensuring that women Veterans get the gender-specific care they need, no matter where they receive their health care. Women Veterans have unique health care needs that may require different assessments, care and resources. For example, issues such as military sexual trauma, musculoskeletal pain and post-deployment readjustment can differently impact women Veterans. To get the highest-quality care, women Veterans must have access to clinicians who are trained in women’s health.
Community health care clinicians may not be aware of special areas of concern that need to be addressed when caring for women Veterans. To address this need, the VA Office of Women’s Health has created a training module “Caring for Women Veterans,” which trains community care clinicians to provide Veteran and gender-specific care. Clinicians who take this course will learn to:
- Recognize how the evolving role, increasing number, and diversity of females in military service impacts their changing medical care needs.
- List the key components of a military history while understanding how a woman Veteran’s service might affect her current or future health.
- Recognize the gender-specific, clinical manifestations of common Veteran health issues including pain syndromes and mental health disorders.
- Apply strategies for integrating patient-centered, sensitive care into the pelvic exam of a woman Veteran who has experienced military sexual trauma.
This web-based course is one-hour, available 24/7 and offers JA-IPCE, ACCME, ACCME-NP, ANCC, ASWB, AAPA, ACPE accreditation to health care teams, doctors, nurses, social workers, pharmacists, nurse practitioners, and physician assistants.
If you care for women Veterans, take this training to learn more about the unique health needs of women Veterans: Access the course now by clicking here.