Federal Office of Rural Health Policy Announcements

December 20, 2018

Funding Opportunities

NHSC: Students to Service Loan Repayment Program – EXTENDED to December 27.  The National Health Service Corps (NHSC) awards up to $120,000 to medical and dental students in their final year of school in exchange for a three-year commitment to providing primary care services at NHSC-approved sites in rural and underserved areas.  Review the 2019 Application and Program Guidance for more information on how to apply. In FY 2018, nearly 80 students were placed and are providing primary care services in rural areas through the NHSC Student to Service Loan Repayment Program.  The deadline for application has been extended one week to December 27 at 7:30 pm ET.

NIH High-Priority Research on Aging – Letters of Intent January 1.  The National Institutes of Health (NIH) names health and well-being of older residents in rural areas as one of seven high priority areas for behavioral and social research of relevance to aging.  Specifically, the NIH seeks to build “infrastructure support [that] will facilitate research networks through meetings, conferences, small-scale pilots, short-term educational opportunities (such as intensive workshops, summer institutes, or visiting scholar programs) to encourage growth and development” of aging-relevant research. Deadline for application is February 1. Continue reading “Federal Office of Rural Health Policy Announcements”

Federal Office of Rural Health Policy Announcements

December 13, 2018

What’s New

Rural Hospitals Selected for Assistance.  Nine small rural hospitals were selected to receive on-site technical assistance through FORHP’s Small Rural Hospital Transition Project (SHRT).  Selection was based on hospital leadership, commitment, and organizational preparedness for transitioning to alternative payment and care delivery models.  Technical assistance will target financial operational assessments and quality improvement. The SRHT Project is supported by a FORHP/HRSA contract to Rural Health Innovations, a subsidiary of the National Rural Health Resource Center.

New Projections for the Behavioral Health Workforce.  HRSA’s National Center for Health Workforce Analysis recently released its updates and projections for the nation’s behavioral health workforce from the year 2016 through 2030.   The report includes updated fact sheets and state-level projections on the supply and demand for eight occupations: addiction counselors, marriage and family therapists, mental health and school counselors, psychiatric technicians and psychiatric aides, psychiatric nurse practitioners and psychiatric physician assistants, psychiatrists, psychologists, and social workers.  There is a significant need for mental health services in rural America. According to the Results from the 2017 National Survey on Drug Use and Health, 19 percent of residents aged 18 or older in nonmetropolitan counties had Any Mental Illness (AMI) in 2017, approximately 6.8 million people. In addition, 4.9 percent, or nearly 1.7 million, of residents of nonmetropolitan counties experienced serious thoughts of suicide during the year. Visit the Rural Health Information Hub for programs, toolkits,  and other resources for behavioral health workforce in rural areas.

Continue reading “Federal Office of Rural Health Policy Announcements”

Washington University Webinar: Buprenoprhine Treatment for Opioid Use Disorder in Missouri

December 7, 2018

WEBINAR:     Buprenoprhine Treatment for Opioid Use Disorder

                           in Missouri Primary Care

WHEN:            December 14, 2018

TIME:               12:00pm-1:30pm

Register in advance for this meeting:

https://zoom.us/meeting/register/27892ba619c328bcc5b9141539e44ee6

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.

This video consultation will include:

1) Ned Presnall, STR Integration consultant: 20 minute didactic on the Medication First Model and evidence supporting integration of Opioid Use Disorder in primary care settings

2) Pete Pirotte, MD: 20 minute presentation on Jordan Valley’s program of buprenorphine treatment in an FQHC setting. Topics will include induction, patient flow, medical decision making, case management, and behavioral health treatment.

3) 45 minutes will be devoted to question/answer/discussion.

Providers from all RHCs and other primary care settings are encouraged to join this live video consultation whether you are already treating OUD and want to compare notes or would like to consider beginning OUD treatment.

Additional technical assistance for primary care OUD treatment implementation in Missouri is available.

Please contact Ned Presnall if you have any questions at: npresnall@gmail.com, or by phone at: 314-397-6805.

Federal Office of Rural Health Policy Announcements

November 29, 2018

 What’s New

USDA Report on Rural Individuals’ Telehealth Practices.  The Economic Research Service at the U.S. Department of Agriculture used detailed household data to analyze three basic telehealth activities as practiced by consumers age 15 or older: 1) online health research; 2) online health maintenance (communication with health providers, including communicating with medical practitioners, maintaining records, and paying bills); and 3) online health monitoring via devices that exchange data remotely with medical personnel.  The research found that rural residents were less likely than urban to engage in these telehealth activities, and the report breaks down the findings by income, education and other demographic factors.

Suicide Surveillance Strategies for American Indian and Alaska Native Communities.  The Suicide Prevention Resource Center (SPRC) is a federally-supported organization working to advance the National Strategy for Suicide Prevention.  This November 2018 report from the SPRC summarizes their findings on suicide prevention research, in an effort “to better understand how American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) communities can gather information about suicide—in ways that are feasible and culturally appropriate.”  The report acknowledges the difficulty of collecting data around the sensitive topic of suicide, and also that “each tribe is different and has its own unique culture, so what works in one community might not work in another.”  Their findings and recommended strategies are meant to form a foundation for suicide surveillance in tribal communities, but the report stresses that local adaptation is critical to success.  Earlier this year, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued research indicating that an estimated 70 percent of AI/AN who died by suicide lived in rural areas and more than a third of suicide deaths occurred among young people, ages 10-24 years.  See the Funding Opportunities section below for notices related to this topic. Continue reading “Federal Office of Rural Health Policy Announcements”

Federal Office of Rural Health Policy Announcements

December 6, 2018

What’s New

New Data on Suicide Mortality from the CDC.  Using data from the National Vital Statistics System (NVSS), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recently released a report on rates of suicide in the United States from 1999 to 2017.  The data brief ranks suicide as the second leading cause of death for people aged 10-34 and the fourth leading cause for ages 35-54.  For the most recent year studied, the age-adjusted suicide rate for the most rural counties was nearly twice (1.8 times) the rate for the most urban counties.  In a separate data brief from the CDC, the NVSS showed there were 70,237 drug overdose deaths in 2017.  The surveillance system found that, among persons aged 15 and over, adults aged 25-54 had higher rates than other age groups.  West Virginia, Ohio and Pennsylvania were the three states with the highest observed age-adjusted overdose death rates in 2017; the four states with the lowest rates were Texas, North Dakota, South Dakota and Nebraska.

New Federal Report: Reforming America’s Healthcare System through Choice and Competition.  The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) in collaboration with the Departments of the Treasury and Labor and the Federal Trade Commission collaborated to develop this report, which identifies challenges to and recommendations for improving the health care system.  It describes the influence of state and federal laws, regulations, guidance, and polices on choice and competition in health care markets and identifies actions that states or the Federal Government could take to develop a better functioning health care market.  Rural relevant issues addressed include scope of practice, workforce mobility, and telehealth.  Continue reading “Federal Office of Rural Health Policy Announcements”

HRSA – Rural Residency Planning & Development Grant Program

December 5, 2018

Rural Residency Planning and Development Grant Program

The Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) is accepting applications for fiscal year (FY) 2019 Rural Residency Planning and Development (RRPD) Program via Grants.gov.  The purpose of this grant program is to develop new rural residency programs or Rural Training Tracks (RTT) in family medicine, internal medicine, and psychiatry to support expansion of the physician workforce in rural areas. The new rural residency programs or RTTs are intended to be sustainable through separate public or private funding beyond the three-year RRPD grant period of performance. Up to 28 awardees also will receive technical assistance from the Rural Residency Planning and Development – Technical Assistance Center, which was awarded via cooperative agreement in September 2018, for the duration of the project period. Hospitals, medical schools and community-based ambulatory settings that have a rural designation along with consortia of urban and rural partnerships are eligible to apply for a grant award.  Applications are due March, 9, 2019.

HRSA has scheduled a technical assistance webinar to help you understand, prepare, and submit an application for this NOFO for Monday, December 17, 2018 from 2 – 3:30 pm ET.  The webinar will provide an overview of pertinent information in the NOFO and an opportunity for applicants to ask questions. Questions about this grant opportunity can be directed to Tracey Smith (tsmith@hrsa.gov) and Jemima Drake (jdrake@hrsa.gov).