Date: June 16, 2022

HRSA Rural Communities Opioid Response Program – Medication-Assisted Treatment Access – Applications Due July 29. The Health Resources and Services Administration’s (HRSA) Federal Office of Rural Health Policy will make approximately 10 awards of up to $1 million per year to establish new access points for Medication-Assisted Treatment (MAT) in rural areas. Applicants can be any public or private, non-profit, or for-profit entity, but the proposed MAT access points must be located in HRSA-designated rural areas and cannot currently provide MAT as a clinical service. To learn more, join a webinar for applicants on Thursday, June 23 at 2:00 pm. Registration is not required, and a recording will be made available for those who cannot attend. Join by phone: 1-833-568-8864; Participant Code: 160 096 3647.

New Public Health AmeriCorps is Recruiting. In April, the federal AmeriCorps joined with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to announce a new and ongoing investment in recruitment and training for careers in public health at the local level. In its first year, the new initiative is expected to recruit 3,000 members who will learn from the expertise and best practices of existing CDC, AmeriCorps and other public health programs. Applications are being accepted for organizations in each state; many are directing efforts to rural areas that have been underserved. 

Access to Primary Care: HRSA’s Innovation Challenge.  Last week, HRSA announced a national competition with a total of $1 million in cash prizes for low-cost, scalable solutions that improve patient access to primary care and link health care to social services. The competition is open to broad public participation, including individuals, groups, health care organizations, and other entities. Submissions for phase 1 are due Tuesday, August 2^nd. For more information, join an upcoming webinar on Wednesday, June 29 at 3:00 pm. 

HHS Allows for Audio-Only Telehealth. The U.S. Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) issued guidance stating that audio-only telemedicine appointments comply with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, also known as HIPAA, as long as providers take measures to protect patient privacy. HHS’s Office of Civil Rights says that this is an important tool for reaching people in rural areas with limited internet access, and/or those who are unable to use video. 

Telehealth Use for Mental Health Patients in Rural Louisiana. Researchers looked at 7,069 telehealth visits that took place between April 2020 and March 2021 to determine what and how socioeconomic factors affected remote mental health services. Some findings were not surprising, e.g., telehealth use is lower among elderly patients, and help-seeking behavior is higher among women than men. But the study also found that intensity – the number of telehealth visits for each patient – varied by the nature of illness, presence of multiple chronic conditions, and discharge status. 

COVID-19 Vaccination Coverage by Race and Ethnicity, December 2020–November 2021. The latest Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report shows differences by geography (including rural/urban), age, household income, and health insurance status. Separately, a group of researchers asked rural Oklahomans about their perceptions of COVID-19 vaccines, and found that the most common reasons for hesitancy were their rapid development and lack of research about long-term effects. 

Ongoing: HRSA Payment Program for RHC Buprenorphine-Trained Providers. In June 2021, HRSA launched an effort to improve access to substance use disorder treatment by paying for providers who are waivered to prescribe buprenorphine, a medication used to treat opioid use disorder. Rural Health Clinics (RHCs) still have the opportunity to apply for a $3,000 payment on behalf of each provider who trained to obtain the waiver necessary to prescribe buprenorphine after January 1, 2019. Approximately $1.2 million in program funding remains available for RHCs and will be paid on a first-come, first-served basis until funds are exhausted. Send questions to DATA2000WaiverPayments@hrsa.gov. There is ongoing availability of a free online course for waiver eligibility training from the American Osteopathic Academy of Addiction Medicine and the Providers Clinical Support System.

Date: June 9, 2022

Technical Assistance Funding Available for Rural Emergency Hospital Model. In 2020, Congress created a new type of Medicare provider called the Rural Emergency Hospital (REH) in response to loss of services due to rural hospital closures. The new designation will allow a Critical Access Hospital or small rural hospital with no more than 50 beds to convert to an REH with 24-hour emergency services, but no inpatient care. With this funding opportunity, the Health Resources and Services Administration’s (HRSA) Federal Office of Rural Health Policy (FORHP) will award up to $2.5 million for one national center providing expertise to help rural hospitals determine if the REH model is right for their community and, if so, facilitate a successful transition. Read the policy brief on the Rural Emergency Hospital with recommendations from the National Advisory Committee on Rural Health and Human Services. 

RCORP Initiative Adds New Grant Recipients for Psychostimulant Misuse. On Wednesday, the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services announced nearly $15 million awarded to rural communities to continue addressing misuse of illegal and prescription drugs known as psychostimulants. These awards are part of the Rural Communities Opioid Response Program (RCORP), a multi-year initiative with $400 million invested since its start in 2018.

HRSA Makes Awards for the Rural Health Network Development Planning Program. HRSA awarded $1.9 million for this one-year, community-driven program designed to assist in the planning and development of an integrated health care network at the local level. By emphasizing the role of networks, the program creates a platform for both rural and urban medical care providers, social service providers, and community organizations to coalesce key elements of a health care delivery system and to improve local capacity and coordination of care. Administered by FORHP at HRSA, the Network Planning program is an opportunity for providers to use new and innovative approaches to care that may in turn serve as a model for other rural communities. The incoming cohort of Network Planning grantees have projects that focus on care coordination, health information technology/data analytics, behavioral health (including mental health and substance use disorder), elder care, and telehealth. Visit the Rural Health Information Hub online to learn more about successful program models and evidence-based toolkits that have come from the work of FORHP-funded projects.

Report Assesses RMOMS for Maternal Health. The Rural Maternity and Obstetrics Management Strategies (RMOMS) program uses a networking model to improve outcomes for mothers and infants. The first grantee cohort, funded in 2019, included networks in Missouri, New Mexico, and Texas that provided prenatal, delivery, and postpartum care to 3,101 rural mothers. Grantees say that hiring patient navigators emerged as an early success strategy, and each of the networks laid the groundwork for expanded telehealth. More details about the grantees’ successes and challenges can be found in the full report.

Effectiveness of Telemedicine in Rural Appalachia. Researchers studied more than 100,000 patient visits at a primary care clinic in West Virginia between January 2019 and November 2020. The sample included 13,013 telemedicine visits to compare patient use and completion rates with in-person visits. 

NIH at the Intersection of Opioid Use and Criminal Justice. In 2019, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) began supporting research on treatment for opioid use disorder in criminal justice settings. The Justice Community Opioid Innovation Network (JCOIN) studies the effectiveness of new medications and other interventions as part of the NIH HEAL Initiative – Helping to End Addiction Long-Term. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention tracks the impact on rural areas: from 1999 to 2019,  the rate of drug overdose deaths in rural counties increased from 4.0 per 100,000 to 19.6. To show the government’s response and ongoing work, JCOIN created an interactive map of federal and state funding invested in this work nationwide. 

ERS State Fact Sheets. The Economic Research Service (ERS) at the U.S. Department of Agriculture released an update to its collection of state- and county-level data on agricultural data as well as population, income, poverty, food security, education, and employment.

Spread the Word About Maternal Mental Health. Promotional materials for the National Maternal Mental Health Hotline are available in English and Spanish for new mothers needing free, confidential support, and referrals to care.

Ongoing: HRSA Payment Program for RHC Buprenorphine-Trained Providers. In June 2021, HRSA launched an effort to improve access to substance use disorder treatment by paying for providers who are waivered to prescribe buprenorphine, a medication used to treat opioid use disorder. Rural Health Clinics (RHCs) still have the opportunity to apply for a $3,000 payment on behalf of each provider who trained to obtain the waiver necessary to prescribe buprenorphine after January 1, 2019. Approximately $1.2 million in program funding remains available for RHCs and will be paid on a first-come, first-served basis until funds are exhausted. Send questions to DATA2000WaiverPayments@hrsa.gov. There is ongoing availability of a free online course for waiver eligibility training from the American Osteopathic Academy of Addiction Medicine and the Providers Clinical Support System.

Date: June 2, 2022

TODAY at 2:00 pm ET: White House and HRSA on Test-to-Treat for COVID-19. The Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) invites you to join a webinar to share the White House’s call to action around Test-to-Treat as a strategy to mitigate the impact of COVID-19. The webinar will feature HRSA Administrator Carole Johnson and White House COVID-19 Coordinator Dr. Ashish Jha as well as a moderated panel exploring safety-net provider perspectives. If you prefer to join by phone: 833-568-8864; Webinar ID: 161 896 3980.

Clarifying Information: HRSA Community Health Worker Training Program. HRSA’s Bureau of Health Workforce (BHW) issued new information for applicants to this funding opportunity. Through the Community Health Worker Training Program, HRSA will provide funding to health professions schools, Federally Qualified Health Centers, and community-based organizations to train 13,000 community health workers for underserved communities. See BHW’s website for more help with applications due on June 14. 

Rural America Placemaking Toolkit. A collaborative community process to define a town by what it offers the people who live there is the short way to describe the work of placemaking. This digital toolkit from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the University of Kentucky’s Community and Economic Development Initiative includes examples of rural placemaking projects along with technical assistance providers, funders, and guides to resources. 

2020 Census: Growing Racial Diversity in Rural America. The most recent Census count revealed that, between 2010 and 2020, rural population declined to just 14 percent of the U.S. total, the smallest percentage of the population to reside in rural areas in U.S. history. At the same time, racial diversity increased with Hispanics representing 9 percent of the rural population, followed by non-Hispanic Black people, representing 7.7 percent. Nearly one-third of all rural children (32.5 percent) come from racial or ethnic minority populations, compared to 28.1 percent in 2010. More about these changes can be found in the report from the University of New Hampshire Carsey School of Public Policy. 

New HHS Office of Environmental Justice (OEJ) – Comment by June 18. On Tuesday, the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) announced a new office created to  address environmental injustices and health inequities for people of color and disadvantaged, vulnerable, low-income, marginalized, and indigenous populations. The OEJ is seeking public comment on a draft outline for strategy and implementation.

Sign the Health Care Sector Climate Pledge by Friday, June 3. The initiative, launched in April, asks hospitals, health systems, and other industry stakeholders to make efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and increase their communities’ climate resilience. The pledge is one part of a larger HHS effort to consider the impact that climate change has on the entire country and take steps toward sustainability. A recent article in The Appalachian Voice describes the impact of climate change in rural mountain communities. Watch a video that explains what the health care sector can do and sign the pledge by Friday, June 3.

HRSA News Round-Up for May. Last week, HRSA and leaders across the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services issued a joint letter to states, tribes, and jurisdictions encouraging them to maximize their efforts to strengthen children’s mental health and well-being. Earlier in the month, the Maternal and Child Health Bureau launched a new, toll-free hotline for expecting and new moms experiencing mental health challenges. The Office for the Advancement of Telehealth convened its first National Telehealth Conference. See all News & Announcements on HRSA.gov

Ongoing: HRSA Payment Program for RHC Buprenorphine-Trained Providers. In June 2021, HRSA launched an effort to improve access to substance use disorder treatment by paying for providers who are waivered to prescribe buprenorphine, a medication used to treat opioid use disorder. Rural Health Clinics (RHCs) still have the opportunity to apply for a $3,000 payment on behalf of each provider who trained to obtain the waiver necessary to prescribe buprenorphine after January 1, 2019. Approximately $1.2 million in program funding remains available for RHCs and will be paid on a first-come, first-served basis until funds are exhausted. Send questions to DATA2000WaiverPayments@hrsa.gov. There is ongoing availability of a free online course for waiver eligibility training from the American Osteopathic Academy of Addiction Medicine and the Providers Clinical Support System.