Category: HRSA

New Resources for Occupational Licensure Compacts

June 12, 2024

New Resources for Occupational Licensure Compacts

The licensure process is intended to protect the general public and to ensure patient safety. Health professionals must meet the licensure requirements of the state where they are located and be licensed or legally permitted to practice in the state where the patient is located.

To practice in a state, providers must meet the requirements. Requirements include education exams and background checks. Health care providers are expected to maintain and renew their license. Maintenance may require an annual fee, continuing education and self-reporting disciplinary actions.

The Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) supported Multi-Discipline Licensure Resource Project aims to improve licensure portability for health care professionals working between states and for people who are geographically isolated.

The site now includes compact information for professions such as:

  • Psychology
  • Social Work
  • Counseling
  • Dentistry
  • Dieticians
  • Physician Assistants
  • Nursing
  • School Psychologists

Learn More

List of all topics for licensure

See Licensing Across State Lines

Save the Date: National Telehealth Conference

June 12, 2024

Save the Date: National Telehealth Conference

The Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) is hosting a virtual National Telehealth Conference that brings public and private sector leaders together to discuss telehealth best practices.

Conference topics include:

  • Licensing across state lines to increase access to behavioral health care
  • Implications of health policy to inform telehealth’s future
  • Expanding access to services for underserved and low-income communities
  • Exploring health care innovations and future telehealth technologies
  • Improving health equity through expansion of broadband connectivity and adoption of telehealth

Cost: Free

When: Tuesday, July 16, 9:30 – 5:00

Register Here

CDC Webinar: Learn About COVID & Fatiguing Illness, June 13

June 10, 2024

CDC Webinar: Learn About COVID & Fatiguing Illness, June 13

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention funds this monthly webinar-style ECHO learning session to rapidly disseminate findings about Post-COVID Conditions (PCC) and Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS).

The series offers:

  • Presentations by subject matter experts
  • Examples of emerging best practices and models of care
  • Facilitated Q&A

This program is intended primarily for providers who care for patients with PCC and ME/CFS but is open to all healthcare professionals and all Long COVID and ME/CFS patient-lived experience experts interested in learning more about the treatment of Long COVID and ME/CFS.

Cost: Free

When: Thursday, June 13, 3:00 p.m. ET

Register Here

Requirements for Buprenorphine Prescribing

June 10, 2024

Requirements for Buprenorphine Prescribing

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) announced in January 2023 that clinicians no longer need a federal waiver to prescribe buprenorphine for treatment of opioid use disorder.

Clinicians are still required to register with the federal Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) to prescribe controlled medications.

In June 2023 the DEA began to require that registration applicants – both new and renewing – affirm they have completed a new, one-time, eight-hour training.

Exceptions for the new training requirement are:

  • Practitioners who are board certified in addiction medicine or addiction psychiatry
  • Graduates from a medical, dental, physician assistant or advanced practice nursing school in the U.S. within five years of June 27, 2023

Please note Rural Health Clinics (RHCs) still have the opportunity to apply for a $3,000 payment on behalf of each provider who trained between January 1, 2019 and December 29, 2022.

Approximately $889,000 in program funding remains available for RHCs and will be paid on a first-come, first-served basis until funds are exhausted.

Please send questions to DATA2000WaiverPayments@hrsa.gov

New Occupations Added to Guide for Licensure Portability

June 10, 2024

New Occupations Added to Guide for Licensure Portability

The Multi-discipline Licensure Resource Project is an effort supported by HRSA to improve licensure portability for health care professions working between states and for people who are geographically isolated.

Previously, the site provided guidance for four disciplines:

  • Psychology
  • Social work
  • Physical therapy
  • Occupational therapy

New disciplines have been added:

  • Counseling
  • Dentistry
  • Dietitians
  • Emergency medical services
  • Physician assistants
  • Nursing
  • Advanced practice nursing
  • School psychologists

Click Here to Professional’s Guide to Occupational Licensure Compacts

Apply to Become an NHSC Site – Question and Answer Session for NHSC New Site Program – June 5

May 31, 2024

Apply to Become an NHSC Site – Question and Answer Session for NHSC New Site Program – June 5

The application for new sites interested in becoming NHSC-approved is now open through June 25.

Use BHW’s Health Workforce Data Dashboard to find out if your facility is located in one of the more than 13,000 rural HPSAs and apply by June 25.

See Benefits of Becoming an NHSC Approved Site

Do you still have questions? Please consider joining the June 5 question and answer session in which The Health Resources and Services Administration’s (HRSA’s) Bureau of Workforce (BHW) answers questions for health care providers in designated Health Professional Shortage Areas wishing to become new sites for the National Health Service Corps.

Cost of Webinar: Free

When: Wednesday, June 5, 1:00 p.m. ET

Join Question & Answer Session Here

Apply to Become an NHSC Site

 

Call for Rural Health Papers – CDC’s Preventing Chronic Disease Journal

May 31, 2024

Call for Rural Health Papers – CDC’s Preventing Chronic Disease Journal

Preventing Chronic Disease (PCD) welcomes submissions for its upcoming collection, Rural Health Disparities: Contemporary Solutions for Persistent Rural Public Health Challenges.

Public health challenges have been documented in rural geographical areas and remain persistent public health, medicine, and health services problems. These challenges include:

  • Limited health care access
  • Excessive tobacco use in poor counties
  • Limited physical activities
  • Socioeconomic inequities
  • Behavioral and mental health conditions
  • Major chronic diseases

These persistent rural health challenges magnify and lead to racial and socioeconomic disparities.

The goal of this collection is to capture current solutions to these challenges. Peer reviewed articles appearing in this collection will help advance the discourse on rural public health beyond biomedical models for chronic disease prevention.

Please refer to Types of Articles for specifications for each article type.

Learn More

A Look at the Latest Alcohol Death Data and Change Over the Last Decade

May 31, 2024

A Look at the Latest Alcohol Death Data and Change Over the Last Decade

The health policy nonprofit, KFF, used data from CDC WONDER to examine trends in death caused by alcohol form 2012 – 2022.

The report finds that deaths were highest among people aged 45 to 64, males, people living in rural areas, and American Indian/Alaska native people.

Rural areas experienced faster growth in alcohol deaths, driven by sharp rises during the pandemic.

View Study

Federally Qualified Health Center Telehealth Policies Fact Sheet

May 31, 2024

Federally Qualified Health Center Telehealth Policies Fact Sheet

The Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) National Policy Telehealth Resource Center released a fact sheet to help Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs) navigate Medicaid telehealth reimbursement.

Find updated information and policies for Spring 2024

View Telehealth Policies and FQHC Fact Sheet

Center for Connected Health Policy