Category: Resources

CMS Resource Documents – Understanding and Using New Payment Codes

March 11, 2024

CMS Resource Documents – Understanding and Using New Payment Codes

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) recently released two new resources to assist providers and stakeholders in understanding and using new payment codes.

New RHIhub Topic Guide – Rural Maternal Health

February 21, 2024

New RHIhub Topic Guide – Rural Maternal Health

The RHIhub has released the Rural Maternal Health Topic Guide.

This new topic guide shares information on maternal and infant health disparities in rural area and covers issues impacting rural maternal health, including:

  • Access to services,
  • Workforce challenges and
  • Shares information on programs and policies to support rural maternal healthcare.

Rural Maternal Health Topic Guide

See All  Topic Guides

New COPD Videos available: Getting Started with Pulmonary Rehab in Rural Communities

.February 20, 2024

New COPD Videos available: Getting Started with Pulmonary Rehab in Rural Communities

Two new educational videos now available from the National Rural Health Resource Center highlight the prevalence of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) in the country’s rural communities and the steps that critical access hospitals and other small rural hospitals can take to improve access to  much-needed pulmonary rehabilitation services.

The first video, Understanding COPD and Pulmonary Rehabilitation, provides an overview of COPD – its symptoms ad causes – and explains how rural-based pulmonary rehabilitation services help to restore independence and quality of like in COPD patients.

The second video, How to Launch a Pulmonary Rehab Program, highlights the benefits – to hospitals and their community – of operating rural pulmonary rehab programs, and shares practical advice and tips on how critical access hospitals and small rural hospitals can successfully build and sustain their own pulmonary rehab programs. The video includes a look at two critical access hospitals – Sparta Community Hospital in Illinois and Hood Memorial Hospital in Louisiana – that opened pulmonary rehab programs in 2023.

Additional Resources

 

Telehealth & Prescribing

February 7, 2024

Telehealth & Prescribing

On January 31, 2024, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) finalized rules for the prescribing of buprenorphine through the use of telehealth.

In these final rules, opioid treatment programs (OTPs) will be able to use telehealth to prescribe buprenorphine without an in-person visit.

It is important to note that these final rules are not in regard to using telehealth to prescribe a controlled substance in general. This is a very specific rule that applies to OTPs and the use of telehealth to prescribe buprenorphine with some additional applications specifically to methadone.

The broader policy of using telehealth to prescribe controlled substances without an in-person visit (or meeting one of the narrow exceptions found in federal statute) still remains a temporary allowance through the end of 2024.

Read Full Details

HIPAA and Privacy Concerns: Telehealth Technology Considerations

February 6, 2024

HIPAA and Privacy Concerns: Telehealth Technology Considerations

The telehealth platform you use should meet HIPAA requirements.

All telehealth services provided by covered health care providers and health plans must comply with the HIPAA Rules.

This means only using technology vendors that comply with HIPAA Rules and will enter into HIPAA business associate agreements .

Resources:

Trainings by American Institute of Healthcare Compliance (AIHC)

Update on Efficiency of Store-and-Forward

February 6, 2024

Update on Efficiency of Store-and-Forward

Telehealth refers to a collection of methods to enhance health care delivery and education – it’s not a specific service.

Telehealth spans four distinct applications:

  • Live video
  • Store-and-forward
  • Remote patient monitoring
  • Mobile health

Store-and-forward is considered “asynchronous telehealth, a communication between parties that is not live.” It is a service rendered outside of a real-time or live interaction with a patient.

According to Telehealth.HHS.gov, asynchronous direct-to-patient telehealth can streamline patient workflows:

  • Standardized patient data
  • Flexibility
  • Efficient automated patient intake

Store-and-forward commonly used in:

  • Radiology
  • Pathology
  • Dermatology
  • Ophthalmology
  • Electronic consultations

Telehealth Resources

24-Year-Old CEO on Why CAHs Struggle to Hire, Retain Leaders

February 1, 2024

24-Year-Old CEO on Why CAHs Struggle to Hire, Retain Leaders

Aidan Hettler, the 24-year-old CEO of Sedgwick County (Colorado) Health Center, initially did not believe he should be hired for the job.

Hettler acknowledges the fact that he was interviewed at all is a sign of a challenge many rural Colorado hospitals have face: difficulty hiring and retaining CEOs. “If it was not difficult to recruit, no, I probably would not have gotten an interview,” he says.

HealthLeaders offers tips for incoming hospital CEOs.

RHIhub Updated Topic Guides

January 31, 2024

RHIhub Updated Topic Guides

The Rural Health Information (RHI) hub announces newly updated topic guides.

  • Applying for Grants to Support Rural Health Projects
    • Provides information and resources to help rural communities learn about finding grant funding and how to develop a proposal to support projects and programs to improve rural healthcare
    • Covers tips on the types of information to include in an application and other strategies when planning and preparing a grant proposal
  • Violence and Abuse in Rural America
    • Shares information and resources describing the prevalence of violence and abuse in rural America, and other factors impacting violence and abuse victims such as healthcare access and poverty
    • Covers prevention strategies and other support for communities and healthcare providers to help address violence and abuse in rural areas

 

MBQIP 2025 Updated Resources

January 26, 2024

MBQIP 2025 Updated Resources

The Medicare Beneficiary Quality Improvement Program (MBQIP) has updated resources for the next phase of MBQIP.

The Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) is framing them as the MBQIP 2025 Core Measure set. These documents will show what measures are currently included in MBQIP, and new measures for reporting, beginning in calendar year 2025.