National Rural Health Association

NRHA's 2009 Quality and Clinical Conference July 21 - 24 in Park City, Utah, will bring together rural health professionals interested in quality and performance improvement, including clinicians and nurses working on the front lines of rural health care, for a discussion on how to utilize health information technology (HIT) so rural areas can become leaders in health care quality.

Don't miss sessions on innovative, proven rural HIT, EMR and telemedicine programs, culturally-sensitive care, and the latest legislative and regulatory updates from Washington that will affect you, as well as a keynote address from MedPAC Commissioner and NRHA past-president George Miller.

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Approximately 1,000 rural health professionals attend the Annual Conference each year, representing the breadth of NRHA's constituencies - from clinicians, to hospital administrators, to researchers and educators, to state health personnel. NRHA invites individuals with an interest in rural health to submit concurrent session ideas for presentation during this high-quality educational event. These sessions may be didactic lectures, hands-on interactive workshops or roundtable discussions. Don't miss your chance to be a part of the nation's keystone rural health conference! Session submission deadline is July 31. Click here for more information.  

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On June 25, Senator John Barrasso (R-WY) and Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) introduced S. 1355, the Rural Health Clinic Patient Access and Improvement Act of 2009. The bill addresses long-standing underpayments to rural health clinics, introduces a quality improvement program to RHCs, and provides incentives to recruit and retain medical professionals to rural areas.

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On June 16, the Meaningful Use Workgroup of the Health Information Technology (HIT) Policy Committee released its initial recommendations for the definition of "meaningful use" of electronic health records (EHR). In order to qualify for incentive payments under the health care IT portions of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), hospitals and physicians must demonstrate meaningful use of EHR technology. In its letter to the Office of the National Coordinator for HIT, NRHA objects to these initial recommendations as being harmful to rural hospitals and clinics. In addition, NRHA is a member of the Rural HIT Coalition, which also submitted comments on behalf of 16 organizations.

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On June 29, the Health and Human Services Department rescinded three controversial Bush Administration regulations governing Medicaid and said it would postpone and possibly change or rescind a fourth. These regulations are among seven that were proposed by the Bush Administration and rigorously opposed by NRHA. Congress placed a moratorium on the regulations last summer in the War Supplemental Bill, but it was set to expire on June 30, allowing the regulations to go into effect.

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