NRHA's Rural Health Voices blog offers informed commentary on the latest news in rural health care from NRHA staff and editorials from selected contributors.

Registration Opens Jan. 3 for EHR Incentive Program

CMS and HHS just announced that Registration for Hospitals and Clinics to participate in the HITECH incentive program to implement EHRs opens January 3, 2011.

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Senate Releases Omnibus Spending Package

The Senate has released its Omnibus spending bill, legislation that includes funding for multiple government agencies grouped into one package.  The legislation, which would provide $174.5 billion in discretionary funding,  is expected to come to the Senate floor this week, and it remains to be seen whether or not Senate leadership will secure the 60 votes needed to eliminate the possibility of a filibuster. For a summary of the HHS-related provisions, please click here. For the...

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Net Neutrality and Rural Health

Though the National Rural Health Association does not currently have official policy on the issue of Net Neutrality, the rising need to understand the driving factors behind health IT and broadband as it relates to the delivery of health services in rural America warrants at a minimum its initial discussion. For a little background, Net Neutrality advocates argue that every similar piece of information transferred via the internet should be available to each consumer at the same price and...

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Update: Congress Passes Doc Fix, House Sends Appropriations Bill to Senate

SGR: After the Senate passed its fix lat night to the sustainable growth rate (SGR) formula to stave off Medicare physician payment cuts, the House today voted 409-2 to confirm the legislation.  So, the SGR fix, or "doc-fix" will be extended for one year until January 1, 2012. Also included in the bill was an extension of otherwise expiring Medicare payment programs, known as Medicare "extenders."  Most of these extenders, the full list of which were included in...

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"Doc-Fix" Agreement Reached in Congress

The Senate has released its plan to address the potential 25 percent Medicare physician payment cut via the sustainable growth rate (SGR) formula.  The Doc-Fix, as it is commonly referred to, will be extended for one year until December 31, 2011 under the plan.  Senate Democrats and Republicans have agreed to use a tax provision in the health reform law to offset, or pay for, its cost, so a unanimous consent agreement is expected on the Senate floor rather than a full vote. ...

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340B Article in NY Times

The NY Times pubished an article yesterday, Dec. 7, 2010, entitled "Children's Hospitals Lose some Drug Discounts." NRHA is a member of the 340B Coalition, fighting for corrections to the law passed earlier in 2010 which created the problems described in the story. Please share your experiences with 340B, good or bad, in order to assist our coalition in its effort to get needed corrections.

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By the Numbers: Rural Emergency Department Usage

The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) reported recently that Emergency Department (ED) usage was 39 percent higher for Americans living in rural areas compared to those living in urban areas (515 visits versus 372 visits per 1,000 adults). Well over half of these vists are typically non-emergent. It points to the need for primary care expansion in rural America.  In the mean time, hospital ED's in rural and frontier areas of our country are treasured assets that need protection.

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Lame Duck for your Turkey Day Break

[caption id="attachment_650" align="alignleft" width="150" caption="Following White House tradition, President Barack Obama Officially Pardons Courage the Turkey - 2009"][/caption] Happy Turkey week everyone! With the elections over and the lame duck session the only thing left between Congressional staff and their Christmas break, here's a brief update of what's going on inside the beltway: Senate The Senate, on Friday, passed its temporary fix...

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Identifying Health Professional Shortage and Medically Underserved Areas

The Health Resources and Services Administration's negotiated rulemaking committee to reconsider health professional shortage area (HPSA) and medically underserved area (MUA) reconvened in Washington DC this week. Roughly 60 hours of committee work has now been completed, and many, many hours ahead before we submit our first report to the Secretary of HHS in March 2011. To date the committee has tentatively agreed that there should be HPSAs, MUA/MUPs designations going forward. (The...

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Rural Health Care Equals Rural Jobs

by Tim Size, Executive Director, Rural Wisconsin Health Cooperative, Sauk CityBeyond deceit and name calling on both sides, our recent election was about jobs. For some it was about not having a job. For many more, it was about the fear of losing one.  The election was also about huge government deficits. The stage is now set for a hard tug of war between job creation and deficit reduction. As politics and policies compete after the election, we who care about rural health must speak up.  We...

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