NRHA sent to Secretary Xavier Becerra a letter regarding the HHS CARES Provider Relief Fund.

In it, NRHA reiterates our ongoing concerns (already shared with HHS on numerous occasions) about the implementation of the Provider Relief Funds, as well as the newly created Health Care Heroes Sustainability Fund.  We urge Secretary Becerra to make critical changes to this program in order to support rural provider across America.  NRHA will keep you all up to date on a response or other activity from the Department on this issue. 

The US-HAMP (United States Hepatitis Academic Mentorship Program), a program of the Kentucky Rural Health Association would like to invite you to the US-HAMP Summit on July 27, 2021. This will be a virtual event for Key State Leaders.  Please refer to HAMP attachment for agenda/program about US-HAMP.

US-HAMP is a multi-state collaborative learning network to train key state leaders on the implementation of a successful HAMP model in an effort to empower primary care providers in their state to screen, diagnose, evaluate, treat, cure and report hepatitis C outcomes.  Current HAMP best practice will be discussed by state leaders in Kentucky and West Virginia.

The below article written by Maria Clark, published in the Tennessean March 24th discusses the $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief package executed on March 11th that includes $8.5 billion in funding set aside for rural health providers. 

The article quotes representatives from the National Rural Health Association and Rural Health Association of Tennessee. (Read article here)

Senator Briggs spoke to Rural Health Association of Tennessee leaders on the Mental Health Parity Legislation (SB151) he sponsored in the 112th General Assembly and how the bill supports rural hospitals, providers, and clinics.

Today, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced that it is increasing the Medicare payment amount for administering the COVID-19 vaccine. This rate reflects new information about the costs involved in administering the COVID-19 vaccine for different types of providers and suppliers, and the additional resources necessary to ensure the vaccine is administered safely and appropriately. Effective March 15, 2021, the national average payment rate for physicians, hospitals, pharmacies and many other immunizers will be increased to $40 to administer each dose of any COVID-19 vaccine.  The updated payment rate for administration for each dose of any COVID-19 vaccine will be geographically adjusted and the exact rate will depend on the type of entity that furnishes the service.

The press release is attached and available here: https://www.cms.gov/newsroom/press-releases/biden-harris-administration-increases-medicare-payment-life-saving-covid-19-vaccine

The National Rural Health Resource Center has release a toolkit full of temples to educate your patients, build trust and confidence in your rural hospital and clinic and communicate services. Need help? Contact [email protected]

NRHRC Toolkit Users Guide

Tennessee Department of Health (TDH) has Updated the List of Reportable Codes for Drug Overdose Reporting (DOR)

Effective January 3^rd 2021, the Drug Overdose Reporting (DOR) List of Reportable Diagnosis codes was updated to include new Opioid-related ICD-10-CM codes. This update reflected changes made as a result of the ICD-10-CM Coordination and Maintenance Committee for federal fiscal year 2021. The T40.4X[1-4] coding structure for synthetic narcotics of unintentional, intentional self-harm, assault, and undetermined intent were revised. The changes allow for more specific reporting of drug overdoses involving synthetic opioids for initial and subsequent encounters. In particular, it allows the TDH to identify drug overdoses involving fentanyl, which has become more important to understand as overdoses involving fentanyl have increased rapidly in the last five years. Please ensure that your hospital is including the new codes when reporting drug overdoses to TDH. For more information and to obtain the full List of Reportable Diagnosis codes see the TDH Drug Overdose Reporting website. The new ICD-10-CM codes are indicated with an asterisk.

Interview with Executive Director, Jacy Warrell, 12/17/20

Tennessee State Loan Repayment Program (TSLRP)

TSLRP provides educational loan repayment to qualified primary care practitioners in exchange for an initial 2-year service obligation to practice full-time or part-time at an ambulatory public, non-profit or private non-profit primary care site located in a federally designated Health Professional Shortage Area (HPSA) or a facility designated as a Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC) or Rural Health Clinic (RHC).  

Audience: schools, health care providers, hospitals, clinics, FQHCs

RHA of TN's premier partner, Intalere, is offering this workshop free to RHA of TN members and guests.

To support providers keep up with the fast pace of information related to COVID, Tennessee Department of Health is hosting provider webinars

https://www.tn.gov/health/cedep/ncov/covid-19-webinars.html