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Hello everyone,
Happy Halloween! I hope you all are having a great fall season so far.
As always, thank you for taking some time to read Rural Route, and if you have any questions or need anything, please reach out to myself or TASC.
Thank
s,
Andy Naslund
Program Coordinator
Technical Assistance and Services Center (TASC)
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Welcome to
Cate Harmon of Alaska and
Amy Swanson of Kansas.
We are happy to have you as part of Flex!
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Federal Office of Rural Health Policy (FORHP) Updates
Updates Include:
- We have been getting many reports of technical problems from people trying to complete Flex Performance Improvement and Measurement System (PIMS) reports.
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- Due to these problems caused by these IT issues, we are extending the PIMS due date to November 7. Please continue reporting IT system problems to the Contact Center and watch the Flex Coordinators mailing list for more updates.
CAH Regulatory Update
Updates include:
- Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Final Rules on Discharge Planning Requirements and Omnibus Burden Reduction
- Comment Request for Proposed Reforms to Physician Self-Referral and Anti-Kickback Laws
- Rural Health Open Door Forum Recap
- Rural Maternal and Obstetric Management Strategies Awardees
- Rural Health Grant Eligibility Request for Information
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October 2019 October Flex Workshop Group
Thank you to everyone who was able to attend the October Flex Workshop in Duluth earlier this month. It was great to meet and learn with all of you in person! Back row from left to right: Brian Ashpole (Illinois), Laura Fischer (
Illinois), Stephanie Sayegh (Idaho), Dave Deutsch (West Virginia), Lisa Lewis (West Virginia), Kathryn Metzger (Missouri), Abbie Parmenter (Florida), Kenya Gilkey (Mississippi), Michelle Teachout (Utah). Front row from left to right: Cassie Kennedy (Iowa), Martina Garcia (New Mexico).
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Coming Up:
Flex VKG webinar -- Monday, November 4, 2019 from 2:00 p.m. - 3:00 p.m. Central Time.
Space
Health Education and Learning Program (HELP) webinar -- Tuesday, November 5, 2019 from 12:00 p.m. - 1:00 p.m. Central Time
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TASC 90 Webinar -- Wednesday, November 13, 2019 from 2:00 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. Central Time.
MBQIP VKG webinar -- Thursday, November 21, 2019 from 2:00 p.m. - 3:30 p.m. Central Time.
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TASC Updates
Space
New TASC Staff
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In October, we were pleased to welcome Angie LaFlamme and Kiona Hermanson of the National Rural Health Resource Center's staff to the TASC Team.
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Angie LaFlamme joins the TASC team with nearly twenty years of experience in health care provider recruitment
and health care workforce. Angie recently worked on the Rural Health Innovations (RHI) Network Technical Team serving FORHP-funded networks around the country. Angie has a specialty in rural workforce recruitment and retention. Angie oversaw the Minnesota Web Recruitment service for rural and underserved Minnesota, delivers educational presentations to physician residents at Minnesota residency programs and to advanced practice providers and medical students at Minnesota medical and nursing schools.
As a program specialist for TASC, Angie will be providing technical assistance, managing TASC events, and developing resources and tools
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Kiona Hermanson joins the TASC team after over two years of experience at the Center supporting the Rural health Innovations' (RHI) Network Technical Assistance team. For the Network team, Kiona provided TA support and coordinated webinars, conference calls, workshops, and conferences. As a program coordinator for TASC, Kiona will work closely with Nicole Clement in providing coordination and technical assistance for FY19 EMS Supplement.
A pic from the road! Nicole Clement and Caleb Siem at the National Organization of State Offices of Rural Health (NOSORH) Annual Meeting in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Nicole and Caleb were glad to see so many of you at NORSORH's Annual Meeting earlier this month in Albuquerque. In case you missed them, please take advantage of these easy-to-print handouts we prepared for this conference and share them with your hospitals and clinics.
The handouts included:
In October, we released the updated Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS) Overview: Vendor Directory. Please share this resource with your rural health facilities as it provides information on HCAHPS including the benefits and challenges to implementing a HCAHPS survey process with small rural hospitals, specifically critical access hospitals (CAHs).
We were also excited to release the final two episodes of the Rural Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) Podcast in October.
Episode 6A features Tracy Conroy, Valerie Roark, and Connie Wilson of Daviess Community Hospital, in which they discuss their Daviess' pulmonary rehab program and how it started, what they have learned so far in the three years of their program, COPD from both a patient and hospital aspect, and the future of COPD care.
Episode 6B features Steve Barnett of McKenzie Health System, who discusses their new cardiac rehab program, how it relates to pulmonary rehab programs, the financial risk, innovation, and resources necessary for this new program, and the future of COPD care.
Please remember to also visit for the
Rural COPD Resources and Efforts page of the TASC website for a full list of resources from the FY 2018 COPD Supplemental Project.
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Flex Monitoring Team: New Policy Brief on Flex FOI
The Flex Monitoring Team has released a new
policy brief on CAH participation in Flex financial and operational improvement (FOI) activities. The brief aims to identify the patterns of CAH participation in Flex-funded activities from 2015 to 2018 and to investigate whether CAHs at greater risk of financial distress were more likely to participate in financial and operational improvement activities.
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Webinars, Recordings & Events
Webinar Playbacks
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New and Updated Resources
A full list of resources is available in the
TASC resource library
Many more resou
rces can be found on the TASC website
by searching for key words in the search field.
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MBQIP Updates
Space
Updated Resources
Please send your MBQIP questions to the
[email protected]. TASC will ensure your question reaches the appropriate person.
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The most recent interviews are on the topics of agriculture and mental health, various aspects of rural health, PAs and NPs in CAHs, and HIV, immunization, and billing.
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