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Hello everyone,
Happy February! The Technical Assistance and Services Center (TASC) would like to thank everyone who submitted a breakout session proposal for the 2020 Flex Program Reverse Site Visit, scheduled for August 2020. We are really excited for this event as it begins to take shape.
For those of you who weren't able to attend the February TASC 90 webinar on new models of care, the recording is now available.
Be sure to check out the TASC Updates for a new Emergency Medical Services (EMS) opportunity and to learn more about the upcoming population health learning collaborative.
As always, thank you for reading Rural Route. If you have questions or need assistance, please reach out to me or TASC.
Thank
s,
Andy Naslund
Program Coordinator
Technical Assistance and Services Center (TASC)
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Federal Office of Rural Health Policy (FORHP) Updates
I would like to take this opportunity to thank you all for your continued patience and flexibility as we experience some changes in your FORHP Project Officer team. Your current Project Officer assignment can be found on the Flex Program Update.
The Flex Program Non-Competing Continuation (NCC) Progress Report will be available in EHB on Friday, March 20, 2020 and will be due in EHB on Friday, May 15, 2020. On Wednesday, March 25, 2020 at 1 p.m. Central Time, I will be holding a webinar to go over the details of the NCC; TASC will be sending additional information.
On February 11, the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) released a Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) for the Telehealth Network Grant Program, due to
grants.gov on April 13, 2020. HRSA
will make 29 awards with total funding of $8.7 million to support 24-hour Emergency Department consultation services via telehealth to rural providers without emergency care specialists.
On February 12, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) released a request for information (RFI) to seek public comments regarding rural maternal health care. Specifically, the CMS Office of Minority Health (OMH) is seeking information related to opportunities to improve health care access, quality, and outcomes for women and infants in rural communities, before, during, and after pregnancy.
CAH Regulatory Update
- CMS's proposed notice of benefit and payment parameters for 2021
- Medicare Advantage Contract Year 2021 and 2022 Policy and Technical Changes
- The Medicaid Healthy Adult Opportunity
- Maternal and Infant Health Care in Rural Communities RFI
- Telehealth Resource Center Program RFI
- President's budget updates for Health and Human Services
- National Policy Telehealth Resource Center Guide on Telehealth Billing
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This month, welcome
Misty Dennis of Missouri and
Ashley Moretz of Utah. Welcome everyone!
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Coming Up:
Flex TASC EMS webinar -- Thursday, March 5, 2020 from 2:00 p.m. - 3:30 p.m. Central Time.
FORHP webinar -- Wednesday, March 25, 2020
from 1
:00 p.m. - 2:00 p.m. Central Time.
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 TASC Updates
Flex Population Health Learning Collaborative
Based on feedback from state Flex Programs, the Federal Office of Rural Health Policy (FORHP) and Technical Assistance and Services Center (TASC) recognize that there is a need for education focused on the Population Health and how your Flex Program can help support the critical access hospitals (CAHs), rural health clinics (RHCs), and rural communities in your state through Population Health initiatives.
As a result, TASC will be hosting a Flex Population Health Learning Collaborative. This advanced Learning Collaborative series will feature in-depth discussions and activities relating
to population health, and is intended for those Flex Programs with experience and knowledge of population health. This learning collaborative will be led by Caleb Siem, Program Specialist for TASC, and Terry Hill, Senior Advisor for Rural Health Policy, of the National Rural Health Resource Center. There will also be a number of subject matter experts to facilitate discussions related to population health examples.
More information on this learning collaborative can be found here. For specific questions related to this learning collaborative, please contact Caleb Siem.
Have Ideas for EMS Quality Measure Concepts?
Submit an EMS quality measure concept for NEMSQA's current measure development project! The National EMS Quality Alliance (NEMSQA), in collaboration with the Florida Department of Health Division of Emergency Preparedness and Community Support, through use of Flex Program funds, is facilitating a national Call for Measure Concepts for the Feasible, Actionable, Impactful, Relevant (F.A.I.R.) EMS Measurement Project. This project intends to develop rural-relevant quality measures to be used in the EMS community.
Quality measures are tools that assist in measuring or quantifying processes, outcomes, structures, and/or systems in various health care settings. Quality measure development is essential for EMS agencies to have the ability to measure local quality improvement activities and for the improvement of patient outcomes. Building quality measures for the EMS community will allow agencies to collect and analyze data to determine their practice needs and how to improve their quality of patient care. The purpose of this Call for Measure Concepts period is to collect ideas for new quality measures.
More information, including a link to the online Call for Concepts Survey can accessed on the NEMSQA website here. The Call for Concepts Survey is open now through Wednesday, March 11, 2020.
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| Bringing it all Together for EMS in Wright County, Iowa |
Iowa's Wright County, with three independent ambulance services, had been working for years to address their broken EMS system. The Fiscal Year 2018 supplement funds, funded by the Federal Office of Rural Health Policy, allowed them to complete a project by gathering stakeholders, considering all options, and choosing the best approaches to ensure consistent and quality patient care for their county. They also used the funds to engage and educate their communities about the costs and value of EMS, resulting in taxpayer approval of funds to offset the annual cost of operation.
"We are now in the black, and we expect over nearly a million dollars of positive revenue this year."
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Rural EMS Training and Equipment Assistance Program
Spac
The Rural Emergency Medical Services Training and Equipment Assistance Program received $5 million in appropriation through the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). SAMHSA's Center for Substance Abuse Treatment, is accepting applications for fiscal year (FY) 2020 Rural Emergency Medical Services Training grants (Short Title: EMS Training). The purpose of this program is to recruit and train emergency medical services (EMS) personnel in rural areas, with awards up to $200,000. Applications are due Monday, March 30, and the Funding Opportunity Announcement is available here.
Eligible applicants are rural emergency medical service agencies operated by a local or tribal government (fire-based and non-fire based) and non-profit emergency medical service agencies.
Please note that all applicants will need to register in multiple sites to be able to submit an application, and registration can take up to six weeks. If you are even thinking about applying, start the registration process now! IMPORTANT: All applicants must register with the National Institutes of Health's (NIH) electronic Research Administration (eRA) Commons in order to submit an application. Applicants must also register with the System for Award Management (SAM) and Grants.gov. See Appendix A in the specific SAMHSA Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) for all registration requirements. It is strongly recommended that applicants start the registration process six (6) weeks in advance of the application due date. Additional tips for applying for a SAMHSA grant can be found here.
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New From FMT: Patients' Experiences in CAHs: HCAHPS Results, 2018
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The Flex Monitoring Team (FMT) has released its state and national reports on critical access hospital (CAH) performance and public reporting rates on the Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS) survey for 2018. The national report with links to each state may be accessed
here.
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MBQIP Updates
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Updated Resources
Please send your MBQIP questions to
[email protected]. TASC will ensure your question reaches the appropriate person.
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Webinars, Recordings & Events
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Webinar Playbacks
New and Updated Resources
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A full list of resources is available in the
TASC resource library.
Many more resou
rces can be found on the TASC resource library
by searching for key words in the search field.
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The most recent interview topics include hospital rehabilitation services, investing in pulmonary rehabilitation at CAHs, pulmonary and cardiac rehabilitation, and coding and billing for Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) services.
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