RURAL ROUTE

August 2021

Hello!

Summer weather is still here for most of us, but Fall is rapidly approaching, and with it, some cooler temps, football, and safely being outdoors! We hope everyone is staying healthy and had a successful start to the school year.

We had several opportunities to gather this month and wish to thank everyone who participated in our August VKG and the August TASC 90.

We also want to highlight a few upcoming events, including the Flex Year 2 Wrap Up and the CAH Telehealth Guide Webinar. The latter will coincide with the release of the NEW CAH Telehealth Guide, a project TASC has worked on with the Northwest Regional Telehealth Resource Center.

We have also set the dates for the Virtual Fall Flex Program Workshop for November 1st, 3rd, 8th, and 10th from 1-4 p.m. Central Time. An email went out on August 23rd with more details. Email TASC if you are interested in attending.

We know everyone is busy, and as the pandemic continues to evolve, we know that additional stressors contribute to your workload. Please make sure you are taking care of yourself and looking toward the great days ahead.

Matt Bancroft

Program Specialist - TASC/SHIP

ON THE HORIZON:

Aug 31: Rural HIT Coalition

Sept 2: Flex Year 2 Wrap Up

Sept 6: Labor Day (Federal)

Sept 9: Telehealth Guide Webinar

Sept 16: MBQIP VKG Call

Sept 22: Telehealth Webinar (Series)

Oct 12: NOSORH Annual Meeting

Oct 30: PIMS due

Nov 1: Fall Flex Workshop (Start)

Nov 11: Veterans Day (Federal)

Nov 18: Nat'l Rural Health Day

Nov 25: Thanksgiving (Federal)

Nov 30: End of Year Report Due

Dec 24: Christmas Eve (Federal)

Dec 25: Christmas Day (Federal)

Dec 31: New Years Eve (Federal)

Jan 30: Fed. Financial Report Due

Pssst... Here are a few resources from Center programs and other rural health partners:

Delta Program: 2021 Value-Based Care Webinar Series (5 Parts)

RHPTP: Resilience: Springing Back to Move Forward

FMT: Community Impact and Benefit Activities of CAHs...

NOSORH: RHCs Awarded Nearly $100M for Vaccine Confidence Grant

Federal Office of Rural Health Policy Updates

Dear Flex Program Coordinators

It’s hard to believe that Year 2 of the Flex Program is closing out on August 31st! I hope you all have great conversations with your Project Officers about your Year 3 Notice of Award as we prepare to start a new budget year for the Flex Program on September 1st.

On September 2nd at 1 p.m. CT, FORHP will be hosting a webinar with TASC about Flex Fiscal Year 2020 Wrap Up. We will discuss the following reports and provide detailed instructions:

FY 2020 Performance Improvement Measurement System (PIMS) Report – due October 30th, 2021 (Friday, October 29th)
FY 2020 End of Year Report (EoYR) – due November 30th, 2021
FY 2020 EMS Supplement End of Year Report (EMS-EoYR) – due November 30th, 2021
FY 2020 Federal Financial Report (FFR) – due January 30th, 2022 (Friday, January 28th)
Prior Approval Carryover Request – due 30 days after FFR submission

The Flex Partners are very excited to kick off the Year 3 Quality Improvement Projects! If you haven’t already, register for the upcoming MBQIP Virtual Knowledge Group call (September 16th | 2–3:30 p.m. CT), which will serve as the formal national kick-off for the QI projects. There will be 5 Quality Innovation Labs (QILs) in the following topic areas: Antibiotic Stewardship; Patient Experience; Safe & Coordinated Care; Rural Health Clinics; and Swing Beds. Please reference my email sent on August 17th for more information.

Many thanks,

Tori

CAH Regulatory Update

Comments Requested: Medicare Outpatient Hospital Payments and Request for Information.

Brief on REHs and Value-Based Care.

Standards for Delineating Core Based Statistical Areas

Minority Health Social Vulnerability Index

Continue reading about multiple new resources, guidance, and regulations on the Flex Forum (login required).

Flex Welcomes and Farewells

As always, we want to express our gratitude to the many people who work hard to help rural communities.

With this edition, join us as we say farewell and best of luck to Kenya Gilkey from Mississippi and Rose Locklear from Oregon.

Additionally, we want to welcome Darlene Laro, who joins the team in New Hampshire, and Alushus Cooper who will start 9/1 in Mississippi.

Please keep your Flex contact information current by emailing Matt Bancroft and completing the State Flex Program Contact Information Form whenever there are staffing changes in your office.

What is Vermont Up to?

Submitted by John Olson, M.Ed (edited for space)

Chief, State Office of Rural Health & Primary Care

Vermont’s Flex program continues to work closely with our statewide quality organization, Vermont Program for Quality in Health Care, Inc., to support QI projects and TA to our 8 CAHs. After several years of working on our common lagging HCAHPS indicator (Quiet at Night), we are excited to be developing a QI project to support CAHs to address backlogs in the ED for pediatric patients with mental health concerns. This developing project will help hospitals share ideas, review existing data, implement minor changes, evaluate efforts and adapt to improve patient care and measures.

We are also working with our state health care regulatory board staff, hospital association, and quality organization to improve the financial sustainability of rural and critical access hospitals. We recently supported the second presentation by Eric Shell, of Stroudwater, on the national picture of transition to value payments with examples of Vermont successes.

As for COVID, the Delta variant surge has slowed the expected return to business as usual that we envisioned this spring. Most hospitals continue in a modified health emergency status. Many are having staffing challenges for nurses and other departments, and the backlog in the ED for mental health situations for adults and kids. The Flex program is working with hospitals to channel additional COVID Testing & Mitigation funds over the next year.

Each month we want to to take the time to highlight a specific state's Flex Program activities by answering the question "What are they up to?"

If you are up to something interesting, we'd love to know! Email me .

Mid-Level Leaders and Transition to Value Series

We are pleased to announce a new video series on Mid-Level Leaders and the Transition to Value. This 6-part educational video series provides mid-level leaders with foundational knowledge and strategies for leading their teams and influencing others as they navigate the shift to value-based payment and population health.

Please share this resource with your state partners and utilize the one-page summary as a description of the series.

One-Page Summary

Blueprint for Performance Excellence and Value

With the assistance of the Federal Office of Rural Health Policy (FORHP) and Stratis Health, TASC is excited to share with you our new Small Rural Hospital Blueprint for Performance Excellence and Value.

A companion resource focused on related strategies and resources for state Flex programs is also available for you to utilize. The State Flex Program Companion Resource focuses on related strategies and resources for Flex programs wanting to support their hospitals in implementing a comprehensive systems approach to achieving organizational excellence.

Reverse Site Visit Recordings

Thank you, again, for all of those who were able to attend this year's Virtual Reverse Site Visit. We received tremendous feedback from many of you, and we look forward to planning another successful event in 2022.

As you may know, the session recordings are on the event's attendee hub for another 60 days. However, we have also added the recordings to The Center's YouTube page. The videos are collected on a playlist titled:

"2021 Flex Reverse Site Visit"

Please feel free to visit (or revisit) and session at your convenience.

Learn. Understand. Decide.

Did you know that the Center's Delta team has a "Customizable Communications Toolkit?" Now you do! As part of the toolkit, they have created a series of vaccination confidence template that can be customized to develop internal and external communication tools.

The COVID-19 vaccine communication toolkit supports rural community-based groups, faith-based organizations, businesses, public health, schools, and health care organizations with developing internal and external communication materials.

MBQIP Updates

The MBQIP Monthly includes:

CAHs Can! Quality Time: Sharing PIE (performance improvement experience) Conversations
Data: CAHs Measure Up – Free Samples? Population and Sampling Data Are Here!
Tips: Robyn Quips – Abstraction Tidbits
Tools and Resources – Helping CAHs Succeed in Quality Reporting & Improvement

Please send your MBQIP questions to tasc@ruralcenter.org. TASC will ensure your question reaches the appropriate person.

Webinars, Recordings, and Resources

Playbacks

August VKG: Best Practices in Flex Program Contract Management

RSV: Quality Improvement Project Group Discussion

Webinar: Rural Tele-Behavioral Health

Resources: Highlights for your Flex Program

Delta Program: 2021 Value-Based Care Webinar Series (5 Parts)

RHPTP: Resilience: Springing Back to Move Forward

FMT: Community Impact and Benefit Activities of CAHs...

NOSORH: RHCs Awarded Nearly $100M for Vaccine Confidence Grant

A full list of resources is available in the TASC Resource Library.

Rural Health Leadership Radio was launched to support rural health leaders in sharing stories and information about best practices and lessons learned. Check out their latest podcast now!

For any questions or concerns, please contact us:

tasc@ruralcenter.org - 877-321-9393 - www.ruralcenter.org

This project is/was supported by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) under grant number UB1RH24206, Information Services to Rural Hospital Flexibility Program Grantees, $1,009,120 (0% financed with nongovernmental sources). This information or content and conclusions are those of the author and should not be construed as the official position or policy of, nor should any endorsements be inferred by HRSA, HHS, or the U.S. Government.