NRHA mourns the loss of longtime staff member Rosemary McKenzie
Last Friday, NRHA sent the following email mourning the loss of long-time NRHA staffmember Rosemary McKenzie. Our thoughts are with Mrs. McKenzie's family, friends, her coworkers at NRHA, and the many members who knew her.
It is with great sadness we announce the passing of Rosemary McKenzie, longtime NRHA employee, colleague and friend, on March 16 due to complications from pancreatic cancer.
Rosemary served as NRHA’s Minority Liaison and Program Services Manager in the Kansas City, Mo., office for 27 years. She was a joy to all who knew her. Her passion for rural health care and dedication to multicultural and multiracial populations was unparalleled.
Rosemary was an integral part of the NRHA family, and we all mourn her loss. Our condolences are extended to her family as they grieve the loss of their wife, mother and grandmother.
Rosemary is survived by her husband, Ricky; her daughter, Monica; and four grandchildren.
On behalf of everyone at NRHA, thank you for your support of Rosemary, especially during her recent illness.
Services will be provided by Duane E. Harvey Funeral Home in Kansas City, Mo.
Georgia Health Policy Center receives $9.2 million from HRSA
March 11, 2011 (HealthcareITNews)
ATLANTA - The Georgia Health Policy Center (GHPC) at the Andrew Young School of Policy Studies, Georgia State University was awarded three contracts totaling more than $9.2 million from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) to support healthcare access in the rural United States over the next three to five years.
The organizations that receive help through the programs use the money for a wide variety of initiatives, such as the purchase and upgrade of health information technology, chronic disease management, workforce development, school fitness and dental programs, mental and behavioral health and maternal and child health.
Administered by the Federal Office of Rural Health Policy at HRSA, the funding supports four grant programs: Delta State Rural Development Network, Rural Health Care Services Outreach, Rural Health Network Development, and Rural Health Workforce Development. HRSA's Office of Rural Health Policy provides these programs to increase access to care for residents of rural and frontier communities.
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The Myth of Rural 'Subsidies
March 10, 2011 (Bill Bishop, The Daily Yonder)
The federal government provides “a raft of subsidies (devoted) to sustaining rural living."
That’s what Ezra Klein wrote in The Washington Post in a blog post that has caused a minor uproar — especially after Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack blundered into the argument. But is that true?
Klein’s initial point was that cities are unique in the efficient way they create new wealth. He then said that we should capitalize on this unique attribute of urban life, but that we won’t because the structure of the Congress inevitably leads to programs and spending that subsidize rural life.
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More from The Daily Yonder: How're You 'Being,' Rural?...Not So Well
National Quality Strategy will promote better health, quality care for Americans
March 21, 2011 (HHS News Release) - The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) today released the National Strategy for Quality Improvement in Health Care (National Quality Strategy). The strategy was called for under the Affordable Care Act and is the first effort to create national aims and priorities to guide local, state, and national efforts to improve the quality of health care in the United States.
“The Affordable Care Act sets America on a path toward a higher quality health care system so we stop doing things that don’t work for patients and start doing more of the things that do work,” said HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius. “American hospitals, doctors, nurses and other health care providers are among the best in the world. With this ground-breaking strategy, we are working with local communities and health care providers to help patients and improve the health of all Americans.”
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Ciena and Internet2 Partner On New National 100G Network
Field-proven coherent 100G technology from Ciena to support growing bandwidth needs of the research and education community and provide connectivity for more than 200,000 community anchor institutions nationwide
ANN ARBOR, Mich., and LINTHICUM, Md. – March 9, 2011 – Ciena® Corporation (NASDAQ: CIEN), the network specialist, and Internet2 today announced a partnership on a 100G national network in support of the U.S. Unified Community Anchor Network (U.S. UCAN) project. Internet2 is significantly upgrading its national backbone network through a federal stimulus grant from the National Telecommunications and Information Administration’s Broadband Technology Opportunities Program (BTOP).
Through its partnership with Ciena, Internet2 will increase its network’s bandwidth from approximately 100 Gigabits per second to 8.8 Terabits per second to provide the necessary capabilities to connect over 200,000 community anchor institutions nationwide as part of the U.S. UCAN project. The new network will also support the exponential growth in capacity needs by the research and the higher education community that Internet2 serves today.
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Tribes Find Assistance in Recovery Act
Secretary Kathleen Sebelius established the Secretary’s Tribal Advisory Committee (STAC) to advise the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) on its government-to-government relationship and delivery of services to Tribal communities. At the STAC’s first meeting in Washington, D.C., the Tribal representatives heard about American Recovery and Reinvestment Act programs for American Indians and Alaska Natives (AI/AN).
The Recovery Act empowered HHS to help jump-start the economy, maintain health care services, expand access to affordable health care, protect those in greatest need and provide for the early care and education of young children and create or save jobs. As part of its Recovery Act mandate, HHS provided more than $700 million for programs to specially assist Tribal communities. As presented to the STAC, the following are highlights of HHS Recovery Act funding benefiting AI/AN people.
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From NRHA Government Affairs: Tell your Members of Congress to Protect Rural Hospitals
As you may know, the Congressional Budget Office recently released a report detailing ways in which the federal spending deficit could be reduced. One of their options, Mandatory Spending Option 24, suggests eliminating the Critical Access Hospital, Sole Community Hospital and Medicare Dependent Hospital programs. These facilities provide critical access to rural patients across the nation. To ensure this care Congress created special Medicare reimbursement rates benefiting cost-based care.
The CBO option would override Congressional intent by changing the hospitals' reimbursement to the Inpatient Prospective Payment System.
These new rates would reduce Medicare payments to these hospitals forcing many to offer reduced services or close, significantly limiting many rural Americans' access to a health care facility.
Critical Access Hospitals, Sole Community Hospitals and Medicare Dependent Hospitals receive the special cost-based payments because facilities operating in rural America typically have higher costs associated with care as well as a lower volume of patients. The increased financial burden resulting from a reduced payment rate would force many hospitals in rural America to close reducing access to care for rural Americans.
Please call your Members of Congress and tell them to protect rural Americans' access to care by maintaining rural hospital Medicare payments.
If you have additional questions please contact the NRHA Government Affairs staff at 202-639-0550.
At One-Year Mark, Implications Of Health Law Emerge
March 17, 2011 (Kaiser Health News)
Media outlets report on a range of issues related to implementation of the health law and its one-year anniversary — among them, the unexpected importance taken on by waivers, the marketplace impact on health insurance brokers, the geography of the health care workforce issues likely to result from coverage expansions and the continuing problems faced by lawmakers who are trying to repeal the measure's 1099 reporting provision.
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