NCHN e-News

FEATURED PARTNER

Paradigm Learning

Webinar for NCHN Members:
Friday, September 14 | 1:00 – 2:00 PM ET

As the business of healthcare constantly evolves, hospitals face a significant challenge: how to provide outstanding patient care while remaining financially viable. Just as all employees and managers (clinical and non-clinical) play a part in the patient experience, their actions and decisions also have financial implications for the organization. What should non-financial people at your hospital understand about how the organization makes money? How do individual actions and decisions impact the financial metrics tracked by senior leadership? How can healthcare workers reconcile excellent patient care with sometimes difficult financial decisions?

Healthcare organizations around the country have relied on a classroom-based, team-centered business simulation to help them better understand these issues. The simulation was developed by Paradigm Learning and is called Zodiak. It has been experienced by more than 2-million people and has been adapted to the healthcare industry with great success. Zodiak is fast-paced, fun and energizing. Participants in the simulation learn which numbers are important to their hospital and how actions and decisions impact those numbers.

You are invited to a webinar to learn more about how the Zodiak experience can benefit your network. It will be held Friday, September 14 from 1:00 – 2:00 ET. During the first 30-minutes you will see an overview of the simulation and how it’s being used in healthcare. The last 30-mintes will be for questions.

Webinar Registration
To register, email Debbie Comeau at dcomeau@synernet.net by Friday, September 7th. Please provide your name, your network’s name and an approximate number of beds represented by your network.

MEMBER BLURBS

Member News

RWHC via twitter:
"Rural Healthcare, Critical Access & the Future" presentation by Tim Size for WI ACHE At PdC Memorial 8/24/12 ow.ly/d9p0Z
The September issue of RWHC Eye on Health is now available here: ow.ly/d7PFP
Tennessee Rural Partnership is on Facebook. See what TRP has been up to...

UPCOMING EVENTS

Take Action: Act on What's Important
County Health Rankings & Roadmaps

Webinar: September 11, 2012 | 2:00 - 3:00 PM CDT

Once you’ve decided which policy or program will fit your community, the next step is to work on adoption and implementation. Since there are no “one size fits all” blueprints for success, communities need to build on inherent strengths, capitalize on available resources, and respond to unique needs. Learn about guidance, tools and resources for ensuring that your community’s selected policies and programs are adopted, implemented, improved, and maintained in order to achieve intended results.

Teledentistry: Building Enhanced Dental Teams for Underserved Communities
Arizona Center for Rural Health

Webinar: September 12, 2012 | 12:00 PM MT

This is an opportunity to learn about:

1. How are preventive dental services delivered to underserved communities and families at a distance?
2. How technology is used to deliver clinical & educational services supported by private-public partnerships?
3. What are current teledentistry programs and practices in development to improve access to dental care?
4. What are developing/potential linkages between teledentistry and telehealth?

NRHA Rural Health Clinic and Critical Access Hospital Conferences

Rural Health Clinic Conference
September 25-26, 2012

Critical Access Hospital Conference
September 26-28, 2012

Kansas City, KS

Join NRHA and your colleagues for the 2012 Rural Health Clinic and Critical Access Hospital conferences. The goal of these conferences is to share effective practices, policies and information and provide insights and best practices addressing many of the access, quality and patient safety issues confronted by CAHs and RHCs.

National Advisory Committee on Rural Health and Human Services
HRSA

September 26 - 28, 2012
Radisson Hotel & Suites Austin Downtown
111 East Cesar Chavez Street
Austin, TX 78701

Open to the Public

The National Advisory Committee on Rural Health and Human Services provides advice and recommendations to the Secretary with respect to the delivery, research, development, and administration of health and human services in rural areas.

National Rural Health Day
NOSORH

November 15, 2012 is National Rural Health Day! NOSORH, State Offices of Rural Health and our partners invite you to join us November 11-17 as we showcase Rural America and highlight the efforts of SORHs and others in addressing the unique healthcare needs of rural communities. More importantly, we want you to be part of the celebration!

NATIONAL NEWS

HHS announces next steps to promote use of electronic health records and health information exchange

August 23, 2012 (HHS News Release) - Today, Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius announced the next steps in the Obama administration’s work to help doctors and hospitals use electronic health records.

“The changes we’re announcing today will lead to more coordination of patient care, reduced medical errors, elimination of duplicate screenings and tests and greater patient engagement in their own care,” Secretary Sebelius said.

CMS Announces Primary Care Practices to Participate in Historic Public-Private Partnership to Strengthen Primary Care
Seven regions will test unique investment in coordinated care

August 22, 2012 (CMS News Release) - In support of more effective, more affordable, higher quality health care, 500 primary care practices in seven regions have been selected to participate in a new partnership between payers from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), state Medicaid agencies, commercial health plans, self-insured businesses, and primary care providers. This partnership is designed to provide improved access to quality health care at lower costs.

First Glance at the Stage 2 Final Rule: Impact on Rural Hospitals
by Louis Wenzlow

August 26, 2012 (WORH.org) - The Stage 2 EHR Incentive Program Final Rule, released on August 23rd, provides significant additional flexibility and is a great improvement over what was proposed. It seems to me that CMS and ONC have listened to provider concerns (rural included) and have crafted a regulation that is likely to be reasonably achievable by those rural providers that have already achieved or are close to achieving Stage 1.

AHA: Reduce administrative burden from rural broadband program
by Susan D. Hall

August 24, 2012 (FierceHealthIT) - The American Hospital Association is urging the Federal Communications Commission to simplify the application and reporting requirements for its Rural Health Care Pilot Program to make it more accessible to small hospitals.

Earlier this month, the FCC declared the $415 million broadband pilot, launched in 2006, a success. It said it improved the quality and reduced the cost of delivering healthcare in rural areas through telehealth, increased revenue for rural clinics and hospitals, and allowed exchange of electronic health records and training of rural medical personnel. It since has put out a call for comments about proposed revisions to the program.

Health corps helps doctors serve areas with needs: Program growing
by Charlotte Tucker

August 2012 (The Nation's Health) - Jamie Bell, MD, has a job she loves, working with a poor population in a Birmingham, Ala., hospital. Most of her patients have serious, chronic medical conditions. “The healthy ones have diabetes, high blood pressure and high cholesterol,” she said. Many are much sicker.

It is a population that badly needs a caring physician, and Bell is able to serve them, despite being nearly $250,000 in debt from medical school, thanks to a program run by the Health Resources and Services Administration.

A Historical Review of How States Have Responded to the Availability of Federal Funds for Health Coverage

August 24, 2012 (Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured) - This historical review finds that the availability of federal funds has served as an effective incentive for states to provide health coverage to meet the health and long-term care needs of their low-income residents despite state budget pressures. More than half of states implemented a Medicaid program within the first year federal funding became available, and nearly all states were participating in Medicaid within four years. Over time, states have met new federal requirements to extend Medicaid coverage and expanded beyond minimum coverage levels. The brief provides important context for how states may respond as they weigh the costs and benefits of expanding their Medicaid programs in 2014 as called for under the Affordable Care Act.

» VIEW THE BRIEF (pdf)

States continue to move forward, build Affordable Insurance Exchanges

August 24, 2012 (HHS News Release) - Today, Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius announced that California, Connecticut, Hawaii, Iowa, Maryland, Nevada, New York, and Vermont have received new grants to help support the establishment of Affordable Insurance Exchanges. Starting in 2014, consumers and small businesses will have access to high-quality, affordable health insurance through an Exchange – a one-stop marketplace where consumers can choose a private health insurance plan that fits their health needs and have the same kinds of insurance choices as members of Congress.

FUNDING

Rural Health Network Development Planning Program
HRSA-ORHP

This announcement solicits applications for the Rural Health Network Development Planning Grant Program (Network Planning). The purpose of the Network Planning Program is to promote the development of integrated healthcare networks in order to: (i) achieve efficiencies; (ii) expand access to, coordinate, and improve the quality of essential health care services; and (iii) strengthen the rural health care system as a whole. This program brings together key parts of a rural health care delivery system, particularly those entities that may not have collaborated in the past, to work together to establish or improve local capacity and coordination of care. The grant program supports one year of planning to develop and assist health care networks in becoming operational. These networks can include a wide range of community partners including social service agencies, faith-based organizations, mental health agencies, charitable organizations, educational institutions, employers, local government agencies or other entities with an interest in a community's health care system. For purposes of this grant program, a rural health network is defined as an organizational arrangement among at least three separately owned health care providers that come together to develop strategies for improving health services delivery systems in a community. For example a critical access hospital (CAH), a community health center (CHC) and a social services organization could come together around a shared purpose, such as coordination of care, in a collaborative activity that allows them to assess the health care needs within their community, share clinical or administrative resources or ensure that local patients have access to a full continuum of care locally.

Due Date: October 15, 2012