Not displaying correctly? View this email in your web browser... Miss an issue? View the archives...
NCHN eNews
July 3, 2012
This issue's highlights:
  • NCHN News: July Call Calendar
  • Member News: HCC of Rural Missouri July 2012 issue
  • Partner News: NRHA Powerpoint on SCOTUS' ACA Ruling Available
  • National News: Numerous articles covering the impact of the ACA ruling on rural health
  • Funding: Center for Sharing Public Health Services: Shared Services Learning Community

Let us know what's going on with your network
» Send your news

NCHN NEWS

MEMBER BLURBS

PARTNER BLURBS

UPCOMING EVENTS

NATIONAL NEWS

FUNDING

NCHN NEWS FacebookTwitterLinkedIn

Upcoming NCHN Calls & Events

2012 Leadership Summit Committee Call
Monday, July 9 @ 3:00 PM ET
Monday, July 23 @ 3:00 PM ET

Dues Structure Task Force Call
Tuesday, July 10 @ 12:30 PM

RHNR Consulting Task Force Call
Wednesday, July 11 @ 12:00 PM
Wednesday, Jul 25 @ 12:00 PM ET

Executive Committee Call
Monday, July 16 @ 2:00 PM ET

Coffee/Tea Chat with Dr. Chess
Wednesday, July 18 @ 12:00 PM ET

Program Development Committee Call
Tuesday, July 24 @ 1:00 PM ET

2013 Conference Planning Committee Call
Tuesday, July 24 @ 2:00 PM ET

2013 Awards Committee Call
Tuesday, July 31 @ 12:30 PM ET

» VIEW THE NCHN CALENDAR


      from Braingle.com

King Arthur, Merlin, Sir Lancelot, Sir Gawain, and Guinevere decide to go to their favorite restaurant to share some mead and grilled meats. They sit down at a round table for five, and as soon as they do, Lancelot notes, "We sat down around the table in age order! What are the odds of that?"

Merlin smiles broadly. "This is easily solved without any magic." He then shared the answer. What did he say the odds were?

» VIEW THE ANSWER

» TOP

MEMBER NEWS  

Member Newsletters

» TOP

PARTNER BLURBS  

NRHA Powerpoint on SCOTUS' ACA Ruling Available

June 28, 2012 (Rural Health Voices) - NRHA held a webinar today to discuss the Supreme Court’s ruling on the Affordable Care Act and how it will impact health care in rural America. To view the PowerPoint accompanying the webinar, click here (zip).

» CONTINUE READING

» TOP

UPCOMING EVENTS  

The Medical Home Experience: Care Coordination and the Patient's Role in Shared Decision Making and Team Communication
Patient-Centered Primary Care Collaborative

Webinar: July 12, 2012 | 1:00 - 2:30 PM ET

In this webinar, we will explore the definition of the care team and care coordination as well as the key elements of care coordination within the PCMH. We will also talk about the patient’s perspective by reviewing Christine Bechtel’s research on patients and the delivery system as a whole – its challenges and potential solutions – including care coordination and the medical home.

» MORE INFORMATION

Take Action Webinar Series: Focus on What's Important
County Health Rankings & Roadmaps

July 10, 2012 | 2:00 - 3:00 PM CT

Once you’ve accounted for your community’s needs and resources, you will need to decide which problem(s) to tackle. Without focus, all issues seem equally important. Taking time to set priorities will ensure that you direct your community’s valuable and limited resources to the most important issues. Learn about guidance, tools and resources for focusing your community’s efforts and resources on the most important issues to achieve the greatest impact on health.

» MORE INFORMATION

SCOTUS, Health Reform and The Prevention Fund: The Road Ahead for Public Health and Community Prevention
Dialogue4Health

Webinar: July 12, 2012 | 2:30 - 4:00 PM EDT

» JOIN

NRHA Rural Quality and Clinical Conference

July 18 - 20, 2012
Seattle, WA

NRHA’s Rural Quality and Clinical Conference is an interactive conference for quality improvement coordinators, performance improvement coordinators, rural clinicians, quality improvement organizations, and nurses practicing on the front lines of rural health care.

» MORE INFORMATION

HRSA Health IT & Quality Webinar

Topic: "Using Data for Evidence Based Quality Improvement"

Webinar: July 20, 2012 @ 2:00 PM ET

» MORE INFORMATION

NRHA's March for Rural Hospitals

July 30 - 31, 2012
Wasington, D.C.

NRHA is hosting this free education and advocacy event.

Join experts in D.C. to learn how to save Medicare Dependent Hospitals (MDHs) and the Low-Volume Hospital (LVH) program, and take this important message to Capitol Hill:

If congressional action is not taken by Oct. 1, millions of dollars in reimbursements to these facilities will be lost, hospital services will be reduced, and rural hospital doors will close.

» MORE INFORMATION

» TOP

NATIONAL NEWS  

Supreme Court upholds Obama’s health-care law
by Robert Barnes

June 28, 2012 (The New York Times) - Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. on Thursday joined the Supreme Court’s liberals to save the heart of President Obama’s landmark health-care law, agreeing that the requirement for nearly all Americans to secure insurance is permissible under Congress’s taxing authority.

The court’s 5 to 4 ruling was a stunning legal conclusion to a battle that has consumed American politics for two years. Roberts’s compromise offered a dramatic victory for Obama and Democrats’ decades-long effort to enact a health-care law and a bitter defeat for Republicans and tea party activists, who had uniformly opposed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

The decision keeps in place the largest new social program in a generation, a major overhaul of the health-care system that could extend coverage to about 30 million Americans. It creates state-run insurance exchanges and eliminates what have been some of the most unpopular insurance practices.

» CONTINUE READING

AMA president: health care will require larger workforce

July 2, 2012 (The Washington Post) - Ardis Hoven is an HIV specialist based in Lexington, Ky., who in June was elected president of the American Medical Association. Last week she learned of the Supreme Court decision the same way the rest of us did: from television. “I was in my home in Lexington and watching television,” Hoven said. “Luckily I wasn’t on CNN, so I didn’t go through the back-and-forth.”

Hoven was happy to see the news. The AMA has long supported the Affordable Care Act, though doctors look to be split in their opinion of the law. While the law will take big steps toward expanding insurance coverage, Hoven cautions that there are still big challenges for doctors ahead.

» CONTINUE READING

Obama administration and states move forward to implement health care law

June 29, 2012 (HHS News Release) - Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius announced today a new funding opportunity to help states continue their work to implement the health care law -- the Affordable Care Act.  When the law is fully implemented in 2014, the affordable insurance exchanges will provide people and small businesses with one-stop shops to find, compare and purchase affordable, high-quality health insurance.  Today’s announcement makes more funding available to build all models of affordable insurance exchanges available to states. HHS also issued further guidance today to help states understand the full scope of activities that can be funded under the available grant funding as they work to build exchanges.

» CONTINUE READING

Updated: Lists of Designated Primary Medical Care, Mental Health, and Dental Health Professional Shortage Areas

June 29, 2012 (Federal Register) - his notice advises the public of the published lists of all geographic areas, population groups, and facilities designated as primary medical care, mental health, and dental health professional shortage areas (HPSAs) as of April 1, 2012, available on the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) Web site. HPSAs are designated or withdrawn by the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) under the authority of section 332 of the Public Health Service (PHS) Act and 42 CFR part 5.

» CONTINUE READING

Hospital Leaders Ponder Impact of Political Uncertainty
by Cheryl Clark

July 2, 2012 (HealthLeaders Media) - What will be the impact on hospitals now that the U.S. Supreme Court has upheld the constitutionality of most of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act?

Will the Republicans' July 11 threat to repeal the law—unlikely as it may seem—hold back providers' plans to implement pieces of the law? Should organizations wait to see if the party's nominee, Mitt Romney, pushes out President Obama in November? And if Romney is president, should they be prepared for several more seasons of debates and new versions of more bills?

» CONTINUE READING

States Face a Challenge to Meet Health Law’s Deadline

June 28, 2012 (The New York Times) - The Supreme Court’s decision to uphold the Affordable Care Act shifts the focus from whether sweeping changes to the health insurance market should take place to a scramble to meet the law’s rapidly approaching deadlines.

A number of largely Republican-led states that gambled on delay now face the unsettling prospect that the federal government could take over their responsibilities, particularly in setting up the health insurance marketplaces known as exchanges, where people will be able to choose among policies for their coverage.

» CONTINUE READING

Healthcare Reform In Rural America
by Janell Baum

June 28, 2012 (Farm Futures) - Regardless of today's Supreme Court decision, the Affordable Care Act still has an effect on rural American healthcare and insurance issues.

"In a lot of respects, this is a very rural-focused law," said Jon Bailey, Director of Research and Analysis at the Center for Rural Affairs. "It talks about the rural healthcare infrastructure system, how we pay for that, how we incentivize that, and how we get people to become healthcare professionals in rural areas."

» CONTINUE READING

The Daily Yonder Collected Responses about the Impact of the Supreme Court's Decision Will Have on Rural Health

June 28, 2012 (The Daily Yonder) - What does the Supreme Court ruling on the health care law mean for rural America? We'll publish responses as they come in. Here are a few that have come in within the first hour after the ruling.

» CONTINUE READING

Sharp increase expected in number of nurse practitioners
by Victoria Stagg Elliott

July 2, 2012 (amednews.com) - The nurse practitioner population will nearly double by 2025, according to an analysis published in the July Medical Care, the official journal of the medical care section of the American Public Health Assn.

» CONTINUE READING

Healthland Clients Continue to Gain Momentum and Meet Stage 1 Meaningful Use

July 2, 2012 (BusinessWire) - Healthland, America's market leader of healthcare information technology solutions for rural hospitals, today announced that 25 additional clients have successfully attested for Stage 1 Meaningful Use. This latest group of rural hospitals now joins a long list of Healthland clients to reach the milestone.

“For rural hospitals, meeting Stage 1 Meaningful Use requirements can be a challenge, but Healthland helped us overcome those challenges,” said Eric Rice, St. Joseph’s Hospital

» CONTINUE READING

HHS grants bolster health care and public health disaster preparedness

July 2, 2012 (HHS News Release) - The Department of Health and Human Services has awarded more than $971 million to continue improving preparedness and health outcomes for a wide range of public health threats within every state, eight U.S. territories, and four of the nation’s largest metropolitan areas.

“Health care and public health systems that are prepared to respond successfully to emergencies and recover quickly from all hazards are also able to deliver services more effectively and efficiently every day,” said Dr. Nicole Lurie, HHS assistant secretary for preparedness and response. “Having systems in place to provide better treatment for disaster survivors and improved public health for our communities also leads to better health outcomes on a day-to-day basis.”

» CONTINUE READING

» TOP

FUNDING  

Center for Sharing Public Health Services: Shared Services Learning Community
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation

Purpose: Public health agencies play a critical role in our nation’s health system. The dramatic increases in the length and quality of life for so many Americans over the past century are attributed, in large part, to the efforts of public health and the work of public health agencies to keep people healthy and safe. As communities face new challenges, like the increasing burden of chronic disease and lean fiscal environments, and new opportunities like advances in technology, many public health officials and policy-makers are exploring new ways to organize and structure the management and delivery of public health services. One such strategy is the sharing of services, resources and functions across multiple public health agencies and jurisdictions. Referred to as cross-jurisdictional sharing (CJS), these arrangements range from informal agreements around sharing discrete services or programs, to regionalization including the formal merger or consolidation of multiple public health agencies.

In order to better understand the opportunity and impact of cross-jurisdictional sharing among public health agencies, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) will fund up to 18 teams across the country that are exploring, implementing or improving cross-jurisdictional sharing arrangements to participate in the Shared Services Learning Community.

Deadline: August 29, 2012

» MORE INFORMATION

» TOP

NCHN Logo National Cooperative of Health Networks
Contact Us | About Us | www.NCHN.org
To learn more about membership and to join, go to http://www.nchn.org/join.php
or contact Christy Sullenberger at csullenberger@nchn.org