MEMBER NEWS | PARTNER NEWS | NATIONAL NEWS | LEADERSHIP | UPCOMING EVENTS

• RIGHT... OR EFFECTIVE? (Nov. 13, 2012, RWHC Leadership Insights)
• What Makes a Great Mentor: 10 Traits of True Leadership (Nov. 7, 2012, Becker's Hospital Review)

• Commonwealth Fund Health Grants
  
• E3 — Effectiveness, Efficiency and Excellence in Healthcare (Cardinal Health Foundation)

• NCHN Offices will be closed for Thanksgiving. The Virginia office will be closed November 21- 23 and the Colorado office will be closed November 22 & 23. 
• NCHN celebrated National Rural Health Day: Rebecca participated in the first of NOSORH's NRHD webinars and we sent you an email celebrating our members' success stories. Email us and let us know what you did to celebrate and we will share it in the November e-News.
• The December 10th  Quarterly Membership Call has been rescheduled for Monday, December 3rd at 2:00 PM ET. 

NCHN NEWS

December Coffee/Tea Chat
Wednesday, December 5th at 12:30 PM ET; 11:30 AM CT; 10:30 AM MT; 9:30 AM PT
Welcome to our last Coffee/Tea Chat of 2012!  This Chat is open for any and all network and leadership questions and issues.  We invite you to bring your observations, your challenges, your successes and your perspectives on 2012 to this call.  We look forward to a lively and invigorating wrap up and celebration of this wild and wooly year!  And, in this last conversation, we'll launch ourselves into possibilities for 2013. We'll see you on Wednesday, December 5th! (Details to call in for the Coffee/Tea Chat will be posted on the NCHN On-Line Forum and distributed through a save the date.)

Quarterly Membership Call
Monday, Dec. 3 @ 2:00 PM ET

2013 Conference Planning Committee Call
Wednesday, Dec. 4 @ 2:00 PM

2012 NCHN Leadership Learning Community Call
Wednesday, Dec. 5 @ 10:00 AM ET

2011 Transformer Leadership Learning Community Call
Wednesday, Dec. 5 @ 11:00 AM ET

Coffee/Tea Chat with Mary Kay Chess
Wednesday, Dec. 5 @ 12:30 PM ET

» VIEW THE NCHN CALENDAR

MEMBER NEWS

HCC Executive Director Accepted into Community Health Center Executive Fellowship Program (Nov. 13, 2012, HCC of Rural Missouri)

RWHC's Eye on Health newsletter (December 2012) issue is online

The Hospital Cooperative's Cooperative Connections newsletter (November 2012) issue is available online

Lafayette County Gets Ready for Live Healthy Live Well Day (Nov. 14, 2012, HCC of Rural Missouri)

PARTNER NEWS

SNHPA: New Legislation Would Be Harmful to 340B (Nov. 14, 2012, SNHPA)
Lawmakers have returned to Washington and the final session of the 112th Congress has begun. We understand that drug shortage legislation will soon be introduced that would be harmful to your institution and your indigent care mission. Rep. Bill Cassidy (R-Louisiana), a member of the House Energy and Commerce Health Subcommittee which has direct jurisdiction over 340B, is expected to introduce the “Patient Access to Drugs in Shortage Act.” Dr. Cassidy is currently reaching out to lawmakers from both parties to be original cosponsors. This bill is similar to draft legislation that Senator Hatch (R-Utah) circulated in the spring, but has not introduced at this time. For more information, contact SNHPA directly at 202-552-5855 or kathryn.dibitetto@snhpa.org

NATIONAL NEWS

Telehealth Programs Allow More Rural Seniors to Live at Home (Fall 2012, The Rural Monitor, RAC)
"Throughout the nation, telehealth technology is transforming health care and bringing advanced technologies into homes," says Dr. Ron Poropatich, University of Pittsburgh School of Health Sciences executive director of the Center for Military Medicine Research and associate editor of Telemedicine and e-Health Journal. "Telehealth is key to the delivery and growth of services in the future, particularly in rural areas."
» VIEW THE RURAL MONITOR, Fall 2012 issue

National Rural Health Day Presentations and Slides Available Online (Nov. 2012, CelebratePowerofRural.org)
NOSORH celebrated National Rural Health Day all of last week with a series of webinars from November 12th through the 16th. If you missed the calls, you can access call recordings and presentation slides here.

Hospitals may outperform under new health care law (Nov. 18, 2012, JSOnline.com)
President Barack Obama's re-election has secured the future of health care reform, and many believe that will dramatically change the profit picture for hospitals.

Agriculture Under Secretary Proposes Rule to Spur Development of Rural Broadband Networks (Nov. 16, 2012, USDA News Release)
Agriculture Under Secretary for Rural Development Dallas Tonsager today announced a plan to spur the development of rural broadband networks.

U.S. will need 52,000 more family docs by 2025: study (Nov. 16, 2012, Reuters)
The Affordable Care Act has been put to legal and political tests and is now indisputably the law of the land. It’s time to come together to ensure the law is speedily implemented, and to take the steps necessary to guarantee equitable access to high-quality care, while controlling costs.

4 Medical Home Obstacles Facing Small Physician Practices (Nov. 15, 2012, HealthLeaders Media)
These days, any trained observer of the medical landscape is aware of emerging excitement about patient-centered medical homes. In this new era of value-based care, with the move toward Accountable Care Organizations, many groups are wrapping their hopes for improved patient care around the model.

Medicare Program: Comment Period on Final Rule ends 12/31/12 (Nov. 16, 2012, Federal Register)
This major final rule with comment period addresses changes to the physician fee schedule, payments for Part B drugs, and other Medicare Part B payment policies to ensure that our payment systems are updated to reflect changes in medical practice and the relative value of services.

Feds Seek to Redefine FAR Areas (Nov. 14, 2012, HealthLeaders Media)
When it comes to monitoring the smorgasbord of healthcare mandates from the federal government, rural providers already have a full plate.

Rural Health Care and a Lame Duck Congress (Nov. 19, 2012, The Daily Yonder)
The lame duck session of Congress could do harm to rural hospitals and doctors. As budgets are cut, rural hospitals could lose the federal payments that have kept them solvent.

UPCOMING EVENTS

National Provider Call: Physician Quality Reporting System and Electronic Prescribing Incentive Program (Nov. 20, 2012 | 1:30 - 3:00 PM ET, CMS)

National Provider Call: CMS Plans for the Initial Implementation in 2015 of the Physician Value-Based Payment Modifier under the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule (Nov. 28, 2012 | 3:00 - 4:30 PM ET, CMS)

NRHA's Rural Multiracial and Multicultural Health Conference (Dec. 4 - 6, 2012, Asheville, NC, NRHA)

9th Annual 340B Coalition Winter Conference (Jan. 23 - 25, 2013, San Francisco, CA, The 340B Coalition)