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AHA Urges FCC to Simplify Access to Broadband Funding for Rural Health Care - The AHA today urged the Federal Communications Commission to streamline its application and eligibility requirements for funding to help rural health care providers develop and use broadband services....

Telemedicine at the eICU - Journal-Standard, (IL) article tells of a new form of telemedicine that allows medical information to be electronically passed safely and securely from one site to another, providing a connection between rural physicians and hospitals to specialists at larger hospitals in metropolitan areas....

Program Cuts Red Tape for Volunteer Health Professionals - To make volunteering in an emergency easier for health professionals, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response launched a national website for the Emergency System for Advance Registration of Volunteer Health Professionals (ESAR-VHP)....

HHS Launches First of its Kind Consumer Focused Website in Spanish, Partner Site of HealthCare.gov - The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services today unveiled CuidadodeSalud.gov, http://www.cuidadodesalud.gov/enes/, the first website in Spanish of its kind to help consumers take control of their health care by connecting them to new information and resources that will help them access quality, affordable health care coverage....

Meaningful Use: Six Strategic Questions Rural Hospitals Should be Asking - Rural Health IT article gives six key questions all providers that are intent on participating in the meaningful use health information technology incentive program should be asking....

Highways: Rural Areas Underserved - Clarionledger.com, (MS) article discusses how the nation's rural highway system needs significant improvement and Mississippi is an excellent example of why that's true....

Decline in US Adult Smoking Rate Stalled - Despite the known dangers of tobacco use, 1 in 5 American adults continues to smoke cigarettes, and 4 in 10 nonsmokers were exposed to cigarette smoke during 2007-2008, according to reports from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention....

AHRQ Releases New Spanish Language Guides for Patients - The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality today released a series of free evidence-based guides designed to help Spanish speakers understand and compare the risks, benefits and side effects of treatments for eight health conditions....

Growing Number of Patients Find a Hospital Stay Does Not Mean They're Admitted - Kaiser Health News article tells that hospitals are increasingly using observation care to cope with rising constraints from Medicare, which is under pressure to control costs. But the decision can mean more out-of-pocket expenses for patients....

A Few Rural Clinics are Resolved to Stay Open - The Sacramento Bee (CA) article tells what some clinics in rural California are doing to stay open in the face of severe state budget cuts....

Secretaries Sebelius and Duncan Announce National Coalition to Enroll Uninsured Kids in Health Care - U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and U.S. Department of Education Secretary Arne Duncan highlight the Connecting Kids to Coverage Challenge to enroll five million children in Medicaid and CHIP within five years. Also included is a newly released report from The Urban Institute on states success enrolling target populations in Medicaid and CHIP....

UnitedHealth to Loan $10M, Give $1M to Help Californias Critical Access Hospitals - San Francisco Business Times reports that UnitedHealth Group said Wednesday it will loan $10 million to help small rural hospitals in California improve their IT systems and adopt electronic health records, and will also provide $1 million in grants to get the process started....

USDA Rural Development Under Secretary Tonsager Announces Recipients of Rural Business Enterprise Grants - USDA Rural Development Under Secretary Dallas Tonsager has announced that 45 states, the Western Pacific region and the commonwealth of Puerto Rico will benefit from funding made available under the Rural Business Enterprise Grant program (RBEG)....

Agriculture Secretary Vilsack Announces Recovery Act Support for Public Safety, Community Centers, Public Schools and Health Care Facilities - Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack yesterday announced investments in 28 states that will create jobs and improve needed infrastructure in rural communities across the nation....

Pawlenty Moves to Block Federal Health Reform Cash from Minnesota - Minneapolis-St. Paul Business Journal (MN) article reports that Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty has issued an executive order directing state agencies to decline all discretionary participation in the federal health care legislation....

White House Drug Policy Director Awards $85.6 Million to Local Communities to Prevent Youth Drug Use - Gil Kerlikowske, Director of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP), announced $22 million in new Drug Free Communities Support Program (DFC) grants to 169 communities and 16 new DFC Mentoring grants across the country. These awards are in addition to the $63 million in Continuation grants simultaneously released to 549 currently funded DFC coalitions and seven DFC Mentoring Continuation coalitions. The grants provide community coalitions needed su...

AHA Urges Changes to OPPS/ASC Proposed Rule - AHA News reports on concerns with certain provisions in the proposed CY 2011 prospective payment system rule for hospital outpatient services and ambulatory surgical centers. Among them was a request that CMS adhere closely to the ACA language on whole hospital and rural provider exceptions to the physician self-referral prohibition....

VA Publishes Final Regulation to Aid Veterans Exposed to Agent Orange - Veterans exposed to herbicides while serving in Vietnam and other areas will have an easier path to access quality health care and qualify for disability compensation under a final regulation that expands the list of health problems VA will presume to be related to Agent Orange and other herbicide exposures to add two new conditions and expand one existing category of conditions....

Agriculture Secretary Vilsack Announces Support for Rural Electric Infrastructure Improvements - Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack yesterday announced that 37 rural utilities and cooperatives in 20 states have been selected to receive guaranteed loans that will benefit more than 60,000 rural electric cooperative consumers by financing the construction and repair of almost 7,000 miles of distribution and transmissions lines....

ORHP Announces Funding Opportunity for the Rural Health Network Development Grant Program - The Office of Rural Health Policy (ORHP) is pleased to announce the release of the Rural Health Network Development Grant Program (RHND), a program to assist health oriented networks in developing and maintaining sustainable networks with self-generating revenue streams....

Initial EHR Certification Bodies Named - The Certification Commission for Health Information Technology (CCHIT), Chicago, Ill. and the Drummond Group Inc. (DGI), Austin, Texas, were named today by the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) as the first technology review bodies that have been authorized to test and certify electronic health record (EHR) systems for compliance with the standards and certification criteria that were issued by the U.S. De...

Sebelius Announces 1 Million Medicare Beneficiaries Have Received Prescription Drug Cost Relief Under the Affordable Care Act - As part of the health insurance reform laws step-by-step efforts to close the Medicare Part D prescription drug coverage gap, eligible beneficiaries who fall in this donut hole this year are mailed a one-time, tax-free $250 rebate check....

Agriculture Deputy Secretary Merrigan Joins USDA Employees in Donating Over 800 Pounds of Food to Rural Food Bank - Agriculture Deputy Secretary Kathleen Merrigan today joined employees from six USDA agencies at an event in Nevada highlighting the Feds, Farmers and Friends Feed Families Food Drive, the national federal employee food drive initiative....

Secretary Sebelius Announces an Expansion of the Rural Community Hospital Demonstration Under the Affordable Care Act - HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius announced that the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services seeks up to 20 additional hospitals to participate in Medicare's Rural Community Hospital Demonstration Program, which pays eligible small rural hospitals for covered inpatient hospital services under a cost-based methodology....

Medicaid EMR Guidelines Spell Out State Help for Doctors - American Medical News article reports that the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has published details for state Medicaid directors on what they should expect from the federal government as they administer the Medicaid portion of the electronic medical records (EMR) incentive program starting in 2011....

Medicare Program; Rural Community Hospital Demonstration Program: Solicitation of Additional Participants - This notice from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services announces a solicitation for up to 20 additional eligible hospitals to participate in the Rural Community Hospital Demonstration program for a 5-year period....

Future of Primary Care? Some Say 'Medical Home' - NPR article discusses how the patient-centered medical home is an idea that's spreading around the nation, and could be the future of primary care....

Groups Press Congress to End Patients' Wait for Medicare - Kaiser Health News article tells how a coalition of more than 65 organizations led by the Medicare Rights Center has been pushing Congress to do away with the waiting period for Medicare....

Medicare Imposes Stronger Protections on Medical Equipment Suppliers - The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) today issued a final rule representing another step to increase protections for Medicare and beneficiaries from potentially fraudulent suppliers of durable medical equipment, prosthetics, orthotics, and supplies (DMEPOS)....

HUD Announces $189 Million Available to Revitalize Communities - The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development announced yesterday that it is making $189 million in grants available to transform public and assisted housing and to revitalize communities....