$75 Million Investment in Rural Health Care

September 24, 2024: The Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), an agency of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), announced nearly $75 million to support health care services in rural America. Funding will launch new opioid treatment and recovery services in rural communities, strengthen maternal health care in the South, and help rural hospitals stay open. HRSA Administrator Carole Johnson attended an event yesterday in Wilson, North Carolina, where she discussed the impact of this investment in rural health care.

The announcement includes the following HRSA investments:

• Launching and expanding substance use disorder treatment, recovery, and social support services in rural communities: HRSA is awarding nearly $54 million over four years to 18 organizations to create new or expand existing access points for treatment and recovery services, support the behavioral health workforce, and collaborate with social services to ensure coordinated care and sustainable impact in rural communities.
• Expanding access to maternal health services in the South: HRSA is awarding nearly $9 million over four years to five organizations in the Delta region of the South to expand access to and coordinate health care services before, during, and after pregnancy.
• Supporting the viability of rural hospitals: HRSA is providing nearly $12 million over three years to fund technical assistance to rural hospitals to help them add or expand health care services to meet community needs, keep care close to home for their patients, and ultimately improve financial sustainability for these facilities so they can stay open.

Read the full press release HERE.

Source: HHS

HRSA Funds Behavioral Health Service Expansions

The federal Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) has announced $240 million in awards to launch and expand mental health and substance use disorder services in more than 400 community health centers across the country.  

Because community health centers are a primary source of care for individuals across the country who are uninsured, underinsured, or enrolled in Medicaid, it positions them well to respond to the urgent need for behavioral health services that are high-quality, stigma-free, culturally competent and readily accessible. These grants are expected to help expand access to needed care to help tackle the nation’s mental health and opioid crises.

HRSA has made expanding access to mental health and substance use disorder services a top priority. In addition to today’s announcement, recent HRSA activities include:

• For the first time, making mental health a required component of HRSA’s initiative to expand school-based community health centers;
• Funding partnerships between pediatricians and psychiatrists to allow for mental health tele-consultation, giving pediatricians real-time mental health clinical support in caring for their patients’ behavioral health needs;
• Expanding HRSA’s primary care/psychiatric care teleconsultation partnerships to schools and emergency departments;
• Training thousands of new mental health providers including psychologists, psychiatric nurses, licensed clinical social workers, and counselors;
• Securing Bipartisan Safer Communities Act funding to integrate mental health into primary care physician residency training programs;
• Supporting rural communities in creating new rural access points for opioid use disorder treatment including providing medications to treat opioid use disorder;
• Building behavioral health care services for children in rural communities;
• Providing loan repayment for unprecedented numbers of mental health providers in return for their practice in high need communities;
• Launching the National Maternal Mental Health Hotline at 833-TLC-MAMA to support the mental and emotional health of expectant and new moms; Training community health workers, peer support specialists and others with lived experience in supporting patients with behavioral health needs; and 
• Proposing an innovative new peer-to-peer program in the President’s Fiscal Year 2025 Budget to train young people to support one another’s mental health needs while building an early pathway into the behavioral health workforce.

Read the full press release HERE.

Source: HHS

Introducing Food is Medicine

HRSA informs us about important collaborative work to advance Food Is Medicine that is underway within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) in support of the National Strategy on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health. Today, 60% of adults have one or more diet-related chronic-disease. 

Food Is Medicine affirms the connection between diet and health and recognizes that access to high-quality nourishment is essential for individuals and communities to thrive. To date, there are a variety of Food Is Medicine models and the landscape, which includes health centers, is quickly evolving.

Multiple federal agencies worked together to develop the following resources (available on HHS’ Food Is Medicine website):

• Foundational Understanding Tools: Key materials that provide support to understand policy and state data profiles related to Food Is Medicine opportunities.
• Federal Food Is Medicine Resource Hub: Information on relevant federal policies, regulations, educational tools, and funding opportunities to support Food Is Medicine programs.
• Promising Practices: Models and emerging practices for broad, scalable Food Is Medicine implementation, including within health centers.
• Bright Spots: Case studies that are designed to provide actionable insights from innovators across the nation.
• Provider Continuing Education Resources: Continuing education opportunities for health care professionals to advance their understanding of nutrition and application of Food Is Medicine.
• Analytic Framework: Priority measurement domains and metrics to advance Food Is Medicine evaluation.

Source: HRSA

BPHC CX Summit

From BPHC:  Our entire bureau is coming together for a two-day internal customer experience (CX) summit on Wednesday, October 16, and Thursday, October 17. During these two days, staff will focus on improving your experience working with us. We will, of course, respond to any time-sensitive needs. Please use the BPHC Contact Form or call 877-464-4772 to speak with our Health Center Program Support team.

BPHC supports nearly 1,400 health centers across the country, and we are committed to providing every one of you with an exceptional customer experience. It’s important to us that you have the information and resources you need when you need them so that you can serve your patients best.

During the summit we’ll take a deep look at what’s working well and where we can improve. Our goals are to:

• Transform the way BPHC approaches CX with an eye toward greatest impact.
• Promote active staff connection and meaningful CX engagement.
• Integrate health center and staff input in defining CX pressure points and identifying potential solutions.

Thank you to the many health centers who have already provided feedback through listening sessions at conferences. We will have a health center panel during our summit so staff can hear directly about your experiences. We want you to know that we are listening, and we will continue to use your feedback to improve our processes. Health center voices matter and we invite you to be our partner on this journey.

We welcome additional feedback through the BPHC Contact Form (Customer Experience > Request a Customer Experience feedback session with BPHC).

Source: BPHC