Small and Rural

AHA staff today participated in a White House Convening on Rural Telehealth, which highlighted the essential role of telehealth in reaching high-need rural families and communities. Officials from the Obama administration, state and local government, academia and the practitioner community…
A recent proposal that calls for reducing the benefits of the 340B Drug Pricing Program to curb rapidly rising prescription drug costs is “misguided,” writes AHA Executive Vice President Tom Nickels in an AHASTAT blog post today.
The rapidly rising costs of prescription drugs is causing significant financial challenges for patients and their care providers. Many groups, including the AHA, are evaluating options for addressing this important issue. However, one recent proposal, which is seriously misguided, would reduce a…
The Health Resources and Services Administration is accepting applications through April 8 for fiscal year 2016 grants to support telehealth services for school-based health centers in rural, frontier and underserved communities. Hospitals may sponsor the health centers and be part of the…
As urged by AHA, states may immediately use alternative ways to document that a critical access hospital is a “necessary provider,” the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services announced today in guidance to state survey agencies. CMS last year issued interpretive guidance that allowed only a…
Medicare and other federal programs must account for the special circumstances of rural communities.