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- March 18, 2010
HRSA Study Finds Nursing Workforce is Growing and More Diverse
Read moreThe number of licensed registered nurses (RNs) in the United States grew to a new high of 3.1 million between 2004 and 2008 according to a report released by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA). This increase of more than 5 percent also reflects growing diversity in the...
00 - March 18, 2010
USDA Funding for Rural Community Facilities
Read moreThrough the Community Facilities Guaranteed Loan Program, USDA partners with private lenders to finance the construction, enlargement and/or improvement of public facilities. Facilities can include, but are not limited to, schools, community colleges and vocational schools, libraries, hospitals, medical clinics, assisted living facilities, fire and rescue stations, police stations,...
- March 18, 2010
CMS Delays OPPS Rule for CAHs
Read moreThe Centers for Medicare & Medicaid (CMS) issued a notice on Monday stating that the supervision requirement for Outpatient Therapeutic Services will not be enforced for Critical Access Hospitals (CAHs). This is good news as most CAHs were not able to comply with the recent outpatient prospective patient system...
- March 17, 2010
Final Meaningful Use Comments Submitted to CMS 3.15.10
Read moreTHE Consortium submitted comments to CMS Monday on the proposed meaningful use and incentive funding rules. Comments were based on input from Consortium members including Critical Access Hospitals, Rural Health Clinics, and other safety net clinics, and focused primarily on the gaps in eligibility for provider-based clinics, lack of...
- March 17, 2010
Webinar available on Colorado Health Information Exchange
Read moreThe Colorado Health Foundation is hosting a webinar on March 31, 2010 on The Role of the Safety Net in Building Colorado’s Health Information Exchange, Part II. This webinar is the second in a two part series featuring Phyllis Albritton, Executive Director of the Colorado Regional Health Information Organization...
- March 17, 2010
Rural Workforce Development Funding
Read moreApplication Deadline: April 20, 2010The federal Office of Rural Health Policy (ORHP) as announced a funding opportunity to support the development of rural health networks that focus on activities relating to the recruitment and retention of emerging health professionals (students and residents). The program seeks to support a range...
- March 15, 2010
Updated Bill Tracking List
Read moreAs I mentioned last week, there aren’t any new bills posted on the bill tracker, though most of the bills we are following have been scheduled for a hearing. Of note is HB10-1138: Colorado Health Service Corps. CRHC is supporting this bill, which is seeking to rebrand the state...
- March 11, 2010
We Need to Hear from CAHs
Read moreThe Centers for Medicare & Medicaid (CMS) proposed rule changes to the 2010 Outpatient Prospective Payment System (OPPS) recently went into effect. There has been quite a bit of outreach from other state’s in regards to this final rule especially in regards to the physician supervision requirements for outpatient...
- March 11, 2010
State & Federal Updates
Read moreI won’t be posting the bill tracking list this week as there have been no real substantive changes since last week. We are anxiously awaiting the HCPF figure setting, which is set to occur on Tuesday, March 16th. We’ll know then if the JBC is recommending the 10% cuts...
- March 10, 2010
EHR as a Physician Recruitment Tool?
Read moreRural hospitals and clinics are no strangers to the challenges of recruiting and retaining high quality clinical staff. A recent Health IT Pulse article argues that in spite of the cultural barriers, costs and resources involved in adopting technology, the benefits obtained in being able to recruit staff who...
