Newswire Archives
The Institute for Healthcare Improvement’s National Steering Committee for Patient Safety released a national action plan to accelerate patient safety progress across the care continuum. The plan has principles, recommendations, and examples to help health care organizations advance patient safety.
The Plan can be obtained at http://forms.ihi.org/national-action-plan?hsCtaTracking=5aff5040-7b47-4fde-b44e-620597380a7d%7C919b960f-4785-4fc3-bfe6-83d96eaec247.
On Monday, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) has issued a Discussion Draft of the Preliminary Framework for Equitable Allocation of COVID-19 Vaccine, commissioned by the Centers for Disease Control and the National Institutes of Health. Public comments are being accepted until until 11:59 p.m. ET on Friday, September 4.
The discussion draft and link for public comment may be accessed here.
The Health Professions and Nursing Education Coalition (HPNEC), of which ASAHP is a member, has begun an initiative to collect examples of how HRSA Title VII and Title VIII workforce program grantees are on the frontlines of fighting COVID-19 and how they have been impacted by the pandemic. Examples gathered may be used by HPNEC in its advocacy work, and may be provided as a follow up to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), following Friday’s call. ASAHP encourages its members that are grantees of these health workforce programs to respond to this brief form.
On Friday, ASAHP joined the Health Professions and Nursing Education Coalition (HPNEC), of which ASAHP is a member, in a call with the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to advocate for HRSA Title VII and Title VIII workforce program funding and to share how important these programs are to our current and future health workforce. ASAHP joins HPNEC in requesting $790 million for Title VII and VIII for FY 2021 and at least $367 million in supplemental emergency funding, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, for those programs to support our current and future health workforce.
More information on HPNECs funding positions may be found here.
On Monday, the Department of Education issued its final rule on distance education. The regulations stem from the 2018-2019 negotiated rule making process and aim to provide flexibility and to modernize distance learning. The regulations will take effect o July 1, 2021.
The Department of Education’s unofficial copy of its Distance and Innovation Final Rule may be accessed here, and the Department’s fact sheet summary may be accessed here. More details may be accessed here.
ASAHP has compiled selected education and workforce provisions to include in a side-by-side comparison of the Democrat’s HEROES Act, Republican’s HEALS Act, and Republican’s “Skinny” HEALS Act. The Senate Republican’s skinny bill was released as an attempt to appeal to more Senate Republicans and renew negotiations with the House. Senate Leadership is looking at mid to late September for the completion of the next COVID funding bill.
Side-By-Side Comparison is available here.
The Department of Education has announced it is accepting application for the Institutional Resilience and Expanded Postsecondary Opportunity (IREPO) grants program. Created by the CARES Act, IREPO is designed to help intuitions of higher education emerge from the Coronavirus pandemic more resilient and expand educational opportunities for students. Priority for grant awards will be given to colleges and universities with the greatest unmet needs related to COVID-19. $28,000,000 in estimated funds are available for an estimated 19 awards. The deadline of the notice of intent to apply is September 10, 2020, and the application deadline date is October 20, 2020.
The notice is available here and more information may be accessed here.
The American Federation of Teachers and the Student Borrower Protection Center have issued a new, interactive 50 state map which includes data on Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF), Temporary Expanded PSLF (TEPSLF), and Employer Certification Form (ECF) Rejections.
The interactive map and the joint investigative report by the AFT and SBPC may be accessed here.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced today the provision of combined investments of $6.5 million in two commercial diagnostic laboratories to expand capacity by performing an additional one million SARS-CoV-2 tests each week by early October.
The announcement can be obtained at https://www.hhs.gov/about/news/2020/08/13/hhs-invests-in-diagnostic-labs-to-expand-covid-19-testing-capacity-in-the-united-states.html.
Qualified health care service and support providers now have access to relief funds for appropriate expenses, lost revenue due to COVID-19, or to help uninsured Americans get testing and treatment for COVID-19. Through the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act and the Paycheck Protection Program and Health Care Enhancement Act (PPPCHE), the federal government has allocated $175 billion in payments to be distributed through the Provider Relief Fund (PRF). These payments do not need to be repaid to the US government, assuming providers comply with the terms and conditions. All groups will have until Friday, August 28, 2020 to apply.
More information may be accessed here.
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) released COVID-19 testing plans for state, local, and territorial jurisdictions through the rest of calendar year 2020. These plans set specific targets for COVID-19 testing in each jurisdiction.
Testing plans can be obtained at https://www.hhs.gov/coronavirus/testing-plans/index.html.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the health care field added 125,500 jobs in July, increasing nearly 1% to a seasonally adjusted 15.7 million. Office-based providers, such as physicians and dentists, continued to account for much of the increase. Nursing and residential care facilities continued to lose jobs and are about 6.5% below their peak in February 2020.
The report can be obtained at https://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.t17.htm.
On Saturday, President Trump took executive action after negotiations over the next iteration of pandemic relief stalled. The President’s action’s, through one Executive Order and three memorandums, would provide a deferment of payroll taxes for most workers, calls for $400 per week in unemployment benefits, would extend moratorium on evictions to the end of the year, and defers student loan payments and interest until the end of the year. The legality of the executive actions is in question and may be determined by the courts, and Congress and the Administration may eventually find agreement on new pandemic relief legislation which addresses these issues.
The Memorandum on Student Loan payment relief may be accessed here. More analysis may be accessed here.
The webinar recording for “Keeping Students Safe in the Age of COVID-19” is now available to watch on-demand. Experts discussed best practices to help keep your healthcare students safe from COVID-19 on-campus but also in their daily lives with jobs, family, and social obligations.
Today the Congressional Rural and Underserved Communities Health Task Force held a bipartisan member roundtable, “Examing the Role of Telehealth During COVID-19 and Beyond”. Participants included: members of the Task Force; Tearsanee Carlisle Davis, DNP, FNP-BC, FAANP, Director of Clinical and Advanced Practice Operations at the University of Mississippi Medical Center’s Center for Telehealth and Assistant Professor at UMMC School of Nursing; Ateev Mehrotra, MD, MPH, Associate Professor of Health Care Policy, Department of Health Care Policy, Harvard Medical School; Associate Professor of Medicine and Hospitalist, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center; Keris Myrick, MBA, Chief of Peer and Allied Health Professions for the Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health; and Jason Tibbels, MD, Chief Quality Officer, Teladoc Health; President, The Institute of Patient Safety and Quality of Virtual Care.
Roundtable Discussion link
Statement from Ways and Means Chairman Richard E. Neal
The College Crisis Initiative (C2i) and Project PRONTO++, initiatives of Davidson College, have made available an interactive map featuring the Fall 2020 plans for academic instruction of about 3,000 institutions of higher education.
The website may be accessed here.
ASAHP joined numerous other associations as part of the Federation of Associations of Schools of the Health Professions (FASHP), in urging Congressional leadership to include student loan forgiveness for health professionals in it’s next COVID-19 supplemental package.
The letter may be accessed here.
Details on the Behavioral Health Workforce Education and Training (BHWET) Program grants are now available. HRSA’s BHWET Professionals and BHWET Paraprofessionals grants are expected to be posted on November 6, 2020, with an expected application deadline of February 4, 2021. There are expected to be 92 BHWET Professionals awards, with an estimated total program funding of $44.2 million. There are expected to be 37 BHWET Paraprofessionals awards, with an estimated total program funding of $13.8 million.
More information may be found on grants.gov
President Trump on August 3, 2020 signed an executive order with directives to: launch a new payment model for rural health care; develop and implement a strategy to improve rural health care infrastructure; create a report describing policy initiatives to improve rural health; and propose regulation that would extend certain telehealth flexibilities.
The executive order can be obtained at https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/executive-order-improving-rural-health-telehealth-access/.
A report from the Bipartisan Policy Center discusses how to improve experience, outcomes, and well-being for Medicare-Medicaid beneficiaries. Given the lack of coordination in the current system, there also is potential for savings over the long term, primarily in the form of reduced hospitalizations, hospital readmissions, emergency department visits, and post-acute care.
The report can be obtained at https://bipartisanpolicy.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/BPC_Health_Integration_of_Care_V3.pdf.
