The Missouri Rural Health Association (MRHA) is a non-profit, grass-roots, member-driven organization whose mission is to safeguard and improve the health of rural Missourians. MRHA accomplishes its mission by engaging in partnerships and providing leadership on rural issues through advocacy, communication, education, and research.
Share your thoughts!
The Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services is in the process of developing a new Rural Health Plan. You are invited to take a few minutes to share your ideas and suggestions for improving rural health by completing a survey. Your input is needed in order to create a Rural Health Plan that will be based on your health concerns, your ideas for improving the health of rural Missourians, and your suggestions for increasing access to care for those in rural areas. Please share this link with others in your community so that your voices can be heard!
Click HERE to complete the survey.
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December Newsletter Available - Check the Members Section!
SUMMARY OF NEW HEALTH REFORM LAW
On March 23, 2010, President Obama signed comprehensive health reform, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care
Act, into law. The following summary of the new law, and changes made to the law by subsequent legislation, focuses on
provisions to expand coverage, control health care costs, and improve health care delivery system. Click here to read the summary.
Rural Spotlight is a resource aimed at supporting rural healthcare providers by showcasing current information available for assistance. It is sponsored by the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services, Office of Primary Care and Rural Health.
http://www.ruralspotlight.com/
Letter to Secretary Sebelius regarding CAHs and H1N1 and 1135 Waiver - Click to view documents.
Annie E. Casey Foundation Releases 2009 KIDS COUNT Data Book
According to the twentieth-annual KIDS COUNT Data Book, key indicators of child well-being show slight improvements in six areas since 2000, but 2007 data suggest that conditions have worsened since the beginning of the recession.... More»
Rural Nonprofits Face Funding Gap, Report Finds
The report from the Bridgespan Group found that rural nonprofits are lagging their urban counterparts in funding from federal government, private foundations, and corporations.... More»
Without Federal Reform, Number of Uninsured Could Expand Sharply Over Next Decade, Report Finds
The report from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation found that if substantive healthcare reform is not enacted, the number of uninsured Americans could reach 65.7 million by 2019, with middle-income families hit hardest.... More»
ADOLESCENT SHORTS NEWSLETTER AVAILABLE THROUGH DHSS WEBSITE
The Adolescent Shorts Newsletter, along with other adolescent health related publications, is available through the Department of Health and Senior Services (DHSS) website at http://www.dhss.mo.gov/AdolescentHealth/Publications.html. The latest issue is titled “Transitioning Youth with Special Health Care Needs to Adult Health Care Services, Part 2”. Adolescent Shorts is a bi-monthly newsletter co-published by the DHSS Adolescent Health Program and The Children’s Mercy Hospital. The newsletter addresses current issues and promotes best practices in adolescent health care. For more information on Adolescent Shorts, contact Patti Van Tuinen, at 573-751-6188, or e-mail Patti.VanTuinen@dhss.mo.gov.
America's Health Literacy: Why We Need Accessible Information
This new Issue Brief summarizing health literacy findings from the National Assessment of Adult Literacy (NAAL) has just been published by the Department of Health and Human Services. A collaboration of the Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion (ODPHP), the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), this eight page Issue Brief is crafted for a policy audience, and includes policy implications of the findings. “America's Health Literacy: Why We Need Accessible Information” can be found on the ODPHP's Health Literacy Improvement Website: http://www.health.gov/communication/literacy/default.htm
Task Force recommends screening adolescents for clinical depression
The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force now recommends screening adolescents 12-18 years of age for clinical depression only when systems are in place to ensure accurate diagnosis, treatment and follow-up. (B recommendation) The Task Force found insufficient evidence to assess the balance of benefits and harms of screening children 7-11 years of age for clinical depression. (I statement) The Task Force reviewed new evidence on the benefits and harms of screening children and adolescents for clinical depression, the accuracy of screening tests administered in the primary care setting and the benefits and risks of treating clinical depression using psychotherapy and/or medications in patients 7 and 18 years of age.
Recommended Adult Immunization Schedule --- United States, 2009
The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) annually reviews the recommended Adult Immunization Schedule to ensure that the schedule reflects current recommendations for the licensed vaccines. No new vaccines were added to the schedule. However, several indications were added to the pneumococcal polysaccharide vaccine footnote; clarifications were made to the footnotes for human papillomavirus, varicella, and meningococcal vaccines; and schedule information was added to the hepatitis A and hepatitis B vaccine footnotes.
National Diabetes Education Program
The NRHA has partnered with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Institutes of Health and other national organizations to promote the National Diabetes Education Program (NDEP). The NDEP develops and disseminates educational information on diabetes in minority communities. http://www.ndep.nih.gov/
Safe Practices 2009 - National Quality Forum; Washington DC
The National Quality Forum's Safe Practices for Better Healthcare provides a blueprint for organizations to improve the quality and safety of patient care. The practices are organized into seven content areas: establishing leadership structures and systems, improving safety culture, honoring patient's wishes for informed consent and error disclosure, matching health care needs with delivery capacity, facilitating information transfer and clear communication between providers, managing medications safely, preventing health care–associated infections, and implementing safe practices for specific clinical conditions and sites of care. Since the last update in 2006, seven new practices have been added and others retired. The practices are defined so that organizations can measure the relationship between implementation of the practices and patient safety outcomes.
HCUP
The Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project (HCUP, pronounced "H-Cup") is a family of health care databases and related software tools and products developed through a Federal-State-Industry partnership and sponsored by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ). HCUP databases bring together the data collection efforts of State data organizations, hospital associations, private data organizations, and the Federal government to create a national information resource of patient-level health care data (HCUP Partners). HCUP includes the largest collection of longitudinal hospital care data in the United States, with all-payer, encounter-level information beginning in 1988. These databases enable research on a broad range of health policy issues, including cost and quality of health services, medical practice patterns, access to health care programs, and outcomes of treatments at the national, State, and local market levels.
The Missouri Foundation for Health has released the 2009 edition of Medicaid Basics. This publication provides an overview of Medicaid and an overview of the state’s Medicaid program called MO HealthNet. Click to view the report.
