October 19-25, 2009
October 19-25, 2009 |
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In this Issue...
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Fall newsletter now available |
| VRHA News |
| Deadlines Extended! | |
In order to accomodate a special request from a VIP, we have extended the deadlines for both conference registration and hotel rooms for one week.
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| Rural Health Data Portal |
One of the optional activities for Monday afternoon at the conference will be the unvieling of the Rural Health Data Portal!
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| Virginia Rural Health News |
| ARRA Recipients |
By Brian Allmer - BARN OnLine
Read the full article and complete list of recipients.
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By Steve Huff - Roanoke Times What will you do, doctor, when a man who speaks poor English shows up in your emergency room clutching his chest? What about the panicky uninsured woman holding a listless baby? What about your deadbeat neighbor who has simply run out of his diabetes pills? It's a dilemma unique to America, both unfortunate and unnecessary. Other developed countries promote primary care (family doctor, internist, pediatrician) as the portal of entry into the system. In this way problems can be more easily prevented or minimized. Read the full editorial.
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| HIT Advisory Commission |
Governor Kaine announced the creation of the Health Information Technology Advisory Commission by Executive Order 95. The Commission, which will be chaired by Secretary of Health and Human Resources Marilyn Tavenner, is charged with ensuring broad stakeholder engagement and providing guidance to the Governor on the most effective use of American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) funds designated for Health Information Technology. "Health Information Technology has the potential to both reduce costs and improve the quality of health care for all Virginians," Governor Kaine said. "This initiative will ensure that the Commonwealth remains a leader in this area by leveraging the expertise and efforts of our public and private sector partners." Read the full press release.
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| National Rural Health News |
| Help for Rural America |
A press release from Senator Max Baucus - Chair, Senate Finance Committee
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| Reaching Out to Rural Veterans |
By Lanetra Bennett - WCTV.tv Millions of dollars are going into better understanding and treating health care issues of U.S. veterans living in remote areas. Now, Plans are underway for a new V.A. clinic in one rural community. Ed Sheffield from Taylor County was captured just a few days after the Korean War broke out, and was held captive for 37 months. Sheffield said, "I got shot in the leg and I got stabbed in the back with a bayonet. Then they tied our hands behind us and beat us over the head with a butt of a rifle." As you could imagine, he still needs medical and mental treatment. Currently, Sheffield goes to the nearest V.A. clinics, which is about 50 miles to Tallahassee, or about 88 miles to Lake City. But, that should change. The Department of Veterans Affairs says it is negotiating opening an extention V.A. clinic in Perry. The clinic and other expansions will come from the $250 million that the V.A. department is providing to improve services specifically designed for veterans in rural and highly rural areas. Local V.A. physicians, nurses, and research investigators have formed teams to develop and implement innovations such as tele-health technology and home based comprehensive care. Read the full article.
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| Rural Differences in Insurance |
By Roberto Gallardo - The Daily Yonder We’ll make a mistake in revamping our health care system if we think greater employment is the key to getting more people covered by health insurance. It may not be. And we shouldn’t think that rural communities and cities will react the same way to reforms, because they certainly perform differently in today’s system. We know that in the U.S., health care is primarily tied to employment. It would make sense, then, that as employment increases so would the rates of those who have health insurance. That’s not what I found. Instead, I discovered that as the number of people employed goes up in rural counties so does the rate of uninsured. Moreover, there is no relationship between the rate of uninsured and the rate of employment in urban counties. In rural counties, then, employment and health insurance are negatively correlated. In other words, as the number of people employed increases, so does the number of people without health insurance. Clearly there are other factors at play that cause people to lack health insurance besides whether or not they have jobs. Perhaps income? Read the full article.
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Do you have exciting rural health news that needs to be shared? Do you know of an upcoming health-related event which should be on our calendar? E-mail Beth O'Connor at: boconnor@vcom.vt.edu |
Disclaimer: The VRHA circulates state and national news as an information service only. Inclusion of information is not intended as an endorsement. If you prefer to receive email in plain text or rtf format instead of html or if you receive this email more than once, email VRHA. |
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