At 10 a.m. today, in a 5-4 decision, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the Affordable Care Act (ACA) in its entirety (with the exception that the federal government’s power to terminate states’ Medicaid funds is narrowly read). The Court could have struck down all or part of the bill as unconstitutional, but instead, upheld each of four distinct legal challenges.

What does the court’s decision mean to rural America?

Whether you support of oppose the health care bill, it is important to know that many provisions were included in the bill that benefit both the rural provider and patient. During the health reform debate, NRHA’s message was clear: Improve rural America’s access to health care providers by resolving the workforce shortage crisis in rural areas, and eliminate long-standing payment inequities for rural providers.

NRHA fought for and won key rural workforce and payment improvements in the bill. Each of these decisions will remain intact in light of today’s decision. However, complete funding for several of the provisions will likely continue to remain challenging. (Many programs “authorized” in the ACA, must actually be funded through a separate act of Congress.) Click here for a complete list of the positive rural provisions in the ACA. (more…)

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), Kansas City Regional Office, will hold a conference call and webinar on the Affordable Care Act and What it Means for Rural Health Providers on June 2nd, 2011, from 12:00 pm to 1:00 pm central.  Neil Thowe, Deputy Regional Director, CMS Kansas City, will provide an overview of the Accountable Care Organization (Medicare Shared Savings Program, Advanced Payment Initiative, Pioneer Model and Accelerated Development Sessions), and discuss the implications for Rural Health Providers.  Our guest speaker, Martie Ross, Attorney, Spencer Fane Britt & Browne LLP, will present on Health Reform in Rural Communities.  A question and answer/listening session will follow both presentations.

Please find below the call-in number, and web-link.
Toll Free Number: (800) 603-1774
Conference ID #: 69845798
Web link/URL:  https://webinar.cms.hhs.gov/ruralhealth/
To login to the webinar, please enter:  Name/Organization

If you have never attended a Connect Pro meeting before, please test your connection prior to the event.  You need to have a version of Flash player that is 9 or greater for the webinar to work.  You may need to download the latest version of Flash player.

If you have other players that are not Adobe products (Microsoft or others) it will not work.  If you receive an Internet Explorer Error while trying to access the site, your version is incompatible with the CMS webinar site and to access the webinar you will need to follow these steps:

1. Go to your web browser and type in www.firefox.com.
2. Click on the download button to download this free browser that is an alternative to Internet Explorer and is compatible with the CMS webinar site.
3. Select the “Standard” download.  You do not have to choose it as a default browser so you can uncheck the box.
4. Once you have downloaded Firefox you will have an icon on your desktop.  Double-click on it to open it up and cut and paste the webinar address in to the address bar at the top and hit enter.

Attendees using a newer version of Internet Explorer may need to follow the steps below to adjust their browser settings if they receive a message telling them the page cannot be displayed.

1. Go to Tools.
2. Click on the Internet Options Tab.
3. Click on the Advanced Tab. Scroll down and make sure the SSL and TLS options are checked.

In the meantime, if you have any questions or need additional information, please contact Nancy Rios at 816-426-6460.