The Membership Organization of State Offices of Rural Health
NOSORH committees are great focal points for engaging in many NOSORH initiatives. Descriptions of all committees and contact information can be found on the NOSORH website.
JCREC- On the Joint Committee on Rural Emergency Care several states shared their activities: Minnesota on the challenges of an aging volunteer EMS force, Georgia on their success in Medicaid proposals on EMS in the state, and New Mexico on identifying data sets for Tribal health. NRHA has also developed an EMS Policy Paper that will be made available soon.
Board – The NOSORH Board of Directors will meet in March to review a first draft logic model which will provide a framework for NOSORH’s next strategic plan. Graham Adams (SC) has been appointed to lead a “Futures” task force to provide insight for the strategic plan on the role of the SORH in the future and to consider NOSORH services to ensure SORH are able to thrive in the new environment.
Executive– The Executive Committee met last month to plan some of the actions for moving forward with a 2018-2021 Strategic Plan. Melissa Van Dyne, NOSORH President, has appointed a task force to review NOSORH’s committee structure and governance. In addition, the committee is planning to conduct a review of the Executive Director salary structure.
Flex – The Flex committee has been re-purposed to allow for a simple dialogue among Flex coordinators and other SORH who have an interest in Flex issues. Meetings will no longer be recorded, and the agenda will be driven by discussion items provided to committee co-chairs Jody Ward (NC) and John Packham(NV). Last month, the committee began by considering and discussing how the Flex program could be used to respond to community and CAH needs to support primary care, address population health and social determinants of health.
PPMT –The Policy Program Monitoring Team has released a listing of essential community providers in each state. SORH and their partners are encouraged to check the list and provide feedback. A series of webinar/discussion sessions are being planned to look at state policies to ensure access to care. The committee met last month to review the 340 B Study released by the House Energy and Commerce committee, Medicaid waivers, and short term duration health plans. The committee meets the 4th Wednesday of every month at 3 PM eastern. All SORH should consider joining the call for regular updates on policy and program changes.
RHC – The Rural Health Clinic committee met last month and heard from NOSORH partners at the Compliance Team, the Southern Maine Rural Health Research Centers, the National Association of Rural Health Clinics regarding issues of concern for RHC including survey requirements, and the National Advisory Committee on Rural Health and Human Services RHC report. The committee serves as an advisory group and faculty for the upcoming Rural Health Clinic Institute for SORH.
Education Exchange – The Education Exchange committee met for a combined January and February meeting on February 5th, 2018. The committee began discussing opportunities for education related to “health and wellness”, led by co-chair Natalie Claiborne as a follow up to the January NOSORH Board meeting. An educational fact sheet/issue brief on Medicare Advantage plans is currently being drafted. The next EE committee meeting will be March 19, 2018 at 4:00pm ET.
Communications– The Communications Committee met to provide recommendations on the new Roots newsletter template created in Constant Contact. The Committee will begin discussing initial plans for National Rural Health Day 2018.
NOSORH committees are great focal points for engaging in many NOSORH initiatives. Descriptions of all committees and contact information can be found on the NOSORH website.
Board- The NOSORH Board had a full agenda for the December 18th meeting. The Board approved recommendations from the task force on annual meeting sites. Sites for the next 3 years include Cheyenne, WY (2018), Albuquerque, NM (2019), and Sarasota Springs, NY (2020). The Board endorsed a framework for SORH proficiencies, which provide a tool for SORH self-assessment, and approved updated personnel policies and procedures. The board also approved August and October minutes.
Finance – NOSORH will release a Request for Proposals for an investment advisor later this month. For more information, contact Donna Pfaendtner, Administrator.
PPMT – The Policy Program Monitoring Team reviewed the need for SORH education on policy “levers” to address rural health access. A webinar is planned for February. Last month, the PPMT provided insight on comments made to CMS regarding Letters to Issuers and to the FCC on Net Neutrality. The next committee meeting will be held January 24th with a new meeting time of 3:00 PM eastern.
Educational Exchange – The EE Committee is excited to showcase a document which highlights the work completed by the committee over the last year. The Educational Exchange Committee Project Year 2017: A Year in Review is now available on the NOSORH website. In addition, the EE is completing their review of the SORH Proficiencies, which are anticipated to be available in March. Due to scheduling conflicts, the next EE Committee meeting will be held on February 5th at 4:00pm ET and will cover the months of January and February.
JCREC- The JCREC is looking forward to entering 2018 by finishing up work on the 2018 JCREC Workplan with NASEMSO, NOSORH, NRHRC, and NRHA. Welcome to the new NOSORH Chair of the JCREC, Joyce Hospodar of Arizona. The agenda has been set for the 2018 National Rural EMS & Care Conference in Tucson, AZ with the registration coming out very soon.
RHC- The RHC Committee discussed the report coming from the National Advisory Committee regarding a “modernizing RHC workgroup” meeting that was held in Idaho in 2017. They explored a joint webinar with the Aging in Rural Interest Group on helping RHCs understand the steps necessary to provide home health services.
Communications- The Communications Committee has been reviewing the outcomes from National Rural Health Day 2017 and will soon be making plans for 2018. The group also made recommendations for a revamp of the Roots newsletter template.
Workforce- The National Rural Recruitment and Retention Network (3RNet) and NOSORH work together to convene 3RNet and NOSORH members to discuss rural workforce issues and educational needs. The committee met last month and reviewed educational needs, including interest in more education on emerging health professions. The group also expressed interest in a workforce pre-conference at the NOSORH annual meeting this year to bring together state and national stakeholders to identify collaborative approaches to improve rural health workforce.
NOSORH committees are great focal points for engaging in many NOSORH initiatives. Descriptions of all committees and contact information can be found on the NOSORH website.
Executive Committee – During the November meeting the committee reviewed and discussed plans for the NOSORH Board’s annual strategic planning effort. The Board will meet in January in San Antonio to review and develop the strategic focus of NOSORH work.
PPMT – Last month, the Policy and Program Monitoring Team prepared comments on the DHHS strategic plan, and comments to CMS on Expanded Opportunities for Participating in Advanced Payment Models last month. The December call is being held at an earlier time on December 6th at 3 PM and will be focused on comments to the FCC on rural broadband.
Finance– The Finance Committee is preparing to send out a request for proposals for any potential financial advisors. If you have any recommendations, please forward them to Donna Pfaendtner at donnap@nosorh.org.
Workforce – 3RNet and NOSORH are making plans to continue their work to build collaboration on rural workforce issues. A meeting will be held in December to review SORH and 3R Net members needs for education on rural residencies, emerging health professions and telehealth workforce issues.
Educational Exchange – The full EE committee did not meet in November, while the SORH Proficiencies workgroup continued developing the final framework. The Proficiencies will be ready for Board and EE committee review at their December meetings. The next EE committee meeting will be December 18, 2017 at 4:00 pm ET.
JCREC- Dr. David Wheeler of Wyoming joined the Joint Committee on Rural Emergency Care for a special discussion on the “Joint Commission Proposed New Stroke Center Category.” The National Rural EMS & Care Conference planning has begun for the 2018 conference in Tucson, Arizona, and the EMS Agenda for the Future collaborative work is well under way. The next meeting will be December 11th at 3pm Eastern.
NOSORH committees are great focal points for engaging in many NOSORH initiatives. Descriptions of all committees and contact information can be found on the NOSORH website.
RHC Committee- The committee discussed the release of a new toolkit: Engaging SORH and RHCs in Value-Based Care. They discussed the Emergency Preparedness rule again and shared many valuable resources and templates. They also began the conversation about a joint webinar with the Aging in Rural Interest Group about home health services.
Development committee – The Development Committee reviewed the initial results from the SORH Compensation Survey and discussed the completion of the full report.
Educational Exchange- The Educational Exchange committee met to review the progress of the workgroups, and to conduct a mini-roundtable discussion on “communicating the value of your SORH”. During the meeting, the group identified appropriate steps in providing education and resources to SORH on methods of communicating the value of their SORH office based on the resources available, and restrictions in place, for each office.
NOSORH Board of Directors – The Board met in October and began preparing for the annual board planning meeting. A report was provided by Mary Sheridan (ID) who serves on the National Advisory Committee on Rural Health and Human Services and helped to facilitate informing the committee about rural issues earlier this fall in Idaho. The committee will release an official report later this year. The Board provided input on comments made to DHHS on their strategic plan. Thanks to all of the NOSORH Board Regional Representatives who did a great job collecting information from SORH about their National Rural Health Day efforts.
Executive Committee – The October meeting of the Executive Committee included planning the October Board meeting and a report on the work of the task force working on annual meeting sites for 2018-2020.
Flex Committee- The Flex Committee co-chairs have decided to modify the meeting schedule for the Flex Committee and be more deliberate with our timing to avoid other meetings and deadlines. Due to members diligently working on Flex reporting and holiday scheduling challenges, it was decided to cancel the next 3 Flex Committee meetings and resume meeting on January 25 at 3pm ET. Please mark your calendar now for all 5 meetings next year. All calls are at 3pm EASTERN on the 4th Thursday of the months listed below. Dial-in information is the same.
2018 schedule:
January 25
March 22
May 24
August 23
October 25
NOSORH committees are great focal points for engaging in many NOSORH initiatives. Descriptions of all committees and contact information can be found on the NOSORH website.
Development committee – The Development Committee reviewed a draft of the next Beyond the Basics Grant Writing Institute that NOSORH will be offering in a new on-demand format. The committee will look at revenue generating opportunities and building additional sponsorships in the coming month. The next meeting will be held October 10th at 2:00 pm ET.
Educational Exchange- The Educational Exchange committee has begun digging into the notes from the Rural Health Roundtable discussions that occurred at the NOSORH Annual Meeting. The group will be diving deeper into these topics to identify what resources may be beneficial for the membership. In addition, two new fact sheets on value-based payments are now available for SORHs to use when engaging with rural providers. The next regularly scheduled meeting will be held on October 16th at 4:00 pm ET.
Executive Committee – The Committee discussed all follow up needed from the Annual Meeting, including work on National Rural Health Day and following up with partners. The Committee heard from the President-Elect regarding plans for the 2018 board activities.
Communications Committee – The Communications Committee has been busy planning National Rural Health Day (NRHD) activities, including three live, 30-mintue webinars to be held on the afternoon of November 16. The next meeting will be held on November 7 at 2:00 pm ET.
JCREC – The Joint Committee on Rural Emergency Care sponsored a pre-conference learning session in Savannah. Attendees heard about First Net efforts, provided initial input for the Rural EMS Agenda for the Future. During the September meeting of the committee heard member updates, discussed beginning the planning for the Rural EMS meeting this spring and learned more about plans to develop a Rural EMS Agenda for the Future.
NOSORH committees are great focal points for engaging in many NOSORH initiatives. Descriptions of all committees and contact information can be found on the NOSORH website.
Board of Directors – The August Board of Directors meeting included updates on all strategic priorities of the 2017-18 year. The Board endorsed a recommendation from the Development Committee to increase basic dues by 5% from $1500 to $1575, which will increase NOSORH budget for dues revenue by a total of $3750. The Board agreed to consider a joint meeting with 3RNet in 2019.
Development Committee –The committee reviewed and tested the Directors survey on salary, compensation and breadth of SORH work last month. Results of the survey will be shared with all participating states and provide information on funding sources, staffing, and levels of effort of SORH Directors. The committee also made a recommendation to increase dues by $75 to keep up with higher operating costs. The group also provided feedback on potential NOSORH sponsors.
Educational Exchange- The Educational Exchange committee has developed two new resources on value-based payment programs, the Quality Payment Program and the Medicare Performance-Based Payment Adjustment Programs fact sheets; these fact sheets will launch after the NOSORH Annual Meeting. In the upcoming meetings, the committee will begin reviewing information from the Annual Member Survey and the Rural Health Roundtables at the Annual Meeting for educational resource needs in October. The next regularly scheduled meeting will be held on September 18th at 4:00pm ET.
Executive Committee – The committee has been focusing on preparing for the Board’s strategic planning effort, the election of officers and appointment of Board members. The Executive Committee will conduct the annual NOSORH Membership Business meeting on Thursday, September 7th, in Savannah.
Policy Program Monitoring Team – The committee focused on NOSORH’s draft CMS comments on 340B regulations. All NOSORH members are welcome to join. For more information contact chairs Lynette Dickson or John Barnas.
Communications Committee – The Communications Committee has been planning National Rural Health Day (NRHD) activities, including a series of live, 30-mintue webinars to be held throughout the day on November 16. The Communications Committee meeting scheduled for September 5 has been postponed due to the Annual Meeting.
JCREC – The Joint Committee on Rural Emergency Care will now be co-chaired by Joyce Hospodar (AZ). Joyce will continue the good work of this collaborative group with an eye for the needs of SORH. The JCREC spent time last month reviewing their work plan, doing some initial planning for the Rural EMS conference to be held in Tucson next April, planning for the JCREC session at the NOSORH Annual Meeting and learning about NOSORH and NASEMSO plans to develop A Rural EMS Agenda for the Future.
NOSORH committees are great focal points for engaging in many NOSORH initiatives. Descriptions of all committees and contact information can be found on the NOSORH website.
Communications- The Communications Committee has been busy planning for National Rural Health Day (NRHD), which is November 16. The committee provided input on the newly released NRHD Starter Toolkit for SORH and is currently selecting topics for a series of live webinars to be held on NRHD.
Educational Exchange- The Educational Exchange committee has released two new templates for working with applicants of FORHP’s CBD grants – the Letter of Support and the Letter of Recognition. Both items can be found in the Member Resources section of the NOSORH website. The committee is working on two fact sheets on value-based payment models. The annual member survey is now available to all members, we highly encourage you to complete it! Please click here to complete the survey by the July 31st deadline. The next regularly scheduled meeting will be held on August 21st at 4:00pm ET.
Board – The NOSORH Board of Directors did not meet in July. Minutes of past Board meetings are posted on the NOSORH member resources section of the website.
Flex- The Flex Committee discussed NOSORH’s policy efforts to show the importance of SORH and Flex funding along with discussing new proposed MBQIP measures. The chairs of the committee submitted comments to FORHP on behalf of the Flex Committee.
Executive– The NOSORH Executive Committee met last month to plan for the nominating of NOSORH offices, annual meeting activities in Savannah, the Executive Director performance review and policies on annual meeting site selection and employee bonus planning.
PPMT –The Policy Program Monitoring Team met in June and reviewed comments to the National Quality Forum on Telehealth measures. Comments submitted can be viewed here.
RHC – The RHC Committee reviewed the latest Emergency Preparedness rules for RHCs and shared resources from other states on how they are providing technical assistance for RHCs. South Carolina shared their involvement as a subcontractor for the QPP TA program.
NOSORH committees are great focal points for engaging in many NOSORH initiatives. Descriptions of all committees and contact information can be found on the NOSORH website.
Board – The Board met last month and reviewed financials and strategic priorities, and approved a refreshed policies and procedures for the conduct of NOSORH committee work.
Flex- The Flex Committee discussed NOSORH’s policy efforts to show the importance of SORH and Flex funding along with discussing new resources available from TASC and RQITA to assist SORH with their Flex Program requirements. The committee asked what everyone is doing with the outpatient measures areas 1 through 5 and the difficulty for some CAHs to collect this information.
Educational Exchange- The committee is working on templates for a letter of support and a letter of recognition for SORH to use in working with outreach and network grant applicants. The committee is working with the PPMT to develop fact sheets on value-based care for SORH to disseminate to stakeholders. Educational topics for the annual member survey were reviewed and refreshed ahead of the 2017 annual member survey. The full EE Committee approved the revamped documentation for the program. The next EE Committee meeting will be Monday, June 19th at 4:00pm ET.
Executive– The NOSORH Executive Committee met last month to plan NRHA conference activities, regional meeting updates and the appointment of a Nominating Committee. In addition, the committee approved comments to the FCC on behalf of NOSORH regarding the availability of broadband.
Workforce– The Workforce Committee continues to advise 3RNet and NOSORH on needs for resources and education needs related to workforce. 3RNet organized a webinar on Practice Sights and retention data at the request of the committee. The webinar recording and slides are available here. The committee continues to brainstorm on resource needs to address graduate medical education, telehealth and workforce topics, and emerging professions.
PPMT –The Policy Program Monitoring Team meets each month to review emerging issues and policy changes. Last month, the Committee discussed the utilization of state Medicaid innovation waivers and a Kaiser Family Foundation report on the Role of Medicaid in Rural America.
NOSORH committees are great focal points for engaging in many NOSORH initiatives. Descriptions of all committees and contact information can be found on the NOSORH website.
Flex- The Flex Committee discussed new resources available from TASC and RQITA to assist SORH with their Flex Program requirements. The committee also provides a venue for Flex Coordinators to share issues and ideas included in the grant writing process for this year’s application.
Communications- The Communications Committee gave a final review of the 2017 Sponsor & Partner Prospectus and continued making plans for National Rural Health Day.
Finance- The Finance Committee met last month to review the NOSORH Cooperative Agreement proposed budget and beginning planning for investment of reserves. The committee will make recommendations to the NOSORH Board during the May meeting.
Educational Exchange- The EE Committee explored opportunities for education specifically on Recruitment and Retention, and Network and Outreach grant resources. The Travel Scholarship workgroup met for the last time and the program will be reviewed for final approval by the Committee at the May meeting. The Proficiencies workgroup met and began laying out a rubric for each of the content areas. The next regularly scheduled meeting will be held on May 15th at 4:00pm ET.
Development- The Development Committee reviewed the final Sponsor Prospectus and discussed potential new sponsors to approach. The committee also reviewed a SORH Compensation survey to be released soon to assist SORH in understanding the staffing levels at SORHs across the nation.
RHC- The RHC Committee reviewed the results of the SORH RHC technical assistance survey and identified the top priorities for resources to develop. Refer to the article in this month’s Branch for more details. The committee also discussed a new 9th CMS Condition of Certification requiring RHCs to have a disaster management plan. The committee will develop resources to help SORH assist with this new provision once CMS issues final guidelines.
NOSORH committees are great focal points for engaging in many NOSORH initiatives. Descriptions of all committees and contact information can be found on the NOSORH website.
Flex- The Flex Committee received an update from RQITA on new MBQIP Data Abstraction resources available. The Idaho SORH shared guidance received from TASC on how to budget for strategic planning in the Flex grant. Montana shared information on their Measures to Outcomes (M2O) Lean project and the Utah SORH gave an update on the National Rural EMS Conference to be held next month in Fargo, ND. The 2018 conference will be held in Arizona and can be included in this year’s Flex grant application.
Educational Exchange- The Educational Exchange committee is working in tandem with other committees to offer resources on recruitment, value-based care, data analysis and evaluation, and engaging with Network grantees. The Travel Scholarship program is nearly updated and the proficiencies workgroup is preparing to meet again. The next regularly scheduled meeting will be held on April 10th at 4:00pm ET.
PPMT- Harvey Licht of Varela Associates provided an overview of the potential impact of proposed ACHA plans with SORH during a call on March 22. A recording and detailed state summaries are available here.
Development- The Development Committee reviewed the sponsor prospectus for this year and a first draft of a SORH salary and responsibility survey that will be disseminated later this month to SORH directors.
JCREC- Don Wood, Co-Chair of the JCREC, will be convening a SORH group with interest in strategizing the role of SORH with EMS and how NOSORH can support SORH in this effort. The JCREC effort on a rural EMS agenda is moving forward as are efforts to identify key policy issues.
Board- The NOSORH Board of Directors met earlier this month and provided input on a vision for a SORH Leader/Manager Institute, reviewed projects proposed for this year’s Cooperative Agreement application and learned about plans to work with the Georgia Health Policy Center on education for SORH on the rural health landscape.