rural hospitals

USDA’s Rural Development undersecretary faced numerous complaints from rural U.S. Senators about complicated grant applications, office staffing, and broadband grant duplication at a recent Farm Bill hearing.  Xochitl Torres Small defended her agency’s handling of its many functions, calling most criticisms the result of having to balance costs and fairness.  But she did agree t...

Earlier this week, USDA Rural Development Undersecretary Xochitl Torres Small announced that the agency is awarding $110 million in grants to improve healthcare facilities in rural towns across America.  These grants will help 208 rural healthcare organizations expand critical services for five million people in 43 states and Guam.   “...

The first in a series of USDA emergency rule health care grant awards have been announced. "We're awarding $43 million in grants to 93 rural health care organizations and community groups across 22 States,” Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack noted during his recent announcement.  “These i ...

"Since 2010, 135 rural hospitals have closed and an additional 453 are vulnerable to closure," said Rural Development's Xochitl Torres Small as she testified recently before the Senate Ag Committee as they looked at opportunities and challenges in the rural care economy ...

Last week, Congress approved the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan, in an effort to help the American economy move past the pandemic. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack was excited when President Biden signed the Plan into law. He recently pointed out that the farming community will benefit in a variety of ways ...

The coronavirus pandemic continues to create challenges for and in some situations, overwhelm the rural community. As lawmakers in Washington D.C. debate what another round of COVID-19 assistance may look like, the National Farmers Union is asking that more than the bottom line be considered ...

On Wednesday, Ron Wyden joined a handful of other senators urging U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) to resume premium processing for physicians seeking employment-based visas. Senator Wyden said doctors on these visas increase access to health care, especially in rural areas, through the Conrad 30 program, which allows foreign medical school graduates who have been trained in the

Last week, over 120 lawmakers called on Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar to provide immediate assistance to rural hospitals and clinics laid out in the CARES Act. Central Washington’s Dan Newhouse was one of the lawmakers calling on HHS to move faster to help rural facilities as they battle the problem of coronavirus. New ...

A coalition of lawmakers is asking the Health and Human Services Department to provide immediate assistance to rural hospitals and clinics. In a letter to Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar, 122 lawmakers asked the Trump administration to provide financial aid included in the CARES Act to help rural hospitals during the COVID-19 outbreak ...

As lawmakers haggled over a $2 trillion economic stimulus package to help the U.S. overcome the coronavirus pandemic, the National Farmers Union expressed concerned about the lasting mark COVID-19 will leave on rural America. The bill approved Wednesday is the most expensive in the country’s history. It ...