IN THIS ISSUE: JULY 13, 2010

CMS Announces the Final Rule for Meaningful Use! 

The California State Rural Health Association (CSRHA) will be publishing a summary of the rules next week, but the biggest change for our rural communities is the new eligibility for CAHs to receive the Medicare and Medi-Cal incentive payments in addition to cost-based reimbursement. CSRHA would like to recognize Southern Inyo Hospital CEO and CSRHA Board Member Lee Barron, who first brought the issue of inadequate CAH reimbursement to the attention of the State of California. Working with a team of Berkeley students led by Jia Jia Ye, CSRHA was able to demonstrate a $56 million funding gap for California's Critical Access Hospitals. This data was used by Medi-Cal, CHHS, CHA and others to submit comments and successfully overcome a significant barrier to health IT adoption in our rural communities by closing that $56 million gap.

Again, CSRHA would like to thank our Board Member Lee Barron!

To view the rules click here.

If you have any questions please contact Lynn Barr, CSRHA's Director of Health Information Technology (HIT).

View current rural job openings, click here

A special thank you to our organizational sponsors!