In July, HRSA took action to support the Biden-Harris Administration’s priorities including addressing the nation’s mental health crisis, growing the health workforce, supporting women’s health, and ending the HIV epidemic. Read the July highlights.

Join us next week as we celebrate National Health Center Week (August 7-13). Our nation’s health centers do invaluable work to reduce health disparities and advance health equity in communities across the country. Emerging from the worst of the pandemic, health centers are now facing unprecedented demand for services. They’re providing affordable, high-quality primary health care to millions of people nationwide.

We expect to publish 2021 Uniform Data System (UDS) data next Monday, August 8, as part of our celebration. It will appear in HRSA’s Data Warehouse on the Health Center Program Data and Reporting webpages.

Join a webinar Tuesday, August 9, 1-2:00 p.m. ET, to learn about trends in the data relating to health center patient demographics, staffing, and clinical quality measures. You’ll gain insights on health centers' growth, recovery, and performance. 

Learn about our Health Center Program.

It’s National Minority Donor Awareness Month! Did you know that 60% of people on the national transplant waiting list are from multicultural communities? We all benefit by registering as organ, eye, and tissue donors. Add your diversity to the registry—sign up today!

Webinar: Join the Office of Intergovernmental and External Affairs’ upcoming webinar in recognition of National Minority Donor Awareness Month. The webinar will be held on Wednesday, August 17, noon-1:30 p.m. ET, and will highlight the need for more ethnically diverse organ donors, strategies to create equitable access to transplantation, and myths and misconceptions regarding organ donation in the Latino community. Attendees will also hear from individuals who have personal experience with organ donation and transplantation.

NOTE: this webinar is being offered entirely in Spanish with live English translations.

Two HRSA studies just published in JAMA Network Open examine trends and state variation in severe maternal morbidity (SMM), a leading indicator of maternal health capturing life-threatening complications during delivery hospitalization. From 2012-2019, SMM rates increased by about 15% from 69.5 per 10,000 delivery hospitalizations in 2012 to 79.7 per 10,000 in 2019. 

Efforts are needed to understand the increasing trend in SMM as well as substantial state variation ranging from 42.8 per 10,000 in Montana to 99.1 per 10,000 in Alaska in 2017-2019. As part of efforts to address this issue, the White House recently mobilized more than a dozen federal agencies, including HRSA, to develop and release the Blueprint for Addressing the Maternal Health Crisis.

HRSA programs are bringing the Maternal Health Blueprint vision to life through a variety of innovative, community programs. Our programs support pregnant individuals and their families, particularly in communities experiencing health inequities.

Read the articles:

Trends in Severe Maternal Morbidity in the US Across the Transition to ICD-10-CM/PCS From 2012-2019 | Bleeding and Transfusion

Associations Between State-Level Severe Maternal Morbidity and Other Perinatal Indicators | Hypertension

Meeting basic needs such as housing, transportation, and food improves health outcomes for families, especially for medically and socially complex Medicaid beneficiaries. Many state Medicaid programs use managed care to coordinate the health and social components with the greatest health impact, a strategy that research shows cuts program costs by reducing emergency visits and hospital readmissions.

This National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) article explores how Medicaid managed care can address social drivers of health.

HRSA’s National Organizations of State and Local Officials Cooperative Agreement provided support for this NCSL resource.