The U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration will provide the Mariposa Community Health Center in southern Arizona with $4 million over four years as part of its Rural MOMS program.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) announced a combined investment of $15 million over four years through the Rural Maternity and Obstetrics Management Strategies (Rural MOMS) Program to improve maternal health in rural communities and a new program focused on strengthening maternal care and reducing disparities in the Delta region (within Alabama, Arkansas, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, and Tennessee). HRSA Deputy Administrator Jordan Grossman highlighted these strategic investments today in Flagstaff, AZ, during the third state convening of HRSA’s Enhancing Maternal Health Initiative.

On the eve of the 50th Annual Rural Health Conference, coordinated by the Arizona Center for Rural Health, we look back on the many ways that the Center, working in close collaboration with a range of community partners, has made life and health better for rural Arizonans.

Since the detection of H5N1 in dairy cattle, the Federal response has leveraged the latest available scientific data, field epidemiology, and risk assessments to mitigate risks to workers and the general public, to ensure the safety of America’s food supply and to mitigate risk to livestock, owners, and producers.

Each year, the AzAHEC Program and Regional Centers partner with the nine Rural Health Professions Programs based in Arizona’s three public universities – UArizona, Arizona State University and Northern Arizona University – as well as professional organizations and communities to provide a variety of training and educational events.

CMS’s New Resource of Health Equity-related Data. The Office of Minority Health at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) offers a table of suggested definitions, standards, and stratification practices for nine health equity-related data elements.  The resource can help providers, states, community organizations, researchers, and others collecting and/or stratifying data to align with CMS’s Framework for Health Equity. It may also clarify differences in results that may arise when different data standards are used.

Sage Memorial Hospital has built a 95,614-square-foot state-of-the-art hospital that is more than twice the size of the original hospital and will significantly increase patient capacity.

The health disparities between rural and urban Americans have long been documented, but a recent report from the Department of Agriculture’s Economic Research Service found the chasm has grown in recent decades.