Institutional Eligibility For Participation In Title IV Student Financial Aid Programs

A report from the Congressional Research Service (CRS) first describes the types of institutions eligible to participate in Title IV programs and discusses the program integrity triad. It then discusses additional issues related to institutional eligibility, including program participation agreements, required campus safety policies and crime reporting, and distance and correspondence education.

The report can be obtained at https://fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/R43159.pdf.

National Health Expenditure Projections For 2018-2027

National spending on healthcare is projected to grow 5.5% between 2018 and 2027, according to the CMS Office of the Actuary's annual report. This growth would outpace average projected GDP growth by 0.8%. The forecast means the healthcare segment of the U.S. economy would climb to 19.4% by 2027, up from 17.9% just two years ago.

A summary of the forecast can be obtained at https://www.cms.gov/Research-Statistics-Data-and-Systems/Statistics-Trends-and-Reports/NationalHealthExpendData/Downloads/ForecastSummary.pdf.

Prices Have More Impact On Health Care Spending Than Utilization

The Health Care Cost Institute (HCCI) released its annual Health Care Cost and Utilization Report for 2017, finding that per-person health care spending grew by 4.2 percent in 2017 while utilization did not change significantly. The increase in spending exceeded per-capita gross domestic product (GDP) growth for the second year in a row. According to the report, average annual spending among individuals with employer-sponsored health insurance was $5,641. 

More information can be obtained at https://www.healthcostinstitute.org/news/entry/2017-hccur.

Returning To School After Age 50

In the area of higher education, The Hechinger Report examines the question of how common is the practice of returning to school for vocational training in workers over age 40, 50, & 60? Challenges are described that older individuals confront when deciding to go back to school.  

The report can be obtained at https://hechingerreport.org/going-back-to-school-after-50/.

Spring 2019 IPEC Institute - Building a Framework for Collaboration

The Spring 2019 IPEC Institute is returning to the popular theme of building a framework for interprofessional education for collaborative practice (IPECP). Attendees will engage with national leaders in acquiring the building blocks for IPECP and will spend significant time planning, building, designing, assessing, acting and communicating their IPECP goals.

More info is available here.

Interprofessional Education Collaborative (IPEC) Winter Council Meeting Report

The Interprofessional Education Collaborative (IPEC) held its Winter Council Meeting, which primarily serves as a business meeting, last week in Washington, D.C. ASAHP is one of 21 members of IPEC, and was represented by Anthony Breitbach PhD, ATC, FASAHP. The meeting featured several announcements, and topics of discussion included the evaluation report from the IPEC Planning Committee on the Faculty Development Institutes, Health Profession Accreditors Collaborative (HPAC) guidance, and IPEC’s Strategic Framework.

A report on the IPEC Winter Council Meeting may be found here.

Deadline for 2019 USPHS IPEC Award Extended to Friday, March 1

The Interprofessional Education Collaborative (IPEC) and the U.S. Public Health Service (USPHS) are pleased to announce that the application deadline for the 2019 Public Health Excellence in Interprofessional Education (IPE) Collaborative Award has been extended to Friday, March 1.

The USPHS IPEC Award is awarded annually to interprofessional health education teams that have significantly impacted the community through multidisciplinary collaboration on a program geared toward improving health knowledge, awareness, and behavior.

Click here for more info.

Pell Grant Reform Simulator

If the Higher Education Act is reauthorized this year, Congress will have an opportunity to modernize the Pell grant program, which makes college more affordable for low-income students. A tool from the Urban Institute makes it possible to simulate the effects of modifications to the Pell program to see how program costs and grant amounts would change and which students would be affected. Users can change the program’s generosity within the current formula or experiment with a simplified system.

The simulator can be obtained at https://apps.urban.org/features/pell-simulator/.

Dept of Education Accreditation Proposal Changed

The Department of Education released a proposal in January 2019 that would have required regional accreditators to operate in at least three but not more than nine states and would have removed the fifty percent cap on outsourced degree programs. This week, the Dept of Ed backtracked on those two recommendations, due to criticism from organizations and colleges. The proposal does maintain that branch campuses must be within a certain region, which may create issues for institutions with campuses in various states.

Read the full article from Inside Higher Ed here.

IPEC Webinar on Academic-Clinical Partnerships

The Interprofessional Education Collaborative (IPEC) is proud to announce its first 2019 webinar featuring a presentation on developing successful academic-clinical partnerships to advance interprofessional education for collaborative practice (IPECP).

Join us on Tuesday, February 26 at 2:00 p.m. ET for a FREE webinar featuring Dr. Jeffrey W. Morgan (A.T. Still University of Health Sciences School of Osteopathic Medicine) and Ms. Jacqueline J. Spiegel (Midwestern University College of Health Sciences). Dr. Morgan and Ms. Spiegel will provide key insights on the development, execution and results of their interprofessional education (IPE) and interprofessional practice (IPP) programs. Webinar panelists will share effective methods for bridging successful IPE and IPP.

To register and find more info, click here. Learn more about the IPEC or visit their site.

How to Make Hospital Price Transparency Useful to Patients

As of January 2019, U.S. hospitals have been required to publish list prices on their websites for all services they provide to patients. A new post from the Commonwealth Fund discusses why price transparency, in the absence of corresponding information about quality and out-of-pocket-costs, can lead to poor health care choices and higher costs.  

The post can be obtained at https://www.commonwealthfund.org/blog/2019/hospital-price-transparency-making-it-useful-patients.

CMS Advances Interoperability & Patient Access To Health Data Through New Proposals

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) proposed policy changes supporting its MyHealthEData initiative to improve patient access and advance electronic data exchange and care coordination throughout the health care system.

More information can be obtained at https://www.cms.gov/newsroom/fact-sheets/cms-advances-interoperability-patient-access-health-data-through-new-proposals.

Older Americans Act

A new report from the AARP Public Policy Institute provides information about the Older Americans Act (OAA), which furnishes critical services that help approximately 11 million older adults live as independently as possible. In fiscal year 2019, OAA federal funding was $2.06 billion. Funding for the program has failed to keep up with inflation and increased demand from a rapidly aging population. 

The report can be obtained at https://www.aarp.org/content/dam/aarp/ppi/2019/02/older-americans-act.pdf.

Challenges Facing Rural Communities And Ensuring Access To Care

A new report from the American Hospital Association (AHA) outlines the challenges affecting rural communities and opportunities in the form of a road map to ensure access to high-quality affordable care. 

The report can be obtained at https://www.aha.org/system/files/2019-02/rural-report-2019.pdf?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_content=02042019-at-memnonfed&utm_campaign=aha-today.

Health Care Sector Experiences Monthly Job Growth

Preliminary data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) show that 41,600 jobs were added in health care, which includes ambulatory health care services, hospitals, and nursing and residential care facilities, between December 2018 and January 2019. 

A Table can be obtained at https://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.t17.htm#ces_table1.f.p.

 

Senate HELP Committee Chairman Alexander Remarks on Higher Education Reform

Sen. Lamar Alexander, Chairman of the HELP Committee, discussed his priorities for higher education legislation. His goal is to report by Spring, so the full Senate can consider it in Summer.

  1. Simplify FAFSA from 108 questions to 15-25 questions and answer 22 questions with one click.

  2. Reduce federal loan payment programs from 9 systems to 2 systems. Both would withhold payments from borrower’s paycheck, like the federal income tax. First system would have monthly payments based on borrower’s income. Second system would be a 10-year monthly payment program.

  3. New accountability system based on whether borrowers are repaying their student loans. This would simplify and expand the gainful employment rule proposed in 2014 by the US DoED. This would measure what programs are worth it for students.

Read more here.

HPAC Releases Guidance Document for Development and Implementation of IPE

HPAC released their Guidance on Developing Quality Interprofessional Education for the Health Professions to guide institutions on communication and collaboration regarding IPE. HPAC members endorsed the document, which includes consensus on terminology/definitions, a systematic approach for IPE, framework to develop IPE program, and a direction for accreditation boards/commissions to assess IPE standards.

To read the full report, click here.

Integrating Clinical And Mental Health: Challenges And Opportunities

A new paper from the Bipartisan Policy Institute examines barriers to the integration of clinical health care and mental health services, and identifies policy options for consideration in advancing integration of services. 

The paper can be obtained at https://bipartisanpolicy.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Integrating-Clinical-and-Mental-Health-Challenges-and-Opportunities.pdf.

Digest Of Education Statistics 2017

The 53rd in a series of publications initiated in 1962 by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), the Digest's purpose is to provide a compilation of statistical information covering the broad field of education from prekindergarten through graduate school. The Digest contains data on a variety of topics, including the number of schools and colleges, teachers, enrollments, and graduates, along with educational attainment, finances, and federal funds for education, libraries, and international comparisons. 

The Digest can be obtained at https://nces.ed.gov/pubs2018/2018070.pdf.