The White House has outlined plans to spend $8.5 billion in funding from the American Rescue Plan to improve rural Americans' quality of life. It will create the Emergency Rural Health Care Grant Program, backed by $500 million in funding, to help rural hospitals fight COVID-19 and support expansion of access to COVID-19 testing, vaccines and supplies; broadening telehealth services; and training for new health care providers.Full Story: United Press International (8/13) 

The lack of a comprehensive, interconnected public health data network in the US has impeded the ability of state health departments and the federal government to understand the full extent of COVID-19 and respond accordingly. Lab test results come in by fax, email and post; staff have to enter results into databases manually; patient matching errors are common; and experts are unable to collect and analyze data in real time to identify outbreaks and clusters.Full Story: Politico Magazine (8/15) 

Health information exchanges help primary care professionals coordinate care, reduce waste, establish a partnership with patients and their care-giving circle, and comply with data access rules, write Orion Health Chief Medical Officer Chris Hobson and University of Alberta Professor Allen Ausford. Today's HIEs are easier to use than their predecessors, and because they aggregate data from various sources, HIEs help PCPs reach special populations.Full Story: Journal of AHIMA online (8/9)