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HHS is investing $60 million in programs aiming to grow the healthcare workforce and increase access to care in rural communities. About $46 million of that total is going toward healthcare job development, training and placement in rural and tribal communities, according to an Aug. 8 HHS news release. The funding includes support for dental hygienists, medical and dental assistants, community-based doulas and other front-line healthcare workers. The funding comes through the American Rescue Plan and will support 31 organizations. (Cass, 8/9)

While the pandemic caused massive shifts in the healthcare labor market, rural communities have always faced shortages and issues recruiting and retaining a sufficient amount of talented medical staff. About 14% of Americans live in rural communities, though those areas represent nearly 75% of primary care health professional shortage areas in the county, according to a February report from the Center for American Progress, a left-leaning think tank. (Mensik, 8/9)

Georgia now has more than $3 million dollars to improve rural health care. The Department of Health and Human Services announced investments of more than $3.3 million in the state. (8/8)

Primary care doctors and nurse practitioners, rather than specialists, are more likely to provide care for early-onset dementia in rural areas, putting these patients and clinicians at a disadvantage, say the authors of a new study. The researchers recommend innovative approaches to ensuring specialty care for patients, and training or guidance for clinicians. (Lasek, 8/9)

As part of a major push by the Biden administration to address the nation’s maternal health crisis, senior officials have traveled the country for the past year, talking to midwives, doulas and people who have given birth about their experiences. They’ve held summits at the White House. The result: an almost 70-page plan aimed at taking the United States from being the worst place to give birth among high-income nations — especially for Black, Native American and rural women — to “the best country in the world to have a baby.” But maternal health experts say it remains to be seen whether the federal initiative is enough to accomplish the administration’s goal. (Johnson, 8/9)

When the pandemic hit, Rachel got sick with COVID-19. Like millions of others across the country, the rural eastern North Carolina resident lost her job. Though it was a blow to her income, it meant she was eligible for something she hadn’t been before: Medicaid, the federal and state-funded insurance program for low-income people. (Donnelly-DeRoven, 8/10)