What's New
Service Area
Competition (SAC) NOFO Released for May 1 Starts
HRSA released the fifth fiscal year (FY) 2019 SAC Notice of Funding
Opportunity (NOFO), HRSA-19-015, for service areas with a May 1, 2019, project
period start date (current project period end date of April 30, 2019). Current
award recipients should refer to box 6 of the most recent Notice of Award (NOA)
to obtain their project period end date.
Applications are due in Grants.gov by 11:59 p.m., ET on Tuesday, October
9, and in HRSA’s Electronic Handbooks (EHBs) by 5:00 p.m., ET on Wednesday,
November 7. Technical assistance materials are available on the SAC
Technical Assistance website.
Helpful Tips for Submitting Diabetes Action Plans
As a part of the HRSA Health
Center Program Diabetes Quality Improvement Initiative, 2018 operational site
visits and diabetes targeted technical assistance visits will include action
planning relating to the UDS diabetes measure.
Make sure your health center
staff register for Action Plan privileges in EHBs, which will allow them to
access the Action Plan. Important tip: After reviewing the Plan, click “Mark as
Complete” and then “Confirm and Send” to return the Plan to HRSA. See the
Diabetes Action Plan User Guide for illustrations of the EHBs steps.
Once HRSA has approved your
diabetes Action Plan, you can track progress, send quarterly progress notes for
HRSA staff to review, and finally resolve the Action Plan finding after the
three diabetes performance improvement actions have been achieved.
For assistance with the EHBs
Action Plan module, please contact the
BPHC Helpline online or by phone:
877-974-BPHC (2742) from 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. ET, Monday through Friday
(except federal holidays).
Rural Residency Planning and Development Program
Technical Assistance
The FY 2018
Rural Residency Planning and Development – Technical Assistance (RRPD-TA)
Cooperative Agreement funding opportunity is now open. The awardee will receive
up to $800,000 to support one three-year award (up to $2.4 million over the
project period). This cooperative agreement supports development of sustainable
rural residencies through the Rural Residency Planning and Development (RRPD)
program, which will be awarded in FY 2019. Apply by Wednesday, August 22; program start date is Sunday, September
30. Learn
more or apply now.
28th
Annual Midwest Stream Forum for Agricultural Worker Health
The National Center for Farmworker Health, a HRSA-funded National Cooperative
Agreement (NCA), announces registration for the Midwest Stream
Forum for Agricultural Worker Health, September 10-12. Educational
sessions will be offered addressing critical HHS priorities, including diabetes
prevention and treatment, childhood obesity, language access, the opioid
epidemic, pesticide exposure, and social determinants of health, among many
others. CEUs will be provided for Medical (CME), Nursing (CNE), Social Work (SW),
and Texas Community Health Workers (CHW). Register
here—early bird registration ends on Thursday, August 24.
CMS
Proposed Rule on Physician Fee Schedule
CMS issued a Federal
Register Notice last month seeking comment on the proposed
rule that addresses changes to the Medicare physician fee schedule and other
Medicare Part B payment policies. The proposed changes seek to ensure that
payment systems are updated to reflect changes in medical practice and the
relative value of services, as well as changes in the statute. The proposed
rule is open for comments until Monday, September 10. Learn
more.
U.S.
Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) Update
USPSTF
released a final recommendation statement on screening for atrial fibrillation
with electrocardiography (ECG). The Task Force found insufficient evidence on
screening for atrial fibrillation with ECG to prevent strokes. View the recommendation and the evidence on which it is based.
Resources
Webinar Recording Available:
Diabetes Performance Improvement and Action Plans
HRSA recently hosted a webinar on
diabetes performance improvement and action planning. Watch the webinar recording. Health center colleagues shared how they
prepared for the root cause analysis discussion of their UDS diabetes measure
at recent site visits and their performance improvement action plan. The
webinar featured presentations from Lorain County Health & Dentistry (Ohio)
and Share Our Selves (California).
Million Hearts® Focus on Health Centers
This National Health Center Week, CDC’s Million Hearts campaign is
focusing on health centers! Read Caring for Underserved Populations to
learn what steps two 2017
Million Hearts® Hypertension Control Champions,
Lorain County Health & Dentistry and North Hudson Community Action
Corporation, took to achieve blood pressure control rates over 75%.
The
Million Hearts campaign is also sharing the National Association of Community
Health Centers’ self-measured blood pressure monitoring videos. You can download
them from the Million Hearts® Self-Measured Blood Pressure Monitoring site to
display in your health center’s waiting room.
Telehealth: Free Resources for Community and
Migrant Health Centers in Rural Areas
The National Advisory Council on Migrant Health urges health
centers that serve migrant and seasonal agricultural workers to expand their
telehealth and telemedicine programs. Telehealth offers an avenue towards
bridging the gap of inequitable access to health care by enabling opportunities
to deliver timely and remote primary and emergency care, and specialist
consultations.
These
resources provide health centers technical assistance, education, and
information to support health care at a distance:
-
Telehealth
Resource Centers
Twelve HRSA-supported regional centers provide expert and customizable
technical assistance to organizations and individuals who are actively
providing or interested in providing telehealth services to rural and/or
underserved communities.
-
Remote
Patient Monitoring Toolkit
Introduction to the roles and
responsibilities of various health center staff. Remote monitoring can
help patients avoid unnecessary trips to the center.
MHP Salud Publications on Childhood Obesity
and Social Determinants of Health
MHP Salud, a HRSA-funded NCA, produces La Esperanza—a bilingual newsletter dedicated to the work of
Community Health Workers across the country. The summer edition (available in English
and Spanish)
addresses childhood obesity through family physical activity and includes
resources such as the Niños Saludables Program Implementation Guide to promote
healthy eating and living.
MHP
Salud also produced “Community
Health Workers and the Social Determinants of Health.”
This publication presents general information on the social determinants of
health (SDOH), available tools for data collection on SDOH, and the role that community
health workers may play in implementing SDOH programs.
Register
Now for TeamSTEPPS Online Course to Improve Safety and Quality in Office
Settings
Registration is open for AHRQ’s TeamSTEPPS® patient safety training course.
TeamSTEPPS for Office-Based Care is designed to enhance communication and
teamwork skills among office-based professionals. Attendees may receive credit
for quality improvement under the Merit-based Incentive Payment
System. Participants may
begin pre-course work now and will earn free continuing education credits for
completing the training modules. They will receive a Master Trainer certificate
for completing course requirements. This course, which begins Wednesday, August
15 (tomorrow), and concludes Wednesday, December 12, is the final
AHRQ-sponsored web-based course for this year.
Key Components of Integrated Care: Providing
Services to Rural Populations Roundtable Discussion for Health Centers
The SAMHSA-HRSA Center for Integrated Health Solutions (CIHS) is
hosting an interactive roundtable discussion on the key components of
behavioral health integration, with a special focus on providing services to
rural populations. Experts from the field will join the discussion: Jennifer
Yturriondobeitia, MSW, Behavioral Health Programs Manager, and Amy Walters,
PhD, Clinical Health Psychologist from St. Luke’s Health Partners.
Tuesday,
August 14
3:00-4:00 p.m. ET
Join
the webinar the day of the session
Best Practices for Sustaining Behavioral
Health Integration Models in Health Centers Using Health Information Technology
This CIHS webinar features subject matter experts in health
information technology and technologies that support population health
management and data aggregation from Clinica Family Health and Colorado
Community Managed Care Network. Presenters will share best practices for health
centers in streamlining and sustaining behavioral health workflows and
maximizing their electronic health records to ensure comprehensive and accurate
billing and coding.
Wednesday,
August 22
3:00-4:30 p.m. ET
Join
the webinar the day of the session
In
case you missed it:
read last week’s Primary Health Care Digest.
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you forward the Digest to others?
Encourage them to subscribe.
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learn more about HRSA and its programs:
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