What's New
Prescription Opioid and Heroin Epidemic
Awareness Week
The President proclaimed this as Prescription Opioid and Heroin
Epidemic Awareness Week, acknowledging the devastating toll the opioid epidemic
has inflicted on the nation and its people, and pledging to raise awareness of
the dangers of prescription and illicit opioid abuse. Visit the HHS
Opioids website to learn about the Department’s five-point
strategy to combat this crisis.
Updating Your Authorizing Official’s Contact Information
During the July 31 All-Programs,
CAPT Felicia Collins presented on the impact of the Bipartisan Budget Act of
2018 and the latest HHS Grants Policy changes. She encouraged health centers to
ensure that the contact information for their Authorizing Official is
up-to-date in HRSA’s Electronic Handbooks (EHBs). This is essential, as the
Authorizing Official will be the only one able to receive and respond to EHBs
requests for information during the fiscal year (FY) 2019 Service Area
Competition (SAC) and Renewal Designation (RD) application review period. See
instructions for confirming and/or updating your Authorizing Official’s contact
information.
For general inquiries about updating your
Authorizing Official information, 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). For specific questions related to your health
center, please contact your Project Officer.
New FAQ Available: Upcoming SAC and RD Application Reviews
and Awards
HRSA has released a new set of Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) focused
specifically on the FY 2019 SAC and RD Application
Review and Award Process. We encourage you to read
through the FAQ to learn more about what to expect for the upcoming fiscal
year.
Updated Site Visit Protocol Now
In Effect
HRSA’s revised Site
Visit Protocol went into effect on Thursday, September
6. We will use this updated version to assess compliance onsite for all health
center Operational Site Visits (OSVs). We also updated site visit resources,
including the Progressive
Action Conditions Library.
New Video: Five Tips for a Successful
OSV
Watch our new
video, “Five Tips for a Successful OSV.” As your
partner in success, HRSA created this video to provide tips on how to prepare
for an OSV. Please also check out these resources:
Health Center Program Chief Medical Officer
Featured in Upcoming HHS Webinar
Dr. Judith Steinberg will participate in an
upcoming HHS webinar that will examine the progress made toward achieving the Healthy People
2020 Access to Health Services Leading Indicators.
Please join to learn about a nonprofit community benefit organization working
to increase access to primary care providers for vulnerable populations.
Who's Leading
the Leading Health Indicators? Webinar: Access to Health Services
Thursday, September 20
12:00-1:00 p.m. ET
Register here
 New! Changes Coming to the
BPHC Helpline
Coming in late September,
the BPHC Helpline will change its name to Health Center Program Support and
there will be a new toll-free number, 877-464-4772. We will notify you in the
Primary Health Care Digest when the change has taken place.
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Open for Your
Input! Health Center Training and Technical Assistance Needs Assessment
HRSA has requested the National Association
of Community Health Centers (NACHC), a HRSA-funded National Cooperative
Agreement (NCA), to conduct a national health center needs assessment in
collaboration with the other 19 HRSA-funded
NCA organizations. Health center responses to the
needs assessment will inform the NCAs’ development of operational training and
technical assistance.
The survey is available now
and we encourage all health center staff members to complete it. For more
information, please contact KaRon
Campbell.
Call for National Advisory
Committee Nominations
HRSA seeks nominations for
new members to serve on its Health Workforce National
Advisory Committees. The five committees advise the HHS
Secretary and Congress on health workforce policies and programs. HRSA accepts
nominations on a continuous basis and consider them as vacancies occur on each
committee. You may nominate yourself or others. Professional associations and
organizations may also nominate qualified candidates. Learn more in a
bulletin HRSA sent last week
Federal Transit Administration Announces $6.3 Million for Access
and Mobility Partnership Grants
The Federal Transit
Administration has released a notice of funding opportunity for Access and
Mobility Partnership Grants that seek to improve
access to health care. $6.3 million is available to support projects to improve
transportation services or to provide non-emergency medical transportation
services for the transportation disadvantaged. Funding may also be used to
implement innovative strategies to provide more effective and efficient public
transportation services to seniors, individuals with disabilities, and
low-income individuals. Applications are due in Grants.gov
by 11:59 p.m. ET on Tuesday, November 13.
National Survey for Health
Centers
Clinical Directors and CEOs
received the 2018 National Survey of Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs)
with instructions to complete it online or by mail. The aim of the study (which
began in 2009 and repeated in 2013) is to better identify the challenges FQHCs
face and to develop targeted initiatives to support health centers in providing
high-quality care for the underserved.
Robust national FQHC
participation will help ensure that the results will represent the real-world
challenges facing FQHCs and enable The Commonwealth Fund to identify effective
ways to support them.
The deadline to complete the survey is Sunday, September 30. A paper version of the
survey was sent via regular mail in May, and again in June. Email questions
or call James Noack at 800-633-1986, ext. 4330.
New CMS Model
to Address Impact of the Opioid Crisis for Children
CMS announced a new Innovation
Center payment and service delivery model as part of a multipronged strategy to
combat the nation’s opioid crisis. The Integrated Care for Kids (InCK) Model
focuses on children in Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program
(CHIP) who have physical and behavioral health needs, including substance use.
The model aims to reduce expenditures and improve care quality for children
(<21 years) covered by Medicaid and CHIP through prevention, early
identification, and treatment of behavioral and physical health needs. The
model will empower states and local providers to better address these needs
through care integration across all types of health care providers.
Resources
 Now Available: Health Center Toolkit for Integrating HIV Services
HRSA announces a new toolkit for health
centers: “Integrating HIV Care, Treatment & Prevention Services into
Primary Care.” This toolkit is available on HRSA’s website.
The toolkit compiles resources that
were developed during the three-year Partnerships for Care (P4C) demonstration
project and highlights lessons
learned.
Through P4C, 22
HRSA-funded health centers collaborated with CDC-funded state health
departments in Florida, Massachusetts, Maryland, and New York to better integrate HIV care into primary care by strengthening the workforce, building infrastructure,
and expanding HIV prevention, testing and care services. The
participating health centers showed promising results. For example, in the
third year of the project, 93 percent of HIV patients served by P4C health
centers were linked to care within 90 days, which was a key goal of the effort.
With modules focused on
planning, implementing, and sustaining HIV services, the toolkit meets your
health center where it is today and offers recommendations for future
improvement in HIV care. Please take a look at the lessons learned by P4C
health centers! Learn more
about Partnerships for Care and access the toolkit.
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Diabetes
Prevention Program: Demonstration Projects Webinar Series
CDC grantees will share their experiences developing and implementing protocols
for screening, testing, and referring patients with pre-diabetes to a
CDC-recognized national diabetes prevention program. View the full agenda for all
sessions.
Webinar 1: Independent Practice Associations
Featuring Griffin Hospital and Accent on Health
Tuesday, September 25
12:00-1:30 p.m. ET
Register here
Webinar 2: Integrated Delivery System
Featuring Maine Health and South Nassau Communities Hospital
Tuesday, October 23
12:00-1:30 p.m. ET
Register here
Webinar 3: Federally Qualified Health Centers
Featuring Christopher Rural Health Corporation and Northeast Missouri Health
Council
Thursday, November 8
12:00-1:30 p.m. ET
Register here
Medicare Diabetes
Prevention Program (MDPP) Call
According to the CDC, diabetes is about 17 percent more prevalent
in rural areas. This hour-long call with CMS will explain how health care
providers can help patients prevent or delay Type 2 diabetes and understand
their treatment options. CMS will share how to refer patients to the Medicare Diabetes Prevention Program,
an evidence-based lifestyle change curriculum shown to prevent type 2 diabetes
among beneficiaries. A question and answer session will follow the
presentation.
Wednesday,
September 26
2:00-3:00 p.m. ET
Register here
Now Accepting Health Center Applications for SDOH Academy Learning
Collaboratives
Founded by the
National Center for Medical-Legal Partnership (NCMLP), a HRSA-funded NCA, the Social Determinants of Health (SDOH) Academy
is a virtual training series designed to help staff from health centers, Health
Center Controlled Networks, and PCAs develop, implement, and sustain SDOH
interventions in their clinics and communities.
The SDOH Academy is launching four learning
collaboratives (LC) that will provide a shared learning opportunity to smaller
cohorts:
- Addressing SDOH in rural areas.
- Training health center workforce to
address SDOH.
- Leveraging Medicaid policies to
address SDOH.
- Developing cross-sector partnerships
to improve health outcomes.
Learn more or apply by Thursday, September 27. Applicants will be notified regarding
acceptance by Friday, October 12.
Using the Law to Inform Empowered
Patient Care
NCMLP
recently produced “The Story of People’s Community Clinic’s Evolving Medical-Legal
Partnership with Texas Legal Services.” Through
interviews with more than a dozen frontline staff and administrators, they
examine how legal services fit in the health center's broader social
determinants of health strategy. Partners share why they think the real value
of medical-legal partnership is in using legal expertise to inform clinical
processes so that the health center is as safe and empowering a place for
patients to receive care as possible.
Addressing Behavioral Health Needs
for Migrant and Seasonal Agricultural Workers
The National Advisory Council on Migrant
Health (NACMH) encourages health centers to invest in training and technical assistance
programs to meet behavioral health needs. Many health
centers face twin challenges of improving behavioral health and dealing with
workforce issues. HRSA-funded NCAs
address workforce shortages through free training and technical assistance that
is data driven and focused on quality and operational improvements. This
training and technical assistance is available to all health centers.
Veterans Administration Provides Online Resource for Community
Care Providers
The Veterans Health Administration Office of
Community Care launched an online resource
of information and contacts that providers need to collaborate with the Veterans
Administration in delivering timely, quality care to veterans and their
dependents. The website includes recent news and updates, a provider resources
toolkit and reference library, and descriptions of health care programs for
veterans and their family members.
CMS 2019 Navigator Certification
Training Available
CMS invites navigators
to take the 2019 Navigator Certification Training. The training is hosted by
the Marketplace Learning Management System, the online web-based training
platform for assisters providing application and enrollment assistance to
consumers in Federally-Facilitated Marketplaces, including State Partnership
Marketplaces, and certain State-based Marketplaces using the Federal platform.
Access
the training through the CMS Enterprise Portal by logging in or registering as a new user.
Join
a webinar about the 2019 training and certification requirements at 2:00 p.m. ET
on Friday, September 21. Sign up to receive the webinar invitation
and relevant communications.
View training presentations (including a preview of the webinar
slides) and additional resources
Free Continuing Education on HIV Testing Intervals for At-Risk
Adults from the CDC and Medscape
The CDC and Medscape are hosting
a free continuing education (CE) credit
activity for clinicians involved in HIV infection
screening. The activity describes compliance with CDC recommendations for HIV
infection screening among person at increased risk, based on an analysis of
2006-2016 data from the General Social Survey (GSS). The training activity is
available from Medscape (free registration is required). The data analysis is
available from the CDC in HTML
or PDF.
31st Annual East Coast Migrant Stream Forum
Join the North Carolina Community Health
Center Association, a HRSA-funded PCA, and 150+ of your colleagues in Portland,
Maine, for the 31st annual East Coast Migrant Stream Forum, October 4-6. Plenary
and educational sessions will address HHS priority topics, including diabetes
prevention and treatment, childhood obesity, language access, opioid and other
substance use disorders, pesticide exposure, SOGI data collection, the
community health worker workforce, and social determinants of health, with CMEs
and CNEs available. Learn more.
An Overview of SBIRT Training Opportunities and Resources
Screening, Brief Intervention,
and Referral to Treatment (SBIRT) is an approach to the delivery of early
intervention and treatment to people with substance use disorders and those at
risk of developing these disorders.
At this upcoming webinar, experts
from SAMHSA’s Addiction Technology Transfer Center (a nationwide,
multidisciplinary resource for professionals in the addictions treatment and
recovery services field) will discuss online and regional training
opportunities on SBIRT for health centers and their primary care teams. They
will also share SBIRT best practices and technical assistance resources to
assist health centers in treating patients with substance use and behavioral
health disorders.
Wednesday, September 19
3:00-4:00 p.m. ET
Join the
webcast the day of the session
Call-in: 888-989-4721
Passcode: 1039201
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