What's New
National Needs Assessment of Health Center Capital Plans
In an effort to better understand the current and emerging capital plans and needs of health centers across the country, Capital Link, a HRSA-funded NTTAP, is conducting a national assessment. We encourage all health centers to participate.
The information you provide will be used to inform policymakers, funders, capital sources, and the general public of health centers’ priority capital needs. This information will be invaluable to the development of capital funding sources from which your health center may benefit. The deadline to participate is Tuesday, December 22.
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Quarterly 340B Program Registration
Quarterly 340B Program site registration is open from January 1 to 15, 2021. Health centers will be able to register a site that has been verified as implemented and with a site status reflected as “active” in EHBs Form 5B through Friday, February 26, 2021. After that date, the system will close to prepare for the April 1 start.
Email the 340B Prime Vendor Program or call 888-340-2787 (Monday-Friday, 9:00 a.m.-6:00 p.m. ET) to register a new site or ask questions. You will need to provide the following information when calling:
- Health center name.
- Site/clinic name.
- Site IDs for all sites.
- HRSA/BPHC grant number.
- Contact name and email address.
- Authorizing official name and email address.
The authorizing official will receive an email message that the account is unlocked and a registration may be submitted.
Resources to Help You with Uniform Data System 2020 Reporting
We understand that this Uniform Data System (UDS) reporting season will come with additional challenges due to COVID-19 and we want to support you along the way.
- Recordings of this fall’s TA webinars focused on 2020 UDS are now available. The sessions covered a range of important reporting topics—from virtual visits to clinical and financial tables. Visit the UDS Training site to view the recordings and comprehensive training materials.
- Developed to provide additional information about the impacts of COVID-19 on UDS reporting, this new guidance includes information about reporting visits and patients, staffing, clinical quality, and revenue. For additional information on other COVID-19-related reporting considerations, such as temporary sites, health center staffing (e.g., volunteers), and funding and revenue, see our COVID-19 Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs).
- Project Officers are available to answer any health center-specific questions you may have. The UDS Support Center is accessible to answer any UDS reporting content questions, with extended hours during the UDS reporting period, by email or phone: 866-UDS-HELP (866-837-4357).
FY 2021 Ending the HIV Epidemic - Primary Care HIV Prevention Funding Now Available
HRSA released the FY 2021 Ending the HIV Epidemic – Primary Care HIV Prevention (PCHP) Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) HRSA-21-092. See last week's bulletin and the PCHP TA webpage for more information.
FY 2021 PCHP applications are due in:
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Grants.gov: Tuesday, February 2, 2021 (11:59 p.m. ET).
- EHBs: Monday, March 1, 2021 (5:00 p.m. ET).
HRSA will host a TA webinar for applicants:
Wednesday, December 16
3:00-4:00 p.m. ET
Join the day of the session *NEW LINK*
Call-in: 888-942-9260
Passcode: 2706135
CMS’ New Beneficiary Care Management Program
“Original Medicare” beneficiaries, family members, and/or caregivers may be referred to the program by their regional Beneficiary Family Centered Care Quality Improvement Organizations at any time during the review of a discharge appeal.
The program offers assistance, at no cost, to beneficiaries, family members, and caregivers to help them:
- Review discharge instructions and post-treatment plans.
- Coordinate follow-up care with primary care physicians and/or other providers.
- Assist with referrals to community resources or person and family engagement partners.
Learn more.
HHS Releases Action Plan to Reduce U.S. Pregnancy-Related Deaths
HHS recently released an important HHS Action Plan (which includes opportunities for HRSA-funded health centers) and announced a partnership to reduce maternal deaths and disparities that put women at risk prior to, during, and following pregnancy. The HHS Action Plan provides a roadmap for addressing risk factors, improving the quality of and access to maternity and postpartum care, and supporting a research agenda to fill gaps in current evidence.
Data Integration Best Practices for Health Centers and Homeless Services
Data plays a significant role for health centers of any size, but many still struggle to collect, analyze, and interpret data for meaningful program improvement. This paper from the Corporation for Supportive Housing (CSH) explores how clear policies, consistent practices, and regular use of data can shift data from being a hurdle to a tool in decision-making and care. It also discusses how improving data collection, usage, and sharing may provide a more complete picture of a patient’s service history and improve care. CSH is a HRSA-funded NTTAP.
COVID-19
FDA Issues Emergency Use Authorization for First COVID-19 Vaccine
On Friday, December 11, the FDA issued the first emergency use authorization (EUA) for a vaccine for the prevention of COVID-19 in individuals 16 years of age and older. The EUA allows the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine to be distributed in the U.S. This Thursday, the committee will discuss EUA of the Moderna Inc. COVID-19 vaccine (watch the live broadcast).
CDC Vaccine Resources
CDC’s new vaccine site has resources for clinicians and for you to share with patients to answer common questions. It helps set expectations about how the entire COVID-19 vaccination process will work. We encourage you to check it out and consider bookmarking so you can quickly get the latest information.
Did you miss CDC’s call about vaccine safety on Monday, December 14? See the recording. Speakers discussed how clinicians can educate patients about what to expect after COVID-19 vaccination and how they (patients) can play an important role in monitoring the safety of COVID-19 vaccines. This includes encouraging patients to enroll in v-safe, a new smartphone-based, after-vaccination health checker for people who receive COVID-19 vaccines. Patients can use v-safe to report how they’re feeling. Clinicians also will learn how to report adverse events (possible side effects) to the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS).
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COVID-19 Survey Schedule Changes
We’re making some changes to the upcoming survey schedule due to the holidays.
- We will delay the December 25 survey (which covers December 19-25), sending it out instead on the morning of Monday, December 28. We are also extending the deadline for that survey—you will have until 11:59 p.m. your local time on Wednesday, December 30, to complete that survey.
- We will send out the January 1 survey (which covers December 26-January 1) a day early, on Thursday, December 31.
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PCAs: Beginning this week, the survey we send you will become biweekly (every other week). You’ll receive a survey tomorrow (Wednesday, December 16) and then again in two weeks (Wednesday, December 30).
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Operation Warp Speed COVID-19 Convalescent Plasma Therapeutics
Patients who have recovered from COVID-19 can donate plasma to help current and future patients fight infection. The Fight is In Us website has information for health care providers who want to talk with recovered patients about donating plasma. You can also email questions.
HHS COVID-19 Outpatient Therapeutics Mini-Series
The HHS Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response presents a mini-series providing a deep dive on new and emerging COVID-19 outpatient therapeutics, including monoclonal antibodies. The goal is to equip clinicians with the appropriate knowledge, resources, and tools needed to initiate and scale administration of these therapies and reduce strain on the U.S. health care system. Topics will include:
- Clinical trials and drug efficacy.
- Best practices from the field (e.g., workflows, training, IT).
- Priority settings (e.g., nursing homes, Federally Qualified Health Centers).
- Ethical issues (e.g., equitable access, prioritization of highest-risk patients).
- Considerations for use of vaccine and therapeutics.
Please join this week’s session:
Wednesday, December 16
Noon-1:00 p.m. ET
Register here
**1.0 CME available**
VA COVID-19 Training Module for Veteran Peer Support Specialists
The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) National Center on Homelessness among Veterans and the University of South Florida have collaborated to create a publicly available training module (registration required) focused on COVID-19 for Veteran Peer Support Specialists (also known as Community Integration Specialists). Find additional information on this and other VA resources, including podcasts on wellness and self-care, on the VA Community Integration Specialist Training website.
Health Centered on COVID-19
Extraordinary times call for extraordinary measures. Health centers across the nation have distinguished themselves in responding to the current pandemic. Here’s a recent example:
Whittier Street Health Center (Roxbury, MA) is highly engaged in addressing the health care needs of its nearly 21,000 primary care patients, primarily in low-income, underserved communities. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, they have made notable strides to make testing widely available, as well as to improve mental health and substance use disorder services.
Using their FY 2020 Expanding Capacity for Coronavirus Testing award, Whittier provided free testing at its main location and through a mobile testing program in hotspots across Boston. From April 13 through October 27, they provided more than 19,000 free COVID-19 tests. By removing barriers to testing, Whittier has successfully increased the test rates for its service population and helped mitigate infection and death rates from the virus.
Whittier also witnessed, locally, a national trend the CDC has documented: a rise in mental health and substance use disorder needs stemming from the pandemic. They used their FY 2018 Expanding Access to Quality Substance Use Disorder and Mental Health Services (SUD-MH) Supplemental Funding to significantly expand mental health and substance use disorder services. They launched several in-person and virtual groups. Their Community Outreach and Infectious Diseases Mobile Team also provides health screenings, including for mental health and substance use disorders, in numerous hotspots in Boston.
Learn more about their work, as covered by WHDH, an independent television station in Boston.
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Let Us Know How Your Health Center is Responding to COVID-19
Please share how your health center is helping your community address COVID-19 through HRSA funding. Send a brief description of your health center’s COVID-19 response to our Health Center Stories inbox. We may share your story in future editions of the Digest or on HRSA social media.
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COVID-19 Learning Series
The National Association of Community Health Centers (NACHC), a HRSA-funded NTTAP, has been offering a multi-session learning series on COVID-19. Each webinar dives into different challenges and explores opportunities around business contingency planning and data fundamentals while sharing lessons learned, models, and workflows from health centers who mobilized early during the first phase of COVID-19. The final session is tomorrow:
Looking Over the Horizon
Wednesday, December 16
1:00-2:00 p.m. ET
Register here
Finance Office Hours for Health Centers: Strategies for Managing COVID-19
NACHC and its partners have joined forces to provide timely information and resources to support health centers through this challenging time. Topics will address real-time challenges based on health center input and feedback.
Wednesday, December 16
2:00-3:00 p.m. ET
Register here
Submit questions in advance to trainings@nachc.org.
FAQs
We recently updated a question in the coronavirus-related funding FAQs to indicate that H8C and H8D funding may be used for COVID-19 therapeutics and vaccines, and to clarify the process for rebudgeting these awards:
- What are the purposes and allowed uses of COVID-19 (H8C), CARES (H8D), and ECT (H8E) funding?
We continually update our COVID-19 FAQs webpage, and COVID-19 Information for Health Centers and Partners includes links to Provider Relief Fund FAQs/resources.
Substance Use Disorder & Mental Health
HRSA Toolkit: Caring for Women with Opioid Use Disorder
The HRSA Office of Women's Health is excited to announce the availability of Caring for Women with Opioid Use Disorder: A Toolkit for Organizational Leaders and Providers. Women are uniquely impacted by opioid use: women who use opioids progress to dependence more quickly than men, experience more cravings, and are more likely to relapse. Because opioid use disproportionately impacts those living in medically underserved areas, health centers are uniquely positioned to address this health crisis.
The toolkit developed by the HRSA Office of Women's Health, with support from the HHS Office on Women's Health, provides resources and information to bolster care coordination services for women with opioid use disorder. A webinar introducing this toolkit and how to navigate it will be held on Thursday, January 28. For questions or comments, contact the HRSA Office of Women's Health
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HRSA Behavioral Health Workforce Research Center Survey
HRSA’s Behavioral Health Workforce Research Center at the University of Michigan and the School of Social Work at the University of Pittsburgh have launched a survey to help us learn more about how HRSA-funded health centers integrate and bill for behavioral health care. We hope to better understand the clinical and administrative barriers to providing integrated behavioral health services.
The survey targets a specific audience based on Medicaid funding. If you work in a leadership position at a HRSA-funded health center in one of the following states, please consider taking this short (10-minute) survey: Alaska, Arizona, California, Kansas, Kentucky, New York, Pennsylvania, Montana, South Carolina, Texas, West Virginia, or Wisconsin.
Questions? Contact Brianna Lombardi, PhD MSW.
New SAMHSA Guidelines and Toolkit for Crisis Care
SAMHSA published “Crisis Services: Meeting Needs, Saving Lives,” a compendium detailing crisis intervention services, best practices, and related components of crisis services, for use by a wide array of community leaders and health care providers to work toward better outcomes for Americans in crisis.
HIV
Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program Part C Capacity Development Program
HRSA is accepting applications for the FY 2021 Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program (RWHAP) Part C Capacity Development Program. NOFO HRSA-21-058 is available in Grants.gov, and applications are due by Friday, February 19, 2021. The program aims to strengthen organizational infrastructure to respond to the changing health care landscape and to increase capacity to develop, enhance, or expand access to high quality HIV primary health care services for low income, uninsured, and underserved people with HIV. Interested applicants should join a webinar:
Thursday, January 7, 2021
2:00-4:00 p.m. ET
Join the day of the session
Call-in: 888-810-4794
Passcode: 5350312
Diabetes
A Call for Reinforcements in Diabetes Care: Maximizing the Role of Non-Clinical Staff and Partners
Successful diabetes care for vulnerable populations demands a multipronged approach, deploying direct health interventions, medications, and support from a range of community resources to address the social determinants that impact diabetes. This report from CSH outlines promising practices in using an interdisciplinary team of providers that interact with individuals on a regular basis and the community resources they have access to that can support consumers’ self-management and in turn diabetic control.
Workforce
Clinical Leaders Forum: Using Medical Scribes to Reduce Clinician Burnout
HRSA invites clinical leaders in tribal, rural, and underserved communities to a webinar designed to open peer-to-peer discussion around the use of medical scribes in community health care settings.
Friday, December 18
2:00-3:00 p.m. ET
Register here
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HRSA Behavioral Health Workforce Research Center Survey
See the announcement above.
Building Community Centered Health Homes
The National Health Care for the Homeless Council, a HRSA-funded NTTAP, is partnering with the Prevention Institute to provide trainings and peer learning sessions to assist health centers in the adoption of the Community Centered Health Home model to address social determinants of health and support participating health centers as they build community partnerships to accomplish this goal. Applications for this 3-year learning collaborative are due Tuesday, December 22.
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