BPHC Bulletin: Reminder | COVID-19 Point-of-Care Testing Supplies and Therapeutics

Reminder: Response Due Today

Thank you to everyone who has already completed this request. As a reminder, TODAY is the deadline for submitting your response. Our bulletin from last Wednesday is repeated below. 

As mentioned in the February 8 Digest, we have posted a request for information in the Health Center COVID-19 Online Community. We ask about your interest in two COVID-19-related programs. This bulletin includes background on the programs, instructions for accessing the online community, and a preview of the questions.

We’d like a single representative for your health center to share with us:

1. Your interest in receiving point-of-care (POC) testing supplies for use at your health center (to perform on-site testing of COVID-19) should these supplies become available through HRSA.
2. Your interest in receiving a limited supply of oral antiviral drugs to treat clinically eligible patients who test positive for COVID-19 should these supplies become more available through HRSA.

Please respond by 11:59 p.m. your local time Monday, February 14.

HRSA COVID-19 Testing Supply Program – Point-of-Care Testing Supplies

HRSA anticipates expanding testing supplies available under HRSA’s COVID-19 Testing Supply Program to include POC testing analyzers and test strips from BD Veritor™. These would be for your health center to use for on-site COVID-19 testing. These will be in addition to the at-home self-testing supplies currently available through the program.

HRSA Health Center COVID-19 Therapeutics Program

HRSA, in partnership with HHS partners, has launched the HRSA Health Center COVID-19 Therapeutics (HCCT) Program to directly allocate a limited supply of several oral antiviral drugs for the outpatient treatment of mild to moderate COVID-19 to select HRSA-supported health centers. As supply increases over the coming months, HHS and HRSA plan to expand the program to additional health centers including look-alikes.

Accessing the Health Center COVID-19 Online Community

If you already have access to the online community (for example, for the Vaccine Program or other HRSA COVID-19 programs), you can skip this section. If you need access to the online community to complete the request, follow these steps.

1. Use this link and then click on “Request Access” (under the Log in button) to begin registration.
2. You will receive an email from donotreply@hrsa.gov confirming that we received your request for access.
3. Once you’re approved, we will send you (from the same email address) an introduction to the online community. It will include instructions for how to set up your account and the access link.

Question Preview

You will not be able to save progress once you begin the request for information. We're sharing a preview of the questions here so you can prepare. 

Question 1: Is your health center already participating in the HRSA COVID-19 Testing Supply Program?

If you are interested in participating in this program, we would like to know how many of the following products you anticipate that you would need for three months in order to meet your community’s testing needs.

Question 2: How many POC testing analyzers across your organization?

Question 3: How many boxes of test strips (each box contains 30 test strips)?

Question 4:  Is your health center interested in participating in the HCCT Program to receive a limited supply of antiviral drugs to treat clinically eligible patients who test positive for COVID-19? Please see the HCCT Program Attestation Agreement for more details.

Question 5: Which best describes your pharmacy capacity? Please select all that apply:

• Integrated on-site pharmacy (pharmacy FTEs are part of the health center)
• Contracted on-site 340B pharmacy
• Contracted off-site 340B pharmacy
• Our health center and state guidelines allow our medical providers to prescribe and dispense at the point of care
• Other, please specify:

Question 6: If you are not interested in participating in the Health Center COVID-19 Therapeutics Program, please let us know the main reason why not:

• We are interested or already participating
• Staffing shortages
• Storage limitations
• Insufficient pharmacy capacity
• Knowledge gaps around prescribing and/or dispensing
• Low demand for oral antiviral drugs
• Other, please specify: