What's New
Expanding COVID-19 Vaccination Award Extension and Office Hours
HRSA will award additional one-time funding to Health Center Program award recipients and look-alikes that previously received fiscal year (FY) 2023 Expanding COVID-19 Vaccination (ECV) funding. This funding will be made available to all active recipients of the ECV funding to extend their current periods of performance by seven months (through Sunday, December 31). It will support additional outreach and education, community engagement, and coordinated partner events to increase COVID-19 vaccinations among underserved populations, including health center patients and other residents of their service areas. Prior approval requests to extend your current ECV award performance period are not needed.
Join us for an office hours session for program updates, new requirements, and to ask questions about your ECV funding.
Wednesday, June 14
2:00-3:00 p.m. ET
Registration page
Community Project Funding/Congressionally Directed Spending Construction Grants
Next month, HRSA's Office of Federal Assistance Management will transfer post-award monitoring and oversight of FY 2022 Community Project Funding/Congressionally Directed Spending construction grants to BPHC. Health centers that receive this funding will receive detailed instructions about this transfer of their grant folder in HRSA’s Electronic Handbooks (EHBs). Your health center’s funded activities will not change, but it will require specific administrative actions to ensure minimal disruption during this transfer.
Beginning this Thursday (May 25), awardees may submit questions to the BPHC Contact Form (Community Project Funding > Congressionally Directed Spending). We anticipate sharing information on FY 2023 awards after those are made later this year.
Health Centers with a March 1 Start Date: Review Your Patient Target by Thursday, June 1
We updated patient targets for Health Center Program award recipients with a March 1 budget period start date. On Thursday, May 18, we sent an email message to the Authorizing Officials and Project Directors of these health centers. It clarifies whether the health center would complete a FY 2024 Service Area Competition (SAC) or Budget Period Progress Report. It also provides a direct link to the updated patient target. Health centers that will complete an FY 2024 SAC and have a March 1, 2024, award start date should review their patient target and take appropriate action in EHBs by Thursday, June 1.
View the Patient Target Management Guide available on the SAC TA webpage to learn how to access your patient target in EHBs. See our Patient Target FAQs for more information.
Submit questions using the BPHC Contact Form (Health Center Program > Patient Targets).
Staffing Transformation Following Patient-Centered Medical Home Recognition Among HRSA-Funded Health Centers
A recent HRSA-funded study examined whether Patient-Centered Medical Home (PCMH) recognition promoted health center staffing structures that were more team-based and integrated. The study assessed growth of multidisciplinary medical or non-medical providers per primary care physicians (team-based ratio) and per 2,000 patients (colocation ratio).
What does this study add?
Researchers found that among three cohorts of health centers that received PCMH recognition in 2013, 2014, and 2015, all three had significantly larger colocation ratios after PCMH adoption. Additionally, 2013 and 2014 adopters of PCMH had significant increases in team-based ratios.
What are the implications for public health practice?
These findings indicate progress by HRSA-funded health centers to provide team-based care and integrated care delivery and the potential role of PCMH recognition in promoting transformational change.
Read the published article, and other articles about quality care delivered by health centers, visit BPHC’s Health Center Library.
Policy Tip: Scope of project
A health center should submit a change in scope request at least 60 days before they plan to implement the change. Learn more and find answers to other questions on HRSA’s Health Center Program Compliance FAQs webpage.
|
FRIDAY: Act Now to Ensure Continued Access to EHBs
Beginning THIS Friday, May 26, you will have to use Login.gov to access EHBs. That site employs two-factor authentication, which creates an extra layer of security beyond just a username and password.
- If you have an existing Login.gov account with the same email address you use in EHBs, you do not need to create a new account.
- If you have an existing Login.gov account with a different email address than what you use for EHBs, you will need to create a new account using the email you use for EHBs.
- If you do not have an account on Login.gov, create one now to ensure continued access. Be sure to use the same email address that you use to access EHBs.
See HRSA's instructions webpage for setting up and verifying a Login.gov account.
National Maternal Mental Health Hotline Promo Materials
HRSA-funded health centers will soon receive a “starter kit” of promotional items about the National Maternal Mental Health Hotline. These materials will support your efforts to share this important resource with communities nationwide. See our bulletin from yesterday.
|
Mental Health Awareness Month
Health Worker Well-being
Health centers, we are grateful to you for your efforts to educate your patients and communities about mental health and well-being. These are just as important for you, too!
The U.S. Surgeon General’s Framework for Workplace Mental Health and Well-being focuses on five essentials:
-
Protection from harm.
-
Connection and community. His recent advisory on loneliness cites research that likens its impact on health to that of smoking daily! His website allows you to listen to his podcast episode on the topic and access resources.
-
Work-life harmony.
-
Mattering at work.
-
Opportunity for growth.
Visit the Surgeon General’s website to download the entire framework or see related highlights. Our Health Center Workforce Well-being webpage also includes resources you can use.
|
Hepatitis Awareness Month
Tools to Help us Work Together to Eliminate Viral Hepatitis in the U.S.
Read this blog post from ADM Rachel L. Levine, MD, the Assistant Secretary for Health at HHS, about the importance of working together to implement screening, testing, and vaccination recommendations to eliminate viral hepatitis in the U.S.
|
COVID-19
Improving Vaccine and Healthcare Access Among Residents of Supportive Housing: Lessons Learned From COVID-19
Many studies have sought to understand issues relating to vaccine uptake. Visit the Corporation for Supportive Housing’s website to download a report that compiles some of them. The report connects to focus groups of residents and providers of supportive housing to share their experiences. It also presents recommendations for housing providers and health centers to support and inform patients to have agency in their own health and medical decisions.
Behavioral Health
Mental Health Care for Transgender Youth
Learn about LGBTQIA+ health disparities, demographics, terminology, and key strategies for providing high quality care for transgender youth who are patients at health centers. The session will include discussions of inclusive care environments and the intersections among transgender health, population health, and team-based care.
Wednesday, May 24
1:00-2:00 p.m. ET
Registration page
**1.0 CE available**
Bring your questions to a follow-up discussion from 1:00-3:00 p.m. ET on Wednesday, May 31 (registration page).
Workforce
NTTAP Learning Collaboratives
The National LGBTQIA+ Health Education Center invites health center staff to these upcoming opportunities. Visit the registration pages for dates, times, and more information:
-
Optimizing Health and Well-Being for Black and African American Transgender and Gender Diverse Communities
Focus on culturally inclusive and affirming approaches designed to help health centers meet the needs of Black and African American transgender and gender diverse people. Participants will learn strategies for mitigating risk by identifying and amplifying individual and community-level protective factors and strengths. Registration page.
-
Why Weight? Creating Affirming Spaces and Well-Being for Queer Bodies
This is an opportunity for health center teams to work together using a social justice framework to build inclusive and affirming care for all bodies, particularly for delivering diabetes related care for queer patients. Registration page.
Additional Resources
TODAY: AgWorker Health 102: Supporting Agricultural Worker Health
Join the Farmworker Health Network (FHN, a group of six HRSA-funded NTTAPs) to hear about the most relevant current agricultural worker policy issues and explore effective service delivery models. Presenters will also highlight training and TA opportunities and share resources and promising practices.
2:00-3:00 p.m. ET
Registration page
In case you missed it:
Visit the Primary Health Care Digest archive.
Do you forward the Digest to others?
Encourage them to subscribe.
|
