New York Receives SAMHSA Planning Grant to Support Establishment of Certified Behavioral Health Clinics
New York was one of twenty-four states selected on October 19 by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) to receive a one-year planning grant to support activities around the establishment of certified community behavioral health clinics (CCBHC). The awarding of the CCBHC planning grants is the first of a two-phase process. Phase I provides funds for one year to states to certify community behavioral health clinics, establish a PPS for Medicaid reimbursable behavioral health services provided by the certified clinics, and prepare an application to participate in a two-year demonstration program.  

Application Assistance: Health Center Project Planning & Preparation
Dates/Times: Monday, November 9 from 3:30 - 5:00 p.m. / Wednesday, November 18 from 9:00 - 10:30 a.m.
Location: 110 William Street, 6th Floor, New York, NY
Hosted by: NYCEDC

Intended for those interested in the Community Health Center Start-Up Support and Community Health Center Pre-Development Support  RFPs released by NYCEDC on October 21, these sessions will include a walk-through of the planning process of a health center project, a UDS Mapper tutorial, and the financial data and tables requested in the RFPs. Both sessions will cover the same material.

NYS Dept. of Health Reopens MAPP Provider Network Tool
On October 16, the NYS Department of Health sent an email to DSRIP PPS lead entities to communicate that the MAPP Provider Network Tool would be reopened from October 23 until November 20 in order to allow PPSs to add new providers to their networks for performance purposes. While PPSs will be able add new providers, they will not be able to delete providers that are already in-network.  Because providers cannot be deleted once added, it is crucial that PPSs enter the NPI/MMIS IDs and provider names into the MAPP tool accurately. For additional information about what was communicated to the PPS leads, please contact Beverly Grossman at bgrossman@chcanys.com.

340B Mega Guidance Comments
Many thanks to all who submitted comments to HRSA on the proposed 340B Mega Guidance. A number of the proposals (particularly those defining eligible prescriptions and patients) would be highly detrimental to health centers and their patients if implemented as currently written; your feedback will now be taken into consideration as HRSA works to prepare the final rule. To view comments submitted by CHCANYS, click here.  To view comments submitted by NACHC, click here.

NACHC Launches New “Access is the Answer” Action Steps
In an effort to maintain the extraordinary momentum which helped achieve a temporary two-year fix to the Primary Care Funding Cliff,  NACHC has launched a new phase of its Access is the Answer campaign. New action steps, which focus on public appreciation of elected officials and sharing health center investment stories, include: harnessing the power of social media to express appreciation and raise awareness; hosting local meetings with state/district Congressional staff to show what recent investments mean for your health center; building advocacy capacity by recruiting advocates and setting a 100% participation goal for staff at your health center; and submitting letters-to-the-editor and op-eds to local media outlets that explain what the 50th anniversary of the Health Center Program and recent investments/grant awards mean for your health center’s operations and success. Click here to learn more and get involved.

NACHC Spanish Grassroots Advocacy Network: Invite Your Friends!
Want to win a free registration to the National Farmworkers Health Conference in May? Click here to invite at least 10 people to join Sé un defensor, NACHC’s Spanish language advocacy listserv!. Once you do, you’ll be entered to win a free registration to the upcoming conference in Portland, OR. Email grassroots@nachc.org with any questions.

Health Republic Enrollees Must Select New Plan by November 15
The New York State Department of Financial Services (DFS) recently announced that coverage under all Health Republic plans will end on November 30.  Any consumer who is currently enrolled in a Health Republic plan must choose a new plan by November 15 in order to have coverage for the month of December.  DFS is working to ensure that consumers enrolled in Health Republic plans with an annual deductible will not be charged by their new health plan for the amount of deductible already met in 2015.  Please advise consumers to keep all records. They may need to provide their new plan with evidence that they have met all or part of the 2015 deductible. 

Open Enrollment 2016 and the New Essential Plan
Open enrollment for health insurance coverage via the NY State of Health (NYSoH) began on November 1 and will close on January 31, 2016. During this time, consumers may sign up for, renew, or change their health insurance coverage for 2016 via the NYSoH Marketplace. A new addition to the lineup of options during this enrollment period is the Essential Plan, which offers affordable, comprehensive coverage to eligible individuals who earn more than the Medicaid eligibility limit but continue to have difficulty paying for private health insurance. To learn more about Open Enrollment 2016, click here. To access an October 29th article on the Essential Plan by Public News Service, featuring commentary by CHCANYS President & CEO Elizabeth Swain, click here.

CHCANYS 2015 Statewide Conference & Clinical Forum: Best-Attended Conference to Date!
CHCANYS’ 2015 Statewide Conference & Clinical Forum was a great success! Over 550+ FQHC leaders, staff, presenters, sponsors and exhibitors traveled to the beautiful Sagamore Resort in Bolton Landing for this year’s event, making it the largest, best-attended CHCANYS conference to date. To view conference photos, click here.  To access copies of this year’s workshop presentations, click here.

CHCANYS to Host In-Person UDS Trainings in November and December
CHCANYS will host two in-person, full day UDS trainings for all grantees of BPHC-administered Section 330 primary care programs, including community, migrant, homeless and public housing health centers. Participants may attend the November 9th training at the Strathallan Hotel in Rochester or the December 2nd training at New York University in Manhattan. For information and to register, click here. 

NYU – CUNY Prevention Research Center Forum on Community Health Workforce
On October 1, 2015, the NYU-CUNY Prevention Research Center hosted “Integrating Community Health Workers into Healthcare Systems: Translating Evidence into Policies and Action,” a forum featuring expert panelists from across New York State and the nation. The main goals of the forum were to discuss best practices, model programs, and innovations from payer, community and health systems perspectives, consider sustainability issues and the need to make an effective business case for CHW integration into healthcare teams, and discuss future challenges for fostering effective community-clinical linkages to care. 

Webinar: CPCI User Training
Date: Friday, November 6, 2015; Time: 9:00 -10:30 a.m.
All users of the Center for Primary Care Informatics (CPCI) analytics tool are invited to join CHCANYS for this refresher training session, to be delivered by Greg Augustine of Azara. The presentation will cover key features and functionality of the CPCI, including navigating the new user interface, utilizing common reports and measures, patient visit planning, and analyzing and interpreting your data. While this webinar is free to attend, advance registration is required. 

The Institute for Family Health Announces Expansion of Mental Health Services to 365 Days a Year
The Institute for Family Health hosted a reception on October 27 to celebrate the expansion of its mental health services to 365 days per year at its Kingston, Harlem and Union Square locations. The event, held at the Institute’s Kingston Family Health Center, was attended by Institute staff and many Mid-Hudson Valley health and social services providers. Dr. Neil Calman, President and CEO of the Institute for Family Health, discussed the importance of creating access to services based on the needs of patients. “We are committed to providing a full spectrum of services, 365 days a year – that means seven days a week, including evenings, weekends and especially holidays, which are often very stressful times.” He thanked Dr. Virna Little, the Institute’s senior vice president for psychosocial services, for her vision and effort to develop these services, and acknowledged all of the staff for their commitment to their patients. 

New Compliance Elements Webinar Series from OMIG
On November 2, the New York State Office of the Medicaid Inspector General (OMIG) posted on its website the first installment in a nine-part webinar series on New York’s mandatory compliance program obligation. The introductory presentation (Webinar # 26) outlines the eight elements that mandatory compliance programs must include, identifies the organizations required to enforce these compliance programs, and details the areas of a Medicaid provider’s operations to which compliance programs must apply. The Compliance Elements webinar series will continue through the remainder of this week with eight additional webinars (#27-34), each dedicated to one of the eight elements required of Medicaid providers’ mandatory compliance programs.  

NYSDOH Releases the October Medicaid Update
The Office of Health Insurance Programs of the New York State Department of Health has approved the release of the October 2015 Medicaid Update. To access it, click here.

New ICD-10 Resources from CMS
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has issued a new Provider ICD-10 Resource Guide & Contact List to help providers find answers to ICD-10 questions. Click here to view it. This new resource guide includes Medicare Administrator Contractor (MAC) and Medicaid contact information organized by state. Those with commercial or private health plan claim questions are advised to contact the health plan directly. CMS has established an ICD-10 Ombudsman and ICD-10 Coordination Center to help track, triage, and resolve issues. The ombudsman may be reached at ICD10_Ombudsman@cms.hhs.gov.

Capital Link Offering Free Webinars for Health Centers
Capital Link will host a series of webinars during the month of November designed to assist health centers with their capital projects. Presentations will include helpful information on conducting market research, obtaining project financing, budgetary planning, data measurement, and more. For additional details, including webinar topics, dates, and times, click here.

Provider Appreciation Networking Breakfasts
Empire BlueCross BlueShield HealthPlus (formerly HealthPlus Amerigroup) will host Provider Appreciation Networking Breakfasts on November 18 in Hempstead and December 9 in Flushing. The breakfast meetings, to take place from 9:30 – 11:00 a.m., will cover customer service, community health education and other key programs. A provider relations professional will be present to answer questions specific to each facility. Please send your RSVP to diana.acevedo@empireblue.com to learn more.

Your Oral Health Program: Strategies for Success
Date: Sunday, Nov. 15, 2015
Time: 8:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.
Hosted by: National Network for Oral Health Access

Scheduled to take place during the 2015 NNOHA Conference, formerly known as the National Primary Oral Health Conference, this one-day workshop is designed specifically for community health center executive directors, operations managers, and chief financial officers who want to learn how to sustain, build, and/or begin financially successful oral health programs. For more information, click here.

Free Conferences on the Clinician’s Role in Ending the AIDS Epidemic in New York State
The Mount Sinai Institute for Advanced Medicine and the New York State Department of Health AIDS Institute Clinical Education Initiative will host several free, half-day conferences for clinical providers throughout upstate New York in November and December titled “Testing, Treatment, and Prevention: The Clinician’s Role in Ending the AIDS Epidemic in New York State.” For more information, including conference dates and locations, please click here or contact Naomi Harris at naoharris@chpnet.org or 212-523-5954.

Water Fluoridation Equipment & Planning Grants Now Available
The NYS Department of Health has released two funding opportunities to support counties, cities, towns, or villages (municipalities) that own their public water system, for costs related to the construction, installation, repair, replacement, or upgrade of fluoride equipment in drinking water facilities. A summary is available on the Schuyler Center website. One opportunity supports municipalities with funding up to $50,000 for the planning and implementation of community water fluoridation. Additional details can be found here. The second opportunity is an RFA which will support municipalities seeking between $50,001 and $1 million to upgrade, replace or repair existing water fluoridation equipment or install fluoridation systems in public water systems that have authorized the implementation of fluoridation. Additional details are available here. Community water fluoridation is a cost-effective, proven population health intervention that reduces dental disease and improves the health of all residents.  FQHCs should help determine if their communities could use this funding to replace and upgrade their current equipment or start a fluoridation program if one is not in place.  Additional information about fluoridation, including which New York State communities currently fluoridate, are available on the  NYS Dept. of Health website.  For more information about the project and how to get involved, contact Bridget Walsh of the Schuyler Center at bwalsh@scaany.org. 

CHCANYS 2015 Conference Poster Presentation Winner
Congratulations to The Greater Hudson Valley Family Health Center for taking first prize in the poster contest at the CHCANYS 2015 Statewide Conference & Clinical Forum with the project entitled “ED Diversion through Co-Location of Care Management: A Collaboration between a FQHC and a Community Hospital.” A new addition to CHCANYS’ Annual Conference & Clinical Forum this year, the poster sessions gave health centers from across the state an opportunity to highlight their programs and share their successful ideas with colleagues by presenting research projects, practical problem-solving efforts and/or innovative initiatives being pursued by their organizations.

The Commonwealth Fund Mongan Fellowship in Minority Health Policy
The Commonwealth Fund Mongan Fellowship in Minority Health Policy is a year-long fellowship offering intensive study in health policy, public health, and management for physicians committed to transforming health care delivery systems for vulnerable populations. The purpose of the fellowship is to develop physician-leaders capable of transforming care delivery and promoting policies and practices that improve access to high-quality care for vulnerable populations, including racial and ethnic minorities and economically disadvantaged groups. The application deadline for the 2016-17 fellowship is December 15, 2015. For more information and application instructions, please click here.   

Free Trainings on Human Trafficking for Medical Providers Sanctuary for Families is one of the leading nonprofit agencies in New York State dedicated exclusively to serving victims of gender-based violence, including domestic violence victims, human trafficking victims, and their children. Staff in the Anti-Trafficking Initiative work with both foreign and domestic survivors of human trafficking, providing counseling, case management and legal representation. Free trainings are being offered to medical professionals who may come in contact with potential victims of human trafficking but may not have identified them as such. The trainings are tailored to the audience and provide an overview of human trafficking and tools for identifying and assisting potential human trafficking victims.