We hope you find this an efficient, useful tool and we welcome your feedback and comments. --Elizabeth Swain, CEO
If your health center has a training or technical assistance that you'd like to share with others around the state, or would like to subscribe others at your health center to Your CHCANYS please email the pertinent information to Libby Post at lpost@commservices.net. Thank you.
CHCANYS UPDATE Paloma Hernandez Becomes CHCANYS Board President CHCANYS is proud to announce that Paloma Hernandez, President and CEO of Urban Health Plan, has become our new Board President. She is joined by a number of new executive committee members and board members. Click here to read the press release which will go out to the media on Monday, April 5.
Region II Conference: Dr. Yvonne S. Thornton - Noted Author as Keynote New Jersey Primary Care Association (NJPCA) hosts this year's Region II primary care conference for health centers in New York, New Jersey, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. The conference will take place June 1-3, 2010 at the Tropicana Casino & Resort in Atlantic City, NJ. The theme is Community Health Centers...A Pathway to Health Care Reform. For registration, preliminary schedule and hotel, click here. Dr. Yvonne S. Thornton is this year's keynote. She is a Life Member of the NY Academy of Medicine, Health Advocate & Pulitzer Prize Nominated Author of The Ditchdigger's Daughters. For more information about Dr. Thornton, click here.
News from Health Center Support Services Capital Needs Survey Almost Complete! If you haven't yet submitted the Capital Link survey you still have time. Capital Link's capital needs survey was sent to all health centers on Friday March, 12th. Capital Link is hoping to close things out, if you have not yet submitted you have until April 2, 2010. It is extremely important for health centers capital that did NOT apply for FIP grants to submit this survey. Please feel free to be in touch with Joe McKelvey at Capital Link at jmckelvey@caplink.org if you have any questions.
eHI Presents Free Webinar on Regional Extension Centers Getting Started: Developing a Business Model and Strategy is the first in a series of FREE webinars on the Regional Extension Centers, which were created through the passage of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) to support widespread health IT adoption. During the webinars, leaders from Regional Extension Centers across the country will share insights and lessons learned. The webinar takes place on Wednesday, April 7th, 3:30-5 p.m. Click here to register.
SAVE THE DATE: Medicaid Patient-Centered Medical Home Webinar Hosted by CHCANYS Monday, May 3rd from 2:00-3:30 pm
Presenters:
Foster Gesten, M.D., Medical Director, Office of Health Insurance Programs
The Patient-Centered Medical Home Program will provide enhanced Medicaid payments to health centers certified by the Commissioner of Health as medical homes. The Department of Health will use NCQA's three levels of Patient-Centered Medical Home recognition. For more information, click here for DOH's special Medicaid Update. This webinar will provide an overview of the program with a focus on FQHC-specific concerns. There will be time for you to ask questions of the presenters.
Please note: There is no charge to attend this webinar but all participants will need to register prior to the call.
Online registration and call in information is forthcoming. If you have any questions that you would like to have addressed during the webinar, please email them to Jennifer Post at: jpost@chcanys.org by Friday, April 23rd.
Online Application Now Available for Second Deadline of 2010 Special Projects Fund RFP The online application is now available for the second deadline of the NY Health Foundation's 2010 Special Projects Fund request for proposals (RFP). The deadline for this RFP is Thursday, May 20, 2010. All potential applicants are required to submit a letter of intent to determine eligibility for funding; the letter of inquiry deadline is Thursday, May 6, 2010. Applications that are not preceded by a letter of inquiry will be disqualified.
Please click here for details on the 2010 Special Projects Fund RFP and click here to read frequently asked questions.
ARRA Reporting Deadline Approaching The next ARRA Quarterly reporting period is quickly approaching. ARRA reporting for HCQR and 1512 will begin on April 1st and the deadline is Saturday April 10th. Please click here for more information and details for the replay of the technical assistance call.
Coming Soon: NHSC Part Time Loan Repayment Demonstration Project For additional assistance or questions about part-time vacancies, please contact the National Health Service Corps Recruitment, Training and Support Center at 1-877-313-1823 or click here.
Attention Providers: The NPI submitted on your claim to Medicare must be enrolled with New York Medicaid. The announcement below on how to enroll appeared in the March 16 edition of Your CHCANYS, but it's so important that we're running it again below.
NYS Medicaid Requires Facilities to Register the NPIs of their Attending (Servicing) Providers NYS Medicaid requires that clinics, hospital and other facilities register the National Provider Identifier (NPI) and licenses for all practitioners affiliated with the facility and might be included as an attending (servicing) provider on claims submitted by the facility. Soon, the NYS Medicaid Program will begin denying claims where the attending provider is not registered.
You can register one of two ways: Go to www.emedny.org and click on "Enter Facilities Practioner's NPIs" located in the green box on the right side of the page or click here and follow the instructions. For questions or concerns regarding this reporting, please contact the cMedNY Provider Services Call Center at 1-800-343-9000.
News From Policy/Advocacy National Health Care Reform is signed into law. Community health centers throughout the county and especially NYS, worked hard to get this historical legislation passed by contacting their representatives and giving pivotal messages to critical "swing votes" members. All of our efforts contributed to making history and among other key provisions of Health Care Reform, community health centers are granted permanent authorization status and will receive $11 billion funding increase over the next five years to serve 20 million new patients. The National Health Service Corps will receive $1.5 billion increase over the same period. In addition to these increased appropriation levels, NACHC is responsible for having negotiated a package of safeguards in the new law which will protect FQHC payment provisions even for people covered by the exchange. Click here for CHCANYS' web page on Health Care Reform. You may want to bookmark this because we'll be updating it as needed with new information.
Click here to view the message on health care reform from NACHC's CEO, Tom Van Coverden. Click here to listen to NACHC's recent Town Hall meeting on Health Care Reform.
Despite this tremendous success, there are some issues regarding the impact of health care reform on NY's network of health centers that need to be approached with caution. Click here to see CHCANYS' statement on this issue. Overall, we have much to celebrate and lots of fantastic work to do!
FQHC/Abortion Issue Raised in Health Care Debate Even though the legislation is now law, reform opponents are continuing to raise the claim that CHCs will now be able to perform abortions as a result of the legislation. Click here to see the op ed syndicated conservative columnist, Kathleen Parker, wrote in the Washington Post furthering this false claim. If this column appeared in your local paper, click here for a sample letter to the editor that NACHC has prepared for you to use to refute Parker's claims. Click here to read NACHC's updated statement regarding the President's Executive Order that specifically deals with abortion and health care reform. The strategy on this issue has been not to post the statement and further fuel the controversy on either side, but to provide it in response to media queries. Note that there have already been rebuttals in the mainstream press.
CHC Appropriations Sign On Letter Beats Previous Record. CHCANYS would like to thank health centers for participating in our joint campaign with NACHC to contact congressional representatives to sign on to this year's Community Health Center Appropriations Sign On Letter. Not only did we beat our previous NY record of Congressional sign-ons, but we also were the top performer in the entire nation. NY got both Senators and 20 NY Housemembers to sign on. In additional, three of New York's Housemembers signaled their support for community health centers but are ineligible to sign on because they are on the House Appropriations Committee. A distant second place goes to California with only 14 House sign-ons and the third place goes to Texas with 12. Because of the success of National Health Care Reform, Community Health Centers will not have to do this appropriation process for the next five years, but it's admirable that NY finished on top, above and beyond the rest. Great job NY!
News from Clinical Quality Initiatives For a Limited Time Only The NYS Diabetes Campaign, sponsored by the NYS Health Foundation, is committed to reversing the diabetes epidemic in New York State. CHCANYS has been chosen as one of the clinical hubs to participate in this effort and help primary care providers across New York State achieve high standards of care and improved patient outcomes. CHCANYS will work with providers at whatever level they are ready to participate and assist health centers in applying for national diabetes recognition programs (National Committee for Quality Assurance's (NCQA) Diabetes Recognition Program and Bridges To Excellence's Diabetes Care Link program).
For a limited time only, all application fees will be paid by NYS Health Foundation. To access information on how you can adopt seven standard practices that characterize high-quality clinical diabetes management at your health center, contact Kathy Alexis at kalexis@chcanys.org or 212-710-3817.
Report on CDEs in New York State The New York State Health Foundation's Diabetes Policy Center released a new report, Certified Diabetes Educators in New York: Findings From a Statewide Market Analysis and Recommendations for Improving Access to Diabetes Self-Management Education Services, showing that the State's ability to contain the growing diabetes crisis is hampered by inadequate reimbursement and investment in proven services to prevent and treat diabetes.
Jointly conducted with the Center for Health Workforce Studies, the study examined the certified diabetes educator (CDE) workforce in New York and illustrated that CDEs are in short supply and unable to serve New Yorkers with the greatest burden of the disease. The report recommends bolstering reimbursement for CDEs and diabetes self-management services as a critical way to increase the availability of these essential services statewide.
Please click here to download the full report, and click here to read the accompanying press release.
2010 C5 Summit The 2010 C5 Summit will take place on June 3rd, 2010 at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. Keynote speakers include NYC DOHMH Commissioner Thomas Farley, MD, MPH and Chyke Doubeni, MD, MPH, Assistant Professor Family Medicine and Community Health at the University of Massachusetts Medical School.
Each spring the C5 Coalition in conjunction with the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, Division of Cancer Prevention and Control, hosts a citywide meeting which brings together over 100 healthcare professional: primary care physicians, GI doctors, nurses, nurse practitioners and many others from New York City and State. The Summit includes presentations from world-renowned experts on the progress of screening and treatment, legislation, medical research, and education and awareness of colorectal cancer. Click here to register.
Clinical Committee Calls The Quality Initiatives Team at CHCANYS continues to host monthly Clinical Quality calls to discuss issues that matter to the health centers statewide. We welcome clinicians of all disciplines (e.g., physicians, PAs, NPs, nurses, social workers, health educators, etc.) to join in on the discussions that have a dynamic impact on all health centers statewide.
When: 3rd Friday of every month (unless otherwise announced) Time: 9am EST Dial-in number: 1-866-504-8504 ConferenceCode: 2127103817
Congratulations to Diabetes Recognition Program Recipients CHCANYS would like to congratulate the following CHCs that have submitted and achieved NCQA Diabetes Recognition. These centers have demonstrated and will be publicly recognized for its skill in providing excellent care to their patients with diabetes:
Family Health Network of Central NY, Cortland, NY
The Institute for Family Health - Amsterdam Avenue Family Health Center.
To learn more about how your health center can become NCQA or BTE recognized for diabetes care, contact Kathy Alexis at kalexis@chcanys.org or 212-710-3817.
News from Emergency Prepareness Flood Alerts Due to the inclement weather in recent days, CHCANYS' Emergency Preparedness Program is interested in hearing about weather-related interruptions to service or cost expenditures related to heavy rain and wind. Adversely affected sites are asked to please notify CHCANYS EP Program by contacting Matthew Ziemer at mziemer@CHCANYS.org.
Upstate H1N1 Post-Assessment Survey In partnership with NYS Department of Health, CHCANYS has released the H1N1 Post-Assessment Survey which is intended to capture aspects of H1N1 response that upstate sites found to be most and least challenging. Results will be tabulated and used to create a report that will help CHCANYS and NYSDOH to plan for future emergencies. Questions about the survey can go to EP Program Coordinator, Mary Lou Caprara at mlcaprara@CHCANYS.org.
HRSA NEWS HRSA announces a federal grant to help boost providers in rural communities The Health Resources and Services Administration's (HRSA) Office of Rural Health Policy (ORHP) announces the availability of a $4 million Rural Workforce Development Grant. The grant supports one-time funding to 20 established and sustainable network programs for recruitment and retention of primary and allied health care providers in rural communities. Please visit www.hrsa.gov/grant/ or www.grants.gov for more information. The deadline is April 30, 2010.
An HIV Capacity Building Opportunity for Health Centers released on 3/16. For those who are interested, HAB's Division of Training and Technical Assistance is sponsoring one, 90 minute pre-application conference call on April 6, 2010 from 2:00-3:30pm Eastern Standard Time (EST) to assist potential applicants in preparing applications that address the requirements of this guidance. For more information on the conference call and to register for the call click here and select the HRSA/HAB Webcasts/Calls or contact Lauresa Washington at 301-443-0251. For more information on this opportunity please click here.
Additional Funding Opportunities Click on headers for links
HIMSS Davies Award for Community Health Organizations Application Deadline: May 14, 2010 This award is given to community health organizations that provide primary medical care with an open-door policy to underserved populations. Two FQHCs won the award in 2009.
SAMHSA Center for Substance Abuse Treatment FY 2010 Grants to Expand Substance Abuse Treatment in Targeted Areas of Need - Technology Assisted Care (TCE - TAC) Application Deadline: April 27, 2010 The purpose of this program is to enhance and/or expand the capacity of substance abuse treatment providers to serve clients who have been underserved because of lack of access to treatment in their immediate community due to transportation concerns, an inadequate number of substance abuse treatment providers in their community, and/or financial constraints, through the use of therapeutic techniques that involve innovative, creative and cost-effective advanced technology. This approach may include the use of various technological modalities such as Internet, tele-behavioral health, chatlines, videocams, etc. Prevention of Suicide Through the Enhancement of Connectedness Application Deadline: April 29, 2010 This funding opportunity announcement (FOA) solicits applications from organizations that target one or more modifiable risk factors for suicidal behavior with a primary prevention strategy that is designed to enhance connectedness and to rigorously assess the efficacy or effectiveness of that strategy.
Recruitment and Retention Funding Application Deadline: April 30, 2010 This one-time funding opportunity will support the development of rural health networks that focus on activities relating to the recruitment and retention of emerging health professionals (students and residents). The Office of Rural Health Policy plans to award approximately 20 new awards for this program.
SAMHSA Mental Health Transformation Grants Application Deadline: Apr 30, 2010 Funding to foster adoption and implementation of permanent transformative changes in how public mental health services are organized, managed and delivered.
2010-2011 Minority Nurse Faculty Scholars Program Application Deadline: May 7, 2010 A scholarship program for underrepresented minority nursing students who plan to work as nursing faculty upon graduation.
NIH Oral Health Promotion Across the Lifespan Planning Grants Application Deadline: May 7, 2010 This funding opportunity announcement (FOA) is intended to encourage the development, implementation and testing of oral health promotion interventions directed at improving oral health across the lifespan.
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Local Funding Partnerships Application Deadline: June 30, 2010 The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Local Funding Partnerships (LFP) program forges relationships between the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) and local grant makers to fund promising, original projects that can significantly improve the health of vulnerable people in their communities.
Health Care Disparities Grant Program Application Deadline: Applications accepted on an ongoing basis. Grants to improve the quality of health care delivered to low-income and minority Americans, and to eliminate racial and ethnic health disparities.
NACHC NEWS NACHC Announces new HIPPA changes under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. A new NACHC issue brief focuses on patient privacy changes effective February 2010. For details on the changes, click here.
