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WVPCA Weekly Outlook
A Newsletter on Community Centered Healthcare
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WVPCA News - Outreach and Enrollment - Behavioral Health Corner
Workforce Development - State News - National News
Funding and Financial Resources - Training Opportunities
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Mindfulness worked as well for anxiety as drug in study
Read the entire article from AP News here.
American Heart Association says 17% of West Virginia middle school students vape
Read the entire article from MetroNews here.
Mental health providers offer advice for those dealing with fall, winter depression, anxiety
Read the entire article from WVNews here.
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Veterans Day:
Thank You to All Who Have Served
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The WVPCA would like to thank all veterans for their sacrifice, bravery and the example you set for us all.
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Important dates for Open Enrollment 10 |
The 2023 Open Enrollment Period (OEP) begins November 1, 2022 and ends January 15, 2023. Please note the important dates below:
- November 1, 2022: Open Enrollment starts — first day you can enroll in, re-enroll in, or change a 2023 health plan through the Health Insurance Marketplace®. Coverage can start as soon as January 1, 2023.
- December 15, 2022: Last day to enroll in or change plans for coverage to start January 1, 2023.
- January 1, 2023: 2023 coverage starts for those who enroll in or change plans by December 15, 2022.
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January 15, 2023: Last day to enroll in or change a 2023 health plan. After this date, you can enroll in or change plans only if you qualify for a Special Enrollment Period.
- February 1, 2023: 2023 coverage starts for those who enroll in or change plans December 16, 2022 through January 15, 2023.
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Gratitude and Happiness:
The Importance of Being Grateful
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One of the reasons that Thanksgiving is special to many people is that the holiday is based on being grateful for what we have and that produces many benefits. While it is a simple concept, being grateful has many benefits such as reducing negative feelings, improving physical and emotional health while providing social benefits. While living in uncertain times, gratitude can buffer many negative feelings. |
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Stay Up-to-date With Evolving Workforce
Needs and Integrate JEDI Principles
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The Association of Clinicians for the Underserved's STAR2 Center recently updated their Health Center Comprehensive Workforce Plan, previously known as the Retention & Recruitment Plan Template. This updated version includes an instructions guide, a template, and an action plan that can be easily modified to stay current with changing health center workforce needs and the evolving healthcare environment. The tool also more fully integrates justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion throughout the template to ensure that these principles can be embedded into each step of the retention and recruitment process.
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HRSA Rural Virtual Job Fair |
The Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) Virtual Job Fairs are free online recruitment events that connect career-seeking health care professional with representatives from health care facilities across the country.
Learn more about job opportunities, hear details about benefit packages, and find out how you can help underserved communities.
Connect with representatives from 36 health care facilities serving rural areas that are recruiting for hundreds of medical, nursing, dental, and behavioral health job opportunities in more than 36 disciplines.
This webinar will be November 16, 2022 from 6-9:30 PM.
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Communities in Schools Provides Mentorship, Comfort to West Virginia's Students |
Communities in Schools (CIS) is a program spearheaded in West Virginia by first lady Cathy Justice to help the state’s students feel more at home while at school.
“Communities in Schools is the leading dropout prevention program in the whole country, and that’s what it’s based on. It’s very simple. We say that if there is one caring adult for a child, that child is going to do well and make it through school,” she said.
CIS is a national organization that focuses on providing that one caring adult to children across the country, which Justice hopes to spread to every county in West Virginia.
The total participation for CIS in West Virginia is 195 schools in 36 counties, but growth is on the horizon, according to the first lady.
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November is National Diabetes Month, and this year’s theme is Diabetes Management: It Takes a Team, focusing on helping you manage your diabetes by building your health care team.
According to the American Diabetes Association, 14.5 percent of American Indian/Alaskan Native people, 12.1 percent of Black people, 11.8 percent of Hispanic/Latino people, and 9.5 percent of Asian people have been diagnosed with diabetes, in comparison to 7.4 percent of white people.
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Maternal Morbidity and Mortality Systematic Review for Public Comment |
Annually, an estimated 700 pregnant women die in the United States due to pregnancy-related complications, with nearly three-quarters of maternal deaths occurring either on the day of delivery or during the postpartum period. Identifying and understanding the risk factors that pregnant and those in childbirth face is extremely important.
Studies included in the review broadly covered risk factors including, identity and discrimination, socioeconomic, violence, trauma, psychological stress, structural/institutional, rural/urban, environment, comorbidities, hospital, and healthcare use factors. According to the review, more research is needed to establish the interdependence between social-structural determinants of health and biological/medical health risk factors for maternal morbidity and mortality.
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Funding and Financial Resources |
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Federal Funding for Rural Telemedicine |
Rural hospitals and clinics fill a life-saving role to thousands of communities across the United States. The U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates that in 2020 46 million people resided in non-urban areas of the country. This is believed to have increased recently due to the migration of urban dwellers out of cities due to COVID-19.
Many rural hospitals and clinics are shutting their doors causing people to travel greater distances for critical health care. In 2019, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) reported that 80 rural hospitals had closed their doors during the previous seven years. This is why state and federal programs are important in assisting these facilities in keeping their doors open.
More and more, healthcare is being delivered to rural communities by medical specialists located many miles away in urban locales. This is done through the use of digital applications such as virtual telemedicine visits and physicians’ remote consultations with specialists. These applications utilize large bandwidth data circuits that connect rural areas to larger cities where the specialists reside.
The FCC’s Rural Health Care (RHC) program helps fund these high-cost circuits for health care providers. The RHC program provides support to eligible public and non-profit health care providers (HCPs). Eligible HCPs include any:
- Not-for-profit hospital
- Rural health clinic
- Post-secondary educational institution offering health care instruction, including a teaching hospital or medical school
- Community health center or health center providing health care to migrants
- Local health department or agency
- Community mental health center
- Skilled nursing facility
The RHC program provides discounts to eligible providers for services such as Internet, data circuits, voice and some equipment like routers and firewalls. It returns 65 percent of the cost of these services and you don’t have to change providers.
In 1997, the FCC established the program and caped the funding at $400 million annually and has since increased it to $571 million. This money has enabled rural facilities to not only access Internet services but increase the speed of their circuit to better handle the increasing load of data being pushed across their circuits. The RHC program runs from July 1 through next June 30 each cycle year. All applications must be submitted during the filing window that opens December 1 and closes April 1.
Once the applications are approved, the discounts are typically delivered through the service providers as credits on the monthly service invoices.
Geoff Boggs, President of USF Healthcare Consulting which assists over 1,200 facilities in 36 states, facilitates with the annual RHC program applications. Please contact Geoff via email or call at 502.228.1907 to learn more.
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Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinic Planning Grants Initial Announcement |
The purpose of Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinic (CCBHC) Planning Grants is to support states to develop and implement certification systems for CCBHCs, establish Prospective Payment Systems (PPS) for Medicaid reimbursable services, and prepare an application to participate in a four-year CCBHC Demonstration program.
The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) expects that the program will meaningfully involve consumers, youth, family members, and communities in the development, implementation, and ongoing monitoring of the state’s planning efforts to develop CCBHCs and prepare to apply for the CCBHC Demonstration. With the planning grants, SAMHSA aims to further expand opportunities for states to improve access to and delivery of coordinated, comprehensive behavioral health care through Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinics. SAMHSA plans to issue 15 awards of up to $1,000,000 per year for 1 year
Applications are due by Monday, December 19, 2022.
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Call for Applications: Grants To Start or
Expand Eye Health & Vision Care Programs
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The Association of Clinicians for the Underserved (ACU) with the generous support of the Centene Corporation is now accepting applications from federally qualified health centers (FQHCs) and look-alikes for $25,000 grants to help start or expand permanent and comprehensive eye health and vision care programs.
Vision loss causes substantial social and economic tolls, and eye health is critical to patients' overall health. However, many individuals in medically underserved areas face significant barriers to accessing eye health and vision care. Health centers are ideally suited to help patients access these vital services due to their focus on integrated care, but many organizations lack the resources to provide these services.
Since 2018, ACU has assisted 24 health centers in establishing and expanding permanent eye health and vision care programs. Descriptions of many of these programs are available on ACU's website. This year, we are excited to award up to five health centers with these new grants. Each organization will receive:
- $25,000 for the start-up or expansion of permanent and comprehensive eye health and vision care programs.
- Direct training and technical assistance from members of ACU's Vision Services Committee and other subject matter experts.
- Flyers to promote a patient-story program: each participating patient will receive a $100 gift card.
Interested in learning more? Read the flyer for more details and grant requirements.
Applications are due by December 31, 2022.
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Upcoming Training Opportunities |
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Trauma-Informed Leadership |
Join the Association of Clinicians for the Underserved, as expert presenter, Cindy Manginelli of the National Health Care for the Homeless Council, guides the audience through an introduction to trauma-informed leadership.
Cindy will provide strategies staff can use to build their own leadership skills, and those of others in their organization, to better serve employees with a history of personal or vicarious trauma, compassion fatigue, moral distress, and moral injury.
Wednesday, November 30, 2022
2:00 PM ET
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Health Centers as Actors (in Information Blocking) |
Join the Health Information Technology Training and Technical Assistance Center (HITEQ) Center to discuss approaches to balance patient confidentiality, sensitive situations, vulnerable populations, and meeting the provisions in CURES act and information blocking. How should health centers best prepare themselves and their staff to meet the information blocking provisions and better serve our patient population?
Tuesday, November 22, 2022
2:00 PM ET
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Community Health Center Resources |
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Jackson Kelly attorneys provide limited consultation to all members of the WVPCA at no charge, as part of the WVPCA contract. There is no limit to the number of calls which any member may make. All inquiries within the scope of professional competence of firm attorneys will be addressed. Inquiries which require expertise not available through the firm will be promptly identified and, when requested, Jackson Kelly will assist in referring the matter to accounting firms, insurance agents, or others as circumstances warrant.
All inquiries, responses and consultation services provided by the firm lawyers will be provided without additional charge beyond the retainer amount, except for matters which require formal opinions, representation of record in litigation, transactional work, e.g. the purchase or sale of real property, or matters which require continued representation, research or consultation beyond a single inquiry or document review.
Justin M. Harrison is a labor & employment lawyer with Jackson Kelly PLLC. He is available for consultation through a special retainer relationship with the WVPCA. Justin can be reached at 304.340.1358 and via email at justin.harrison@jacksonkelly.com.
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Risk Management Manual for Health Centers Now Available! |
The Risk Management Manual for Health Centers is now available on the ECRI Institute Clinical Risk Management Program website! Designed to support a proactive approach to risk management at health centers and free clinics, the Manual provides background, tips, and how-tos in a manageable format.
Specific areas that are covered include:
Risk Management Programs & Plans
Claims and Lawsuits
Role of the Risk Manager
Patient Grievances and Complaints
Communication with Patients
Credentialing and Privileging
Communication among Providers, Staff, and Community Partners
Tracking Systems for Diagnostic Tests, Referrals, and Hospitalizations
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Debra Boyd | Chief Financial/Chief Operations Officer
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To sign up to receive the WVPCA Weekly Newsletter: |
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1700 MacCorkle Avenue, SE
Charleston, WV 25314
Phone: 304.346.0032
Toll Free: 1.877.WVA HLTH
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This project is/was supported partially/fully by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) under grant number U58CS06834 State and Regional Primary Care Associations. This information or content and conclusions are those of the author and should not be construed as the official position or policy of, nor should any endorsements be inferred by HRSA, HHS or the U.S. Government. |
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