To our partners
Lake Okeechobee Rural Health Network (LORHN) is committed to supporting and improving the health and safety of our communities. Due to the evolving COVID-19 pandemic, we have adjusted our business practices as follows:
- To protect the health and safety of our clients, all direct client contact is temporarily suspended. We will make every effort to continue serving our communities through electronic means.
- Our team will continue to work closely with our clients and community members, particularly our most vulnerable populations to provide timely information, education and support during this difficult time.
- Additionally, all LORHN employees are now primarily working remotely, but still maintaining a full schedule, and remain fully accessible via email and/or telephone.
- At this time, we will not be convening or attending any community meetings, trainings or events. When possible, and as appropriate, we will utilize electronic means as a safe alternative.
- We are monitoring the situation closely and will adjust our guidelines as appropriate.
We value your continued partnership as we help our community through this crisis, one day at a time.
Be well,
Andrea Stephenson Royster
CEO
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Visit LORHN's COVID-19 Information & Resource Page
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To help share information with our partners and the communities we serve, LORHN has a dedicated
Corona Virus Information & Resources page on our website. Visit this page to link to the Florida Department of Health and the CDC for important updates. The page is continuously updated as more services and programs become available, are updated, or expanded.
- Reemployment assistance
- Find food near you tool
- Health insurance enrollment (and updates from plans)
- 2-1-1 Hotlines
- Transportation programs
- Updates from FL Department of Children and Families, FL Department of Education, and more...
If your organization has information to share, please email the information to
info@lorhn.org.
We're also sharing as much as possible on our social media pages, follow us!
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What challenges are you, or your family, experiencing due to COVID-19 impacts?
What do you need from LORHN, our partners, or other organizations?
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The Florida Department of Health has a dedicated call center for COVID-19 available 24/7.
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Health Insurance - Don't Wait to Get Covered!
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We can help individuals and families enroll in health insurance. We are here to help anyone that has lost their jobs, and health insurance, due to COVID-19 (or meets other qualifying criteria for Special Enrollment for the Marketplace). If you're unsure, reach out to us and find out. LORHN staff can also assist with applications for Medicaid and Florida KidCare enrollment.
- Florida KidCare - Free or Low-Cost Insurance for Kids 1-18
- Open enrollment is every day with Florida KidCare
- Low-cost $15-20/month depending on household income
- Full-pay plans available for higher income households; $157 or $230/per child/month depending on age
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The Public Charge Rule and the Threat to Public Health
The Network for Public Health Law
The Final Rule has raised significant concerns regarding its potential impact on public health. This webinar provides an overview of the Final Rule and its anticipated impact, including how immigrant communities are being impacted.
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Teledentistry: Connecting Rural Communities to Dental Care
National Conference of State Legislators
Rural Americans are more likely to experience tooth decay than their urban counterparts. Explores teledentistry as a solution to addressing the disparity and discusses states that have introduced legislation to establish teledentistry and expand access to oral health services.
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Florida Healthy Kids Takes Proactive Steps to Protect Members During Covid-19 Outbreak
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To ensure affordability of medical care:
- Waiver of all costs associated with COVID-19 testing
- Waiver of copays for most commonly used services through April 30 (done in partnership with Aetna Better Health of Florida, Simply Healthcare Plans and Community Care Plan)
To improve access to care:
- Relaxed prior authorizations for hospitals, physicians, home health and durable medical equipment
- Allowance of 90-day supply of medications at retail and mail-order pharmacies (only for medications for which a 90-day supply is clinically appropriate)
- Waiver of early refill requirements
To provide ample opportunity for eligibility and enrollment (upon a family’s request):
- Retroactive enrollment for new applicants to the start of the month when the application is approved, and payment is received
- Additional time to complete annual renewals
- Additional time to pay premiums and retroactively enroll (e.g. March payment is made on March 27; coverage is retroactive back to March 1)
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Florida Rural Legal Services Needs Assessment
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Florida Rural Legal Services, Inc. (FRLS) is a partner of LORHN's that is completing a Legal Needs Assessment. FRLS
offers
free
civil legal assistance to seniors, people with disabilities, and other low-income people in many areas of the law including evictions and landlord abuse, foreclosure rights, public housing, housing discrimination, denial of public benefits, divorce, child custody and visitation, domestic abuse, debt collection and unfair loans, immigration, and much more.
FRLS is asking clients and community partners to complete a short online survey for this needs assessment.
Responses will help FRLS
better understand and meet the current legal needs for residents
in Glades, Hendry, Martin, Okeechobee, Palm Beach, Indian River, St. Lucie and other surrounding counties.
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Subject matter experts present key emergency preparedness and response topics, followed by meaningful Q&A with participants. Each COCA Call/Webinar will offer the most up to date information and guidance for clinicians. Continuing Education is available for most calls/webinars.
Previous webinar recordings are also available on their web page.
Broadband USA presents broadband topics of interest, which features three providers that utilize different technologies to bring broadband solutions to their rural communities. Panelists include an electric coop from the Virginia Piedmont, an independent telephone company serving rural areas in the Southeast, and a regional cable provider, offering a triple play of video, Internet and voice in the upper Midwest.
April 15, 2020 2:00 pm
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Sign up for LORHN's bi-weekly distribution of the GrantStation Insider Content e-newsletter.
View LORHN's GrantStation Insider Content e-newsletter
archive page for previous funding opportunities.
COVID-19 Relief Funding Opportunities
A partnership between the United Way of Lee,
Hendry, Glades, and Okeechobee and Southwest Florida Community Foundation. This relief fund will provide resources to 501(c)3 organizations in the southwestern region of our state who are working with those who are disproportionately impacted by the COVID-19 outbreak.
Funders in Palm Beach County have joined together to coordinate this funding opportunity. This funding process will provide assistance to nonprofit organizations in
Palm Beach County and Martin County whose staff, services and clients have been impacted by this crisis.
Scroll to the bottom of the page to view Federal Nutrition Programs' response to COVID-19: meals during school and child are closings, feeding older Americans, SNAP, WIC, food security, and timeline of federal and regulatory updates.
L
ocal Grants
Almost 70 percent of Glades Electric Cooperative members participate in Operation Round Up, which helps people in GEC's service area who have exhausted normal avenues of financial assistance. The fund is for deserving individuals and organizations. If you know of people who need and deserve assistance and live within the Glades Electric service area (Glades, Hendry, Highlands and Okeechobee counties), encourage or
help them to complete an application.
Regional Grants
Funds projects
that improve health information literacy; increase the ability of the general public to find and use health information; or improve health professionals' access to, awareness of, and skills for locating high quality biomedical and health information. All projects must include one or more of the National Library of Medicine resources.
Deadline: April 26, 2020; Must be an SEA member.
A virtual-learning platform for health professionals in Florida to learn about best practices and evidence-based care for rural patients with serious and life threatening illness through didactic and case presentations.
Deadline: Ongoing
Grants for community-led campaigns and education initiatives across the deep south that work to reduce stigma and change knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors around HIV and AIDS.
SPARK! Grants are awarded on a quarterly basis. Applications are accepted via online submission on a rolling basis.
Community development loans to local governments, public service authorities, user associations, nonprofit organizations, and other community entities for the development and/or construction of large-scale community projects.
Deadline: Ongoing
Federal Grants
The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), Center for Substance Abuse Treatment, is accepting applications for fiscal year (FY) 2020 Rural Emergency Medical Services Training grants (Short Title: EMS Training). The purpose of this program is to recruit and train emergency medical services (EMS) personnel in rural areas. SAMHSA recognizes the great need for emergency services in rural areas and the critical role EMS personnel serve across the country.
Deadline: April 30, 2020
FMLFPP has two subprograms – the Farmers Market Promotion Program (FMPP) and the Local Food Promotion Program (LFPP) – with a separate Request for Applications (RFA) for each subprogram. Both programs provide grants on a competitive basis for a wide variety of direct-to-consumer and local food marketing projects.
Deadline: May 26, 2020
The Federal Transit Administration's (FTA) Helping Obtain Prosperity for Everyone (HOPE) Program supports projects that will address the transportation challenges faced by areas of persistent poverty. HOPE supports planning, engineering and technical studies or financial planning to improve transit services in areas experiencing long-term economic distress. It will also support coordinated human service transportation planning to improve transit service or provide new services such as rides to opioid abuse recovery and treatment.
Deadline: June 3, 2020
Learn about Federal Grant forecasted, posted, and archived grants available via various Federal Government Programs. Grants Learning Center provides information about eligibility, writing, reporting, policies, systems, and more.
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All community meetings have been postponed until further notice due to COVID-19.
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Lake Okeechobee Rural Health Network, Inc. (LORHN) was formed in 1994 as a non-profit corporation designed to provide for the special and specific health-related needs of the residents, visitors, and businesses in the Lake Okeechobee area; with extended services to Glades, Hendry, Okeechobee, Western Martin, and Western Palm Beach counties.
LORHN was established through Florida legislation (Statute 381.0406) and is one of nine local rural health networks covering the state of Florida. As per Florida statute, the goal of the networks shall be to ensure that quality health care is available and efficiently delivered to all persons in rural areas. Our vision is to promote/provide for the special and specific health needs of the residents, visitors, and businesses in the Lake Okeechobee area.
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LAKE OKEECHOBEE RURAL HEALTH NETWORK
| 888-880-8242 | www.LORHN.org
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