Roe v. Wade and TN Trigger Law 

On June 24, the United States Supreme Court issued a 6-3 ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization that overturned Roe v. Wade, ending the constitutional right to an abortion in the United States. The ruling allows states to enact restrictions on abortion - including so called ‘trigger’ laws that were passed to ban abortions if Roe was overturned, including one in Tennessee.

Tennessee’s ‘trigger’ law is expected to take effect in mid-August and prohibit abortions except in cases to prevent the death of the mother or to “prevent serious risk of substantial and irreversible impairment of a major bodily function of the pregnant woman.” There is currently a six-week abortion ban in the state.

National Health Center Week 2022

National Health Center Week, an annual celebration to recognize and honor the work of community health centers, will be held from August 7-13!

NHCW is a great time to invite members of the Tennessee General Assembly and Congress out to your center! If you would like assistance reaching out to elected officials and inviting them to your health center, please email emily.waitt@tnpca.org.

If your health center is holding a NHCW event, please let TPCA know by emailing emily.waitt@tnpca.org with a short description of the event. 

Learn more about National Health Center Week >>> 

FY23 Community Health Center Appropriations 

The House Appropriations Committee marked up the Labor-HHS-Education appropriations bill which includes $1.9 billion for community health centers, an increase of $198 million from FY22. The funding includes $25 million to expand access to contraceptive care, $100 million for school-based health centers, and $156 million for the National Health Service Corps. The Senate committee has not released its version of the appropriations bill. Congress must pass appropriations bills before the end of the fiscal year on September 30, or will have to pass a short-term continuing resolution to keep the government funded at current levels. 

Congress Passes Bi-Partisan Gun Legislation

On June 24, Congress passed a bi-partisan gun legislation, the Safer Communities bill that addresses the following:

• Provides incentives for states to pass ‘red flag’ laws, which permit authorities to temporarily remove guns from people who are deemed to be a threat to themselves or others
• Provides billions of dollars in funding for behavioral health treatment including and school security 
• Enhances background checks for gun purchasers under 21
• Closes the ‘boyfriend loophole’ to prevent convicted abusers who were or are dating partners, from purchasing firearms for at least 5 years

More than 60 health leaders, including Cherokee Health Systems, have joined a Biden Administration initiative in pledging to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 50% by 2030. This represents over 650 hospitals, according to the Department of Health and Human Services.

Read more here >>>

GBS Offers Simplicity and Ease in Remote Patient Monitoring for Enhanced Care and Outcomes

As a leading information solutions provider, GBS specializes in offering community health centers the most innovative solutions to maximize practice efficiency and significantly enhance patient care and satisfaction. 

One such solution is GBS’ Remote Patient Monitoring (RPM), an advanced continuous care platform designed to engage patients and facilitate remote monitoring. RPM enables providers to offer premier, continuous care to patients outside of typical clinical settings, such as in the comfort of their own homes, garnering addictive patient loyalty and true engagement.

RPM allows for greater visibility into patients’ daily lives, with early detection and powerful control over behavior change and outcomes. This “always-on” healthcare opens the door to numerous benefits including:

• Simplicity and ease of use

• Vitals from home via device connectivity

• Continuous patient engagement

• Early detection of disease/health issues

• Decreased ER transports/visits and hospital admissions/readmissions

• Higher patient retention and loyalty

• Cloud-based software/clinical intelligence

• Care team access, support and guidance

• Real-time monitoring of patient populations

• Best-of-breed security and governance

• Reduced workload burden for clinical staff

• Integration with major EHRs for easy flow of monitoring results/care interactions

• Over 300 FDA-approved devices

• Secure Smartphone included

Watch a brief video highlighting GBS’ RPM solution!

To learn more, please contact Enoch Seward, GBS Senior Account Executive, at 615.369.2229 or enochs@gbscorp.com or visit GBS' healthcare solutions.

$1 Million Grants for Rural CHCs to Establish New Opioid MAT Sites - 

CHCs Are Explicitly Listed as Eligible to Apply

HRSA has released a Notice of Funding Opportunity through which it will make approximately 10 awards of up to $1 million per year to establish new access points for medication-assisted treatment in rural areas. The proposed MAT access points must be located in HRSA-designated rural areas and the CHC cannot currently provide MAT as a clinical service. 

Applications are due July 29, 2022.

BPHC $1 Million Contest to Expand Access and Improve Links to Social Services

This week, BPHC announced the launch of Building Bridges to Better Health: A Primary Health Care Challenge, a national competition with a total of $1 million in cash prizes. Competitors will be asked to identify innovative, low-cost, scalable solutions to help health centers improve

patient access to primary care and strengthen the link between health care and social services. The competition is open to broad public participation, including individuals, groups, health care organizations, and other entities.

• Phase 1 (concept design) will include initial awards totaling $300,000 for up to 30 winners. 
• Phase 1 submissions are due Tuesday, August 2.  

Visit Challenge.gov for more information >>> 

Sanofi Caps Out-of-Pocket Insulin Cost at $35 for Uninsured U.S. Patients

French drugmaker Sanofi said on Wednesday uninsured diabetes patients in the United States will pay no more than $35 for 30-day supply of insulin, in the wake of heightened public scrutiny over soaring prices of the life-saving drug.

Sanofi said the new price, down from the prior out-of-pocket cost of $99, will be effective from July 1.

Read more here >>>

The 988 Suicide Hotline Goes Live on July 16

The national 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline will go live starting on Saturday, July 16. Callers will be directly connected to counselors that are part of the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline network. 

HHS Medicaid and CHIP Unwinding Education Series

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) are hosting a monthly education series on the unwinding of the continuous coverage and enrollment provision. The next call of the series will be held on Wednesday, July 27, 2022.

Register here >>> 

National LGBTQIA+ Health Education Center Announces New Pediatric TransECHO

The National LGBTQIA+ Health Education Center announces the launch of the new Pediatric TransECHO, for health care providers from Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs). The Pediatric TransECHO is a national program designed to train health care providers to meet the emerging mental health, gender-affirmation, and primary care needs of transgender and gender diverse (TGD) children and adolescents. The monthly sessions will be a combination of brief didactics sessions and health center-led, case-based learning.

The sessions will be facilitated by a team of experts in gender-affirming pediatric care, with an enhanced curriculum to include:

• Strategies for engaging families in support of TGD children and adolescents
• Information on hormone therapy and pubertal blockers
• Best practices for establishing welcoming and affirming pediatric clinic environments

The Pediatric TransECHO program will launch on July 13th, 2022 and will meet every month on the 2nd Wednesday from 2-4pm EST, 1-3pm CST, 11am-1pm PST until June 14th, 2023.

Health Center teams participating the Pediatric TransECHO will commit to:

• A consistent team of at least 1 medical provider and 1 behavioral health provider who can attend all sessions.
• Submit 2-3 case presentations from your team over the course of the program.
• Send at least 1 representative of your team to an orientation session before program launch.
• Completion of the baseline, mid-program, and final surveys by all members of your team. 

Application link: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/SH9N5PT

Please note: This program is available free of charge for teams from FQHCs and FQHC Look-alike organizations. 

COVID-19

TPCA created a COVID-19 Resources page that contains information and tools for health centers and the general public on a variety of COVID-19 related topics including COVID-19 vaccines, updates, human resources & operations, telehealth, and PPE.

TPCA Members may also access the COVID-19 Vaccine Toolkit for the latest in TN COVID-19 Vaccine distribution as well as timely and relevant resources.