Building Blocks for Staffing Your Patient Centered Medical Home (PCMH): A Three-part Webinar Series Hosted by the Clinical Affairs Division
Transformation to a PCMH requires that health centers evaluate and realign their current staffing models. This series, designed for individuals who are actively engaged in retention and recruitment activities within their organization, will explore three building blocks to assemble and strengthen the clinical workforce of a PCMH: the National Health Service Corps (NHSC), Integrated Care Teams, and Educational Health Centers.
Webinar 1: Maximizing Opportunities with the NHSC. Conducted February 9. Access the slides and audio-recording here in NACHC’s Live LEARNING CENTER.
Webinar 2: Forming Your PCMH Team – How to Determine the Composition. To be conducted on Wednesday, May 30, from 2:00 to 3:30 pm Eastern. Registration deadline: Friday, May 28. Click here for more information.
Webinar 3: So You Want to Educate Health Professionals at Your Health Center: What You Need to Know. To be conducted TBD.
There is no charge for attending the live webinars and/or for listening to their recordings and viewing and downloading the presentations later in NACHC’s Live LEARNING CENTER. The date and registration information for the third webinar will be available shortly. Please direct your questions to Katja Laepke.
Please feel free to share this announcement with colleagues who also might be interested in these webinars.
Every Thursday at 11:30 am Eastern beginning February 23, 2012
Free 14-part series of live, interactive, online trainings for community primary care and mental health providers. Click here for more information.
Announcing the Launch of the NHSC Jobs Center!
May 2012. The NHSC Jobs Center, which replaces the former Job Opportunities List (JOL), is now available. The Jobs Center is easier to search and navigate significantly improving the way job seekers learn about and communicate with NHSC-approved sites. The new Jobs Center also allows NHSC sites greater flexibility to share information about their site and community in their own words, with pictures and direct links. Features include: Opportunity for sites to showcase photos of their site and community images; Google based mapping, making it easy to find schools, places of worship and other community amenities; Details about each site such as languages spoken by patients, specialties offered, size of practice, and more; Social media integration; Expanded search options for job seekers by HPSA score, distance from an address, and more.
Nursing Scholarship Program (NSP)
April 2012. Do you know of a site that is looking for a registered nurse? The NSP has qualified registered nurses across the country who have recently graduated and are available now to serve. In return for a scholarship, NSP nurses commit to two to four years of service at a Critical Shortage Facility (CSF), which is an eligible health care facility located in a primary care or mental health Health Professional Shortage Area. For more information about the program and the list of site types that qualify as a CSF, click here. Sites also may call 301-594-4098 or email NSP-Trans@hrsa.gov to learn more.
Collaborate for Healthy Weight Expands to Forty Additional Communities
March 2012. The National Initiative for Children’s Healthcare Quality (NICHQ), in partnership with the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), has announced the expansion of Collaborate for Healthy Weight, a national effort to combat obesity. Forty new teams, comprised of representatives from the primary care, public health and community sectors, have joined the second phase of Collaborate for Healthy Weight and will be using quality improvement methods to identify, test, and implement high-potential changes to improve obesity prevention and treatment in their communities. Community health centers are represented on 14 of the teams. NACHC is a member of the consortium of national organizations assisting with content and leadership of the Collaborate for Healthy Weight initiative. Click here to read the full announcement and visit the Collaborate for Healthy Weight website to learn how you can get involved, see the progress of the teams, and locate resources you can use in your own community.
March 2012. The traditional separation between primary health care providers and public health professionals is impeding greater success in meeting their shared goal of ensuring the health of populations, says the new report from the IOM. Integration of these fields will require national leadership as well as substantial adaptation at the local level, said the committee that wrote the report. Federal Agencies should take advantage of opportunities to promote the integration of primary care and public health. For more information and to purchase report or read it online for free, click here.
2012 Loan Repayment Application Now Open
December 13, 2011. The National Health Service Corps (NHSC) has opened the 2012 application cycle for its Loan Repayment Program (LRP). While the application cycle will remain open until May 15 2012, providers are encouraged to apply early. The LRP offers primary care medical, dental, and mental and behavioral health providers the opportunity to have their student loans repaid, while earning a competitive salary, in exchange for providing health care in urban, rural, or frontier communities with limited access to care. LRP providers serve at one of more than 17,000 NHSC-approved sites located in federally designated Health Professional Shortage Areas (HPSAs), including federally qualified health centers. Awards have been modified from previous years to help ensure that communities with the greatest need receive recruitment support to fill much needed clinical positions. For program details, please see the 2012 NHSC Loan Repayment Program At-A-Glance Fact Sheet and the complete Application and Program Guidance. You may also learn more about NHSC programs and opportunities by clicking here.
Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Announces Coverage of Screening, Counseling Services to Treat Obesity
November 29, 2011. Noting that more than 30 percent of men and women in the Medicare population are estimated to be obese, CMS announced November 29 that Medicare is adding coverage for preventive services to reduce obesity. Screening for obesity and counseling for eligible beneficiaries by primary care providers in settings such as physicians' offices will be covered under the new benefit, CMS said. The agency said its decision “adds to Medicare's existing portfolio of preventive services that are now available without cost sharing” under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. “This decision is an important step in aligning Medicare's portfolio of preventive services with evidence and addressing risk factors for disease,” said Patrick Conway, CMS's Chief Medical Officer and Director of the Agency's Office of Clinical Standards and Quality. “Obesity is a challenge faced by Americans of all ages, and prevention is crucial for the management and elimination of obesity in our country,” said CMS Administrator Donald M. Berwick. “It's important for Medicare patients to enjoy access to appropriate screening and preventive services.” CMS said that obesity is directly or indirectly associated with many chronic diseases, including those that disproportionately affect racial and ethnic minorities, such as cardiovascular disease and diabetes. Counseling Visits: For a beneficiary who screens positive for obesity, the Medicare benefit will include weekly face-to-face counseling sessions for one month and one face-to-face counseling session every other week for five months after the initial sessions. CMS also said that the Medicare beneficiary may receive one monthly face-to-face counseling session for an additional six months (for a total of 12 months of counseling) if he or she has lost at least 6.6 pounds (or 3 kilograms) during the first six months of counseling. “This decision is an important step in aligning Medicare's portfolio of preventive services with evidence and addressing risk factors for disease,” said Conway. “We at CMS are carefully and systematically reviewing the best available medical evidence to identify those preventive services that can keep Medicare beneficiaries as healthy as possible for as long as possible.” The agency's memo noted that, given the increasing significance of the obesity problem, CMS initiated a national coverage analysis (NCA) in March. A proposed coverage decision was announced in late August (172 HCDR, 9/6/11).
Tom Curtin, MD, NACHC's Former Senior Vice President and Chief Medical Officer, Delivered the Commencement Keynote Address to graduates at A.T. Still University, School of Health Management (ATSU/SHM), Saturday, May 28, at the Ophelia Parrish Performance Hall on the campus of Truman State University, Kirksville, Missouri. LISTEN HERE. Prior to joining NACHC Senior Management in 1996, Dr. Curtin was Medical Director of the East Jordan Family Health Center, East Jordan, Michigan. He has a B.S. in Psychology and an M.D. from Michigan State University, and is a National Health Service Corps Scholar. Dr. Curtin spearheaded efforts to build workforce and leadership development programs for America’s Health Centers, was a key component of the Accreditation Initiative, and played a key role in designing and implementing the Health Disparities Collaboratives, a national health center program that independent studies cite as a successful treatment model in reducing chronic disease in medically underserved communities. Kimberly O’Reilly, D.H.Ed., M.S.W., Dean of SHM, calls Dr. Curtin “one of the most influential and respected healthcare professionals in the country. The fact that CHC’s serve the underserved fits squarely within the mission of SHM and ATSU.”
FREE NACHC Membership Available for Health Professional Students
This membership category is a FREE individual membership open exclusively to all enrolled health professional students who are committed to the mission and goals of NACHC: http://www.nachc.com/College%20Health%20Professional%20Membership.cfm .
