NCHN NEWS

MEMBER BLURBS

UPCOMING EVENTS

NATIONAL NEWS

FUNDING

Upcoming NCHN Calls & Events

Coffee/Tea Chats with Dr. Mary Kay Chess
Wednesday, July 20 at 11:00 AM ET

Next Quarterly Membership Call
Monday, September 12 @ 12:30 PM ET (Topic TBA)

1st NCHN Leadership Summit
Tuesday, September 27
Hyatt Regency Crown Center: Kansas City, MO
Visit NCHN.org for more details. Registration & other information will be available soon!

Executive Coaching Training Calls
Wednesday, September 14 at 11:00 AM ET
Wednesday, December 14 at 11:00 AM ET

» VIEW THE CALENDAR ONLINE

About NCHN's Executive Coaching Program

The Executive Coaching Program connects leaders of newer networks with experienced, established mentors. Coaches receive quarterly training in leadership and serve as mentors to HRSA’s network planning grantees. Both coaches and coachees must complete an application and both can coach and receive coaching. This is an opportunity for members to enhance their leadership skills and both give and receive guidance in leading a successul health network.

Program Comment from Brendan Ashby:
I wanted to work with a coach because it seemed to be the most efficient and logical method to achieve my goal of improving the performance of my network.  My experience with the NCHN Executive Coaching Program has been exceptional.  Esther Hammerschlag, Network Director for the Prince of Wales Health Network serves as my coach.  Esther helps me define my goals and objectives and obtain excellence through motivation and encouragement.  She brings accountability and objectivity and readily shares her experience with health networks.  The NCHN Executive Coaching Program has improved my skills, confidence, and effectiveness.
         
Brendan L. Ashby, MBA, MPH, MCHES, FACHE
Executive Director, Northeast Minnesota AHEC’s mnHEALTHnet

» MORE INFORMATION (pdf)

NCHN is recruiting both Coaches and Coachees.
» If you are interested in serving as a Coach, download and complete the Coach Application Form (doc)
» If you would like to be a Coachee, download and submit the Coachee Application Form.

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Quarterly Membership Call: June 13, 2011

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From braingle.com

How many E's are in the 4th of July?

» VIEW THE ANSWER

NCHN Members to Present at Grants Management Seminar

Chris Hopkins (Montana Health Network) and Beverly Santicola (CROPS Health Network Center) will be presenting at a Grants Management seminar entitled Native Traditions & New Technology. The seminar will be held in Billings, Montana from August 16 - 17, 2011.

» EVENT FLYER (pdf)

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Health IT and Quality Webinar: Mobile Health Clinics - Opportunities and Challenges

July 8, 2011 @ 2:00 PM

The Health Resource Services and Administration’s (HRSA) Health Information Technology (IT) and Quality Webinars are technical assistance webcasts for HRSA grantees and the safety net community. These webinars are intended for safety net providers either using or planning to use health IT as a tool to improve quality in their delivery of patient care. Each webinar features leading experts with hands-on experience from within the safety net community, as well as speakers with various grantee experiences and federal expertise. Below is a listing of upcoming webinar topics and dates.

» MORE INFORMATION

More Upcoming Health IT and Quality Events: Tips for Generating Quality Data Reports Using Health IT (July 22, 2011 @ 2:00 PM EST)

15th Annual 340B Coalition Conference

July 11 - 13, 2011
Washington, DC

Time is running out to register for the 15th Annual Conference on Improving Access to Pharmaceutical Care and Ensuring Compliance with Federal and State Laws, which takes place July 11th-13th in Washington, DC. [SNHPA] also urges you to stay for SNHPA’s Annual Legislative Day on July 14th.

Over a year has passed since health care reform legislation was enacted, but many questions remain about the law’s impact on the 340B program as the government continues to implement many 340B-related provisions. At the same time, the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) will soon publish new guidelines that will redefine what patients and sites are eligible for the 340B program. These guidelines will impact every 340B stakeholder, from the smallest health centers and hospitals in the country to the world’s largest drug manufacturers.

On-site registration fees are $100 more. Register now at ww.340Bcoalition.org and save.

» MORE INFORMATION

CMS Rural Health Open Door Forum

July 12, 2011
2:00 - 3:00 PM ET

Rural Health Open Door Forum Overview 

The Rural Health ODF addresses Rural Health Clinic (RHC), Critical Access Hospital (CAH) and Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC) issues, as well as some inclusion of other questions and concerns that occur in clinical practice pertaining to other CMS payment systems that also extend into these settings. Topics that frequently arise on this forum often deal with payment & billing for services subject to Health Professional Shortage Area (HPSA) and/or Physician Shortage Area (PSA) status, cost report clarifications, classifications for & qualifications of rural provider types, and the many special provisions being implemented for improving rural health in the Medicare Modernization Act of 2003. Timely announcements and clarifications regarding important rulemaking, quality program initiatives, and other related areas are also included in the Forums.

The next Rural Health Open Door Forum is scheduled for Tuesday, July12, 2011 from 2:00pm-3:00pmET. If you wish to participate, dial 1-800-837-1935 Conference ID 59683815. This call will be Conference Call Only. Please see the Downloads section below for the full participation announcement. Thank you for your continued interest in the CMS Open Door Forums.

» MORE INFORMATION

Agricultural Medicine: Occupational and Environmental Health for Rural Health Professionals - The Core Course

July 11 - 13, 2011
Omaha, NE

This course is offered by UNMC College of Public Health and is intended for physicians, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, nurses, veterinarians, health educators, migrant health clinicians, physical therapists, undergraduate and graduate students, and others with an interest in rural and agricultural health care.

» MORE INFORMATION

Webinar: How to Recruit and Retain Physicians in a Rural Market

July 21, 2011
1:00 - 3:00 PM CST

This webinar will address physician recruitment and retention activities which represents the difference between just “surviving” and “thriving” of any hospital. It will also address how the new federal health care reform law has just raised the recruitment stakes for available physicians, especially primary care. Experts predict that there will not be enough physicians to treat the millions of people who are newly insured under the law. According to the Association of Medical Colleges, the physician shortage will be 150,000 physicians in the next 15 years. The greatest demand will be for primary care physicians who will have an increasing role in coordinating care for each patient. This predicted shortage will mean more limited access to health care and longer wait times for patients.

Offered by Illinois Hospital Research and Educational Foundation
Cost: $260 for Non-IHA Members

» MORE INFORMATION (pdf)

NRHA: Quality and Clinical Conference

July 20 - 22, 2011
Rapid City, SD

The Quality and Clinical Conference is an interactive conference for quality improvement coordinators, performance improvement coordinators, rural clinicians, quality improvement organizations, and nurses practicing on the front lines of rural health care.

» MORE INFORMATION

Grant Management: Native Traditions & New Technology

August 16-17, 2011
Billings, MT

Learn how to:
Find New Funding
Write Better Proposals
Manage Federal Awards
Win More Grants

Offered by Center for Rural Outreach & Public Services, Inc. and www.us-government-grants.net

» MORE INFORMATION (pdf)

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2011 Rural Assembly Closes: 'Either I am a nobody or I'm a nation'

Dee Davis (President, Center for Rural Strategies) gave the closing speech at the 2011 Rural Assembly Gathering on Friday, July 1, 2011. The closing speech, along with other news and recaps, are available online.

Quote from Dee Davis' Closing Speech:
"As we move forward, we’ve got to think about how this story turns out. We need to engage with each other and find that purpose – find that purpose and keep going. We’re going to have to find a way to help each other through this [and] create the purpose in ourselves to move this thing forward."
» Watch the speech online

» SEE NEWS FROM THE 2011 RURAL ASSEMBLY

» From the Daily Yonder: Subsidies, Broadband, and the Road (June 30, 2011)

HRSA: New Web Pages

June 29, 2011 (HRSA Health Information Technology and Quality Newsletter) - In late June, HRSA’s Office of Health IT and Quality and Office of Communications launched the redesigned HRSA's Quality Improvement (QI) website. This new website aggregates HRSA’s Bureau and Office’s QI resources, as well as QI information from HRSA’s Federal and non-Federal partners.

HRSA's New “Meaningful Use Stage 1 Clinical Quality Measures” webpage provides safety net providers a technical assistance resource for helping them understand how to qualify for CMS’s EHR Incentive Program in this area.

» LINK TO HRSA'S QUALITY IMPROVEMENT SITE
» LINK TO MEANINGFUL USE STAGE 1 CLINICAL QUALITY MEASURES

Atlas of Rural and Small-Town America: 2010 Census Data Added

The Atlas of Rural and Small-Town America is a mapping application that provides a spatial interpretation of county-level, economic and social conditions along four broad categories of socioeconomic factors: people (using newly released data on population size, race and ethnicity, and immigration from the 2010 Decennial Census and other demographic data from the American Community Survey, including age, race and ethnicity, migration and immigration, education, household size and family composition), jobs (using economic data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics and other sources, including information on employment trends, unemployment, industrial composition, and household income), agriculture (using indicators from the 2007 Census of Agriculture, including number and size of farms, operator characteristics, off-farm income, and government payments), and county classifications (using typologies such as the rural-urban continuum, economic dependence, persistent poverty, population loss, and other ERS county codes). Maps are interactive and also provided for download; raw data are provided for download.

» ACCESS THE ATLAS

A Patient Advocate Perspective On ACOs
by Rene Cabral-Daniels in HealthAffairs Blog

June 29, 2011 - The pace at which articles have been written about Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) has been nothing short of frenetic. It appears every possible healthcare stakeholder has shared ideas regarding how the Shared Savings Program in general, and ACOs in particular should be structured. The breath of perspectives has likewise been astounding. Organizations with only a remote footing in the healthcare space, as well as those entrenched in this space have offered their perspectives. And yet, for all the robustness of this discourse, there is one voice that has been drowned out within the symphony of perspectives- the voice of the patient.

» CONTINUE READING

Public-private 'Beacon' campaigns use health IT vs. type 2 diabetes

June 28, 2011 (Telemedicine and e-Health News Alert) - The American Diabetes Association (ADA) and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) are working with the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) on a nationwide program to increase the use of health IT for diabetes prevention and management in 17 "beacon" communities with higher than average health IT adoption. Two beacon communities—Southeast Michigan (Detroit, MI) and Crescent City (New Orleans, LA)—will partner with mobile health (mHealth) platform provider Voxiva (Washington, DC) to launch new public health campaigns designed to help individuals assess their risk of type 2 diabetes, and provide them with health information and access to local health and wellness resources.

» READ ABOUT THE BEACON COMMUNITY PROGRAM

Affordable Care Act to improve data collection, reduce health disparities
HHS announces new draft standards to improve the monitoring of health data by race, ethnicity, sex, primary language, and disability status, and begins planning for the collection of LGBT health data

June 29, 2011 (HHS News Release) - HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius announced new draft standards for collecting and reporting data on race, ethnicity, sex, primary language and disability status, and announced the administration’s plans to begin collecting health data on lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) populations. Both efforts aim to help researchers, policy makers, health providers and advocates to identify and address health disparities afflicting these communities.

“Health disparities have persistent and costly affects for minority communities, and the whole country,” Secretary Sebelius said.  “Today we are taking critical steps toward ensuring the collection of useful national data on minority groups, including for the first time, LGBT populations.  The data we will eventually collect in these efforts will serve as powerful tools and help us in our fight to end health disparities.”

» CONTINUE READING

More from HHS:
Affordable Care Act cuts health care red tape, saves $12 billion (June 30, 2011)

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Funds for Community-Based Healthy People 2020 Innovations (DHHS)

Deadline: August 5, 2011

The Healthy People 2020 Community Innovations Project Grant Program provides support to community-level projects that use Healthy People 2020 overarching goals, topic areas, and objectives to promote improved heath at a community level. Proposed projects must address at least one of the Healthy People 2020 topics and incorporate at least one of the following priorities that are linked to the Healthy People 2020 overarching goals:

Environmental Justice: supporting the rights of all people to live in a healthy environment;
Health Equity: dealing with issues that cause some groups of people to have worse health than others; and
Healthy Behaviors Across All Life Stages: activities to improve the opportunities for people of all ages to make healthy choices.

» MORE INFORMATION

» MORE FROM GRANTSTATION INSIDER

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