December 2001

This is your newsletter. To submit information, update, or ask questions, please contact Audrey Smolkin at 215-861-4794 or email at asmolkin@hrsa.gov

Greetings CAPpers!

Some program updates:

RE-DESIGN: We are thrilled to report that we have received over 35 applications for various forms of re-design work. Please note: If you sent in an application and have not received such an e-mail, please contact me immediately. We will be reviewing applications and making selection decisions over the next few weeks and will be back in touch with selections by the end of December. Please contact me with any questions or concerns.

QUARTERLY STATUS REPORTS: These reports were due at the end of November. The report should be submitted to your field office project officer. Please be in touch with them if you have questions.

EXTENSION FUNDING: We recognize that many of the grantees funded in March 2001 have questions about no cost extensions. We are currently in the process of making decisions about that issue and will be back in touch with more information as soon as it is available.

IDENTITY CRISIS:  As the CAP family has grown, Central office staff is having a hard time keeping track of all grantees. As an example of our potential problems: there is a grantee applicant named El Rio Santa Cruz in Tucson , which operates as the Pima CAP which is not to be confused with El Rito, NM which is the original applicant for Sangre de Cristo in Santa Fe, NM. Sunrise Community Health Center (which, of course, should not be confused with Sunset Park in Brooklyn) is located Greeley, CO (not to be confused once again with Greeley Co, KS) and is operating under the project name of North Colorado Health Alliance. PLEASE make sure any communication with CAP includes your official collaborative name, grant number, and project director name. Your official name is the name listed on your Notice of Grant award. This will speed our response time to you and reduce our chances of insanity.

TRAVEL AND TA: Just a reminder that technical assistance funds are available to hire consultants, travel to other communities, and more. Please be in touch if you would like more information. Please note that if you have received such resources you must fill out a TA evaluation form.

Have a peaceful holiday season, the next CAPStone will resume in early January!

Thanks, Audrey

Audrey Smolkin
asmolkin@hrsa.gov
(215) 861-4794

CAP TA Calls

Date

Topic

Analyzing Emergency Room Data
John Billings, JD, Associate Professor of Health Policy and Public Service and Director of the Center for Health and Public Service Research at New York University will facilitate this call. John will discuss analyzing emergency room data to evaluate access barriers to outpatient care and to assess the performance of ambulatory care delivery systems.

January 8

MIS
Specific topical information will be announced closer to the date.

January 22

Measuring the Uninsured
Please join Lynn Blewett of the State Health Access Data Assistance Center, University of Minnesota School of Public Health, in a discussion about national survey data on the uninsured.

The 2010 EXPRESS, a National Summit on Children & Youth with Special Health Care Needs and Their Families, will take place from December 12-13 at the Hilton Washington in Washington, D.C.

The event is sponsored by the Department of Health and Human Services' Maternal and Child Health Bureau (MCHB), the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), Family Voices (FV), and the March of Dimes. The summit will bring together community leaders, members of Federal and State agencies, health care providers, and other individuals interested in creating a culturally-competent, comprehensive system of health care services for all children and youth with special needs. The program supports the HHS effort known as Healthy People 2010, a set of health objectives for the Nation to achieve over the next 10 years (http://www.health.gov/healthypeople/ ).

The two-day summit will include plenary sessions, breakout sessions, a cyber café, and an exhibit hall. A newly developed 10-Year Action Plan will also be distributed. Please visit https://www.psava.com/internet/register/conferences/MCHB/ or call 1-877-374-5907 for more information. Email regarding the conference specifically may also be sent to 2010Express@psava.com. For more information about the MCHB, please visit their website at http://mchb.hrsa.gov .

The Department of Health and Human Services and ABC Radio networks have partnered to educate African Americans about public health programs, local health care providers, and steps to leading a healthier life. The campaign, entitled "Closing the Health Gap", includes 240 ABC Radio affiliates that reach 93 percent of the African American population. In addition to the radio spots, the campaign currently includes an extensive website and may also include a one-day event next spring.

The campaign was created to help address the problem of disproportionate numbers of African Americans suffering from diabetes, heart disease and other medical problems. For more information, please visit the Closing the Health Gap website: http://www.healthgap.omhrc.gov/ .

CDC's National Center for Health Statistics recently released its 25th annual report on the health status of the Nation ,"Health, United States, 2001 With Urban and Rural Health Chartbook".

The report details national trends in health statistics on many topics, some of which include birth and death rates, morbidity and health status, health personnel and facilities, and health care financing. Also included are 148 trend tables focused on the following subject areas: health status and determinants, health care utilization, health care resources, and health care expenditures. This report is the first to examine public health status by level of urbanization for key U.S. communities. The Chartbook provides detailed analyses of population characteristics, health risk factors, health status indicators, and health care access measures for residents of counties grouped by five urbanization levels. Patterns by region of the country are also examined.

The complete report may be viewed on the Web at http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/products/pubs/pubd /hus/hus.htm. A soft-bound book or CD-ROM may also be purchased from the Government Printing Office (GPO): http://bookstore.gpo.gov/ index.html. Highlights of the report can be found at www.cdc.gov/nchs/products/pubs/ pubd/hus/highlits.htm .

A new issue brief from the Center for Studying Health System Change (HSC) examines the important role that local community groups play in enrolling eligible children into public heath insurance programs. The HSC's recent site visits to 12 nationally representative communities revealed that schools, employers, religious organizations, health departments, providers, and community groups can all provide valuable assistance with public outreach and can actually help increase enrollment. Impending reductions in federal SCHIP funding and recent state budget cuts could threaten future outreach efforts, making community involvement even more important.

For additional information or to read the report in its entirety, please visit http://www.hschange.org/CONTENT/377/ .

Community Voices, a 13-site, multi-year initiative of the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, has released a report, "Community-based Health Plans for the Uninsured: Expanding Access, Enhancing Dignity." The report examines how five U.S. communities developed health plans to cover residents who did not qualify for public health programs and could not afford private health insurance. Each health plan had the same goal: to promote primary and preventive care and reduce expensive inpatient and emergency care. However, each community had a unique approach to achieving this goal. The report details the background and development of each program, along with the obstacles faced and lessons learned during program implementation. It provides a valuable resource for other organizations attempting to establish similar plans in their communities. The five health plans profiled in the report include:

• Alameda County, CA's Family Care

• Bernalillo County, NM's UNM Care Plan

• El Paso County, TX's Primary Care Plan

• Ingham County, MI's Ingham Health Plan

• North Carolina's FirstConnection

For more information about Community Voices and to read the entire report, visit their website at http://www.communityvoices.org.

The National Center on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NCMHD) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) recently announced the release of their new website located at http://ncmhd.nih.gov/ncmhd_splash2.html .

The website showcases research and initiatives focused on improving the health status of minority Americans and other underserved populations. The Center's programs are explained in detail, along with press releases, conference information and an extensive list of related Internet resources.

The mission of the NCMHD is to "lead, coordinate, support, and assess the NIH effort to reduce and ultimately eliminate health disparities." The Center will attempt to coordinate minority health disparities research and other programs at the NIH into a national health research agenda. It will award grants and contracts independently, but will continue to work with other NIH institutes and centers to support health disparities research, clinical research and training, and the dissemination of health information. Questions about the Center or its website may be directed to NCMHDInfo@od.nih.gov .

State Health Facts Online is a free Internet resource designed to give journalists, state and federal policymakers, researchers, and the general public access to health policy information on all 50 states. Users can easily view information for a single state, or compare and rank data across all 50 states and the U.S. Information on more than 220 topics is displayed in tables and color-coded maps, and may be downloaded for custom analyses. State Health Facts Online is available at www.statehealthfacts.kff.org or through the Foundation's primary website at www.kff.org, where users can access all of the Kaiser Family Foundation's reports and analyses.

The American Nurses Foundation recently released its new web resource for immunization information, entitled INNPOWER (Immunization Nursing Network Provider Outreach Web Education and Resources). The site includes information on vaccine safety, including 2001-2002 influenza vaccine information, an active listserv for current information, and a state-by-state directory. Educational information is also provided to help nurses and other providers accurately inform patients receiving vaccinations.

The main mission of the site is to help nurses become safe and effective providers of vaccine services. The site can be found at http://www.innpower.org .

The Texas Department of Human Services recently released a new Web-based tool that helps residents determine their own eligibility for more than 50 state assistance programs, including Medicaid and other medical assistance programs. The website, known as STARS (The State of Texas Assistance and Referral System), allows users to enter personal information such as household and financial data and then uses that information to generate a list of eligible programs. All personal information is kept completely confidential. The site provides guidance in both English and Spanish, and is designed to accommodate new as well as seasoned computer users. It is intended as an educational tool and does not currently provide online enrollment.

STARS is a component of the larger Texas Integrated Eligibility Redesign System Initiative, a project to replace current outdated systems with a new integrated system. For more information, please visit the STARS site at http://www.txstars.net .

CAPStone is provided as a service to CAP Grantees by the Community Access Program of the Health Resources and Services Administration. Please forward your corrections, questions or comments about the newsletter to: