Technical assistance calls for grantees are held every other Thursday from 2 to 3 PM EST. The schedule for January appears below. To register, search for summaries or materials from prior calls, or download materials for upcoming calls, please go to the CAP Website: www.capcommunity.hrsa.gov. Please remember that the site is password protected. Grantees should contact their primary contact to receive the password. Once you register for the call, please be sure to download the materials that will be used during the call. You should immediately receive a confirmation note by email that includes the call-in number for the call. If you have difficulty registering or do not receive the call-in number, please contact scampbell@mac1988.com or call 301-468-6006 x437.

With the exception of calls related to legal issues, many TA calls are summarized and posted on the CAP website (www.capcommunity.hrsa.gov). Legal issue briefs are posted on the site under legal issues and require a password, which may be obtained by emailing Sherilyn Adams (sadams@hrsa.gov). You may also request an audiotape copy of any previous calls (up to one month after the call) by contacting Shandy Campbell at the email above. 

Congratulations to CAP Grantee Project Access of Danville, VA for receiving major national coverage in the Wall Street Journal! The December 24th article highlighted Danville's successful coordinated volunteer physician network for the uninsured. Major achievements included participation of all but 13 of the 175 doctors in the Danville area. To date, the program has screened approximately 2,000 people and has more than 450 active clients at any one time. During the past year, Danville physicians provided office services estimated at more than $762,000. This is in addition to care totaling $986,000 provided this year by Danville Regional Medical Center, the community hospital that helped start the program and provides free diagnostic testing and in-patient care to Project Access patients. For more information, please visit: http://www.projectaccessdan.org.

PATH recently made two presentations in the Annual Meeting of the American Public Health Association in Philadelphia, PA. The first presentation featured a poster highlighting the preliminary results of PATH's High Risk Patient Care Management Pilot. The second presentation described their Primary Care Enrollment Program Pilot, which establishes a referral process for patients to appropriate primary care providers. For more information on PATH, please visit: www.lphi.org/path.

Congratulations to the Sylacauga Alliance for Family Enhancement for receiving front-page coverage in a recent issue of The Daily Home. The article profiled the Alliance's various CAP initiatives, including Project HEAL (Health Education Access Link), a centralized tracking system that links social service agencies, churches and medical facilities in Talladega County. The system allows participants to provide health and social service access and resources to Talladega County's uninsured and underinsured and supports the growing Parish Nurse education and outreach program.

Deadline: January 31, 2003

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation recently announced a $16.5 million initiative designed to increase physical activity nationwide through innovative community design, public policies, and communications strategies. The Active Living by Design program will award grants of up to $200,000 over five years to 25 qualified community-oriented partnerships to develop and implement strategies that increase opportunities for and remove barriers to routine physical activity, especially among low-income Americans. For program and application information, please visit the program's site at http://www.activelivingbydesign.org .

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) will hold a series of workshops to help remove unnecessary barriers that may prevent these groups from receiving federal funding. These grant-writing workshops are being held for small, faith-based and community groups in communities throughout the U.S.

Participants will receive hands-on training in writing an application and understanding the grant process; matching project ideas to funding sources; developing a budget; and establishing an evaluation plan. For workshop conference locations, dates and registration, please contact NTACT: Shelly Burgess at 301-443-8956.

Deadline: January 22, 2003

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) recently announced that approximately $4 million in 2003 funds is expected to be available for 24 grants to public and private organizations for community collaborations to prevent youth violence and promote youth development. Grants will range between $150,000 and $200,000 per year for two years. Funding is dependant on Congress' enactment of SAMHSA's appropriation when the new session convenes. For more information, visit: www.healthinschools.org/2002/nov26b_alert.asp

Deadline: February 14, 2003

The Policy Advocacy on Tobacco and Health (PATH) program is a national funding and capacity building initiative to support diverse, community-based organizations and tribal groups in the development and implementation of effective tobacco control policy initiatives at the local level. The Program is a partnership between the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and The Praxis Project to provide technical assistance, training and 24-month grants of up to $150,000 to 10 local, geographic community-based groups serving and working in communities of color. For more information visit: http://www.thepraxisproject.org/path.html, phone: 202-234-5921, email: info@thepraxisproject.org.

January 15, 2003

The Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is hosting a general audio conference call for the purpose of exchanging information regarding the implementation of the Administrative Simplification provisions of HIPAA. The call will take place on Wednesday January 15, 2003 from 2:00 - 3:30 PM EST. The call in number is 1-877-381-6315 and the conference identification number is 6632809. This meeting will provide information on the following: an update on HIPAA regulations, enforcement issues, Medicare's HIPAA schedule, and HIPAA resources. Interested CAP grantees should dial in 20 minutes before the start of the meeting. Please identify yourself to the operator who will provide you with instructions regarding telephone procedures for participation. If you have any questions regarding the Roundtable, please contact Alikia Brown, 410-786-4523 or abrown1@cms.hhs.gov.

In September 2001, HRSA embarked on a three year program to improve the Third Party Reimbursement (TPR) status of HRSA grantees and subgrantees. HRSA has contracted with a team of experts to provide TPR training and technical assistance to HRSA grantees in each state. The focus of the TPR training will be to improve existing operational, business, and billing systems to allow grantees in each state to fully claim allowable reimbursements under the state Medicaid plan, S-CHIP, and other available sources of third party reimbursement. Following the training, HRSA grantees and subgrantees will be able to access technical assistance services from the HRSA contractor. The technical assistance will include written and online materials, telephone consultations, and on-site visits by a team of experts. The schedule, location and brochures of upcoming day and a half training sessions can be found on www.hrsa.gov/tpr  (Click on "Training"). Please Note: Participation is limited but there is no registration fee. For questions, contact the Third Party Reimbursement Project at: tpr@hrsa.gov or (301) 443-1516.

March 10-March 16, 2003

The United Way of America (UWA) is working with government and foundation partners to improve access to health care and eliminate health disparities. As part of this effort, UWA has joined the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and other national organizations for Covering the Uninsured Week, a major effort to establish the issue of the uninsured as a top national priority and to encourage the nation to seek solutions for the more than 41 million Americans who have no health insurance.

As part of this public awareness campaign, a weeklong series of national and local events will take place from March 10 through March 16, 2003. Local United Way divisions are planning diverse activities in collaboration with hospitals, universities, churches and community-based organizations across the country. For more information about UWA's partnerships and Covering the Uninsured Week, visit: http://national.unitedway.org/mobilization/zero/.

Two new publications from the Commonwealth Fund's Task Force on the Future of Health Insurance address important aspects of employer health coverage -- its affordability and availability to workers in small businesses, and its degree of portability for workers who change or lose jobs. Both briefs are useful background reading on various proposals of covering the uninsured. The first issue brief, Health Insurance Purchasing Cooperatives, examines cooperative purchasing arrangements. In the second issue brief, Portability of Coverage: HIPAA and COBRA, the authors examine how well current federal laws ensure that workers will be able to keep their health insurance when they change or lose jobs. Both issue briefs are available at: http://www.cmwf.org/publist/publist2.asp?CategoryID=4.

The Center on an Aging Society has just released the sixth in a series of Data Profiles on chronic and disabling conditions. "Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease: A chronic condition that limits activities," examines the extent to which the condition affects daily life, including participation in the work force and activities at home. The profile also reports that health service use and health care expenditure are high for people who have COPD. The profile can be found at: http://ihcrp.georgetown.edu/agingsociety/copd/copd.html.

200 Federal Benefit Programs Now Available on Online

The Department of Labor, in conjunction with the Office of Management and Budget, recently announced the addition of 68 federal benefit programs to GovBenefits.gov, a website developed to serve as a one-stop resource for government benefit eligibility information. This brings the total number of programs featured on the GovBenefits.gov site to 200, representing approximately $1.3 trillion in annual benefit dollars. The site will also include multi-tiered questions, which will enhance the user experience by reducing the number of redundant questions that users have to answer to determine their eligibility for benefits.  

New benefit programs include those from the Departments of Agriculture (Commodity Supplemental Food Program, Direct Housing Natural Disaster Loans & Grants), Education (Even Start: Migrant Education, Women's Educational Equity Act Program), Health and Human Services (Contraception & Infertility Research Loans), and Housing and Urban Development (Mortgage Insurance Homes for Low and Moderate Income Families, Mortgage Insurance for Homes in Urban Renewal Areas). For a full list of programs and eligibility information, visit: http://www.govbenefits.gov/.

Consumer Health Coverage Information

Three new health care websites designed to provide consumers with information about insurance and access to health care have been launched recently with support from The Commonwealth Fund.

BenefitsCheckUp.org, a service of the National Council on the Aging, helps seniors find programs that may pay for some costs associated with prescription drugs, health care, utilities, and other essential items or services. The website address is http://www.BenefitsCheckUp.org.

HealthCareCoach.com, launched by the National Health Law Program, provides information that helps consumers use their health care coverage more effectively and find other ways of accessing the care they need. The website address is http://www.healthcarecoach.com.

The Artists' Health Insurance Resource Center helps artists obtain health insurance and access to health care, although most of the information it provides is relevant to anyone needing such assistance. It links visitors to artist groups offering health insurance plans as well as to public and private health care resources. The website is http://www.actorsfund.org/ahirc/.