Technical Assistance Calls

CAP continues to offer TA calls for grantees every other Tuesday from 2 to 3 or 3:30 PM EST. The schedule for July - August appears below. To register for the calls, please contact Angelique Raptakis at 301-468-6006 Ext. 501 or at araptakis@mac1988.com with your name and contact information at least one week prior to the call.

Shortly after you register, you will receive a call-in number and an access code. If you do not receive this call-in information by the Monday before the call, please contact Angelique. Agendas for TA calls will be emailed out ahead of time.

Please note:

Call summaries, with the exception of calls related to legal issues, are posted on the CAP website (http://www.capcommunity.org). While the website is still under development, it currently has links to grantees, information on peer-to-peer support by area, call summaries, legal issue briefs, and a bulletin board to post questions. You can also use the website for TA questions and as a link to our CAP TA consultant, MAC, for assistance and consultant recommendations.

Prescription Drug Initiative

On June 18, 2001, HHS announced demonstration projects that will permit organizations participating in the 340B drug discount program to reduce costs and make drug buying for their patients easier.

Community Health Centers and other safety net providers approved for participation in the demonstrations will be able to:

• Be a part of single purchasing and dispensing systems that serve covered entity networks

• Contract with multiple pharmacy services providers

• Use contracted pharmacy services to complement in-house pharmacy services.

If the demonstration projects are successful, these new methods of purchasing discounted drugs will be included in the 340B program. If you wish to be considered for participation in the project, submit your proposal to the Health Resources and Services Administration's Office of Pharmacy Affairs. For further information, please visit http://www.hrsa.gov/odpp.

Grants to Expand Health Care

On June 5, 2001, HHS announced its second set of grants to community health centers to help expand health care access to medically underserved Americans. Twenty-nine health centers in 17 states received a total of $9.2 million. Funds for these expansion programs come from HRSA's Consolidated Health Centers program.

The first 25 grants were announced in March of this year. The third and final set of grants for 2001 is expected to be announced in August.

For more information, go to www.hrsa.gov/chc/ or call 301-594-4300.

Increasing Access to Dental & Mental Health Care for Children & Teens

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation has made funds available for projects that increase access to dental and mental health care for children and teens. This initiative, Caring for Kids: Expanding Dental and Mental Health Services through School-based Health Centers, targets projects that:

• Increase access to dental and mental health care through school-based health centers that use an RWJ model

• coordinate these services with existing programs.

For more information about these grants, go to www.healthinschools.org/cfppr.asp or contact Annette Ferebee at 202-466-3396 or ajf@gwu.edu. Proposals are due no later than August 10, 2001.

Discounted Dentures and Eyeglasses

Volunteers in Healthcare (VIH) has discovered a nonprofit dental and optical lab that offers discounted lab services to nonprofit organizations, government agencies, and religious groups. Wellness Choice/Nonprofit Warehouse is now offering voucher programs for both dentures and eyeglasses.

For further information, visit their website at www.nonprofitwarehouse.com or call Les Wilson at 770-541-7777 or toll-free at 888-541-5411. The website provides information on associated costs and about other companies who may be willing to reduce their rates to support the activities of nonprofit organizations.

VIH Grants for Primary Care Referral Systems

On June 19, 2001, Volunteers in Health Care (VIH) announced a call for proposals for the creation of primary care referral systems comprised of voluntary physicians in an outpatient setting.

These one-year grants of up to $50,000 require a 50% match (cash, in-kind services or some combination of both). Funds may be used for administrative costs associated with planning and implementing a referral system.

Application materials will be available on the VIH website on July 2, 2001 and proposals are due on August 24, 2001 (www.volunteersinhealthcare.org).

VIH Has a Computer Scholarship Program

Smaller budget organizations now have an opportunity to apply for scholarships of up to $2000 to buy computers or update their technology to help their enhance the efficiency of their operations.

Check VIH's website to download application materials, which must be submitted by July 20, 2001, at www.volunteersinhealthcare.org. The Resource Tips section contains further information on how to locate free and reduced cost computer equipment.

Funding For Outcomes Evaluation

Volunteers in Health Care (VIH) is offering funding for outcomes evaluation by community-based organizations with budgets of $2 million or less, including nonprofit organizations and government agencies using volunteer clinicians to deliver health care to the uninsured. Preference will be given to those organizations that have been unable to conduct evaluations in the past due to funding constraints.

Eligible applicants can apply for up to $30,000, with a match of cash or in-kind services required. The full announcement and necessary application forms are available on the VIH website at www.volunteersinhealthcare.org or by calling VIH at 1-877-844-8442.

The deadline for applications is August 24, 2001.

RxAssist Plus Software

Volunteers in Health Care (VIH) have announced the availability of RxAssist Plus Version 2.0, their new patient and medication tracking software. This software is designed to meet the tracking needs of community-based clinics and is available at no cost to nonprofit organizations, government agencies, and individual clinicians that work with clients who are uninsured.

The software is menu-driven and easy to use. It stores and tracks information on patients, visits, and providers; helps locate information on pharmaceutical company patient assistance programs; and facilitates and tracks the overall application process.

RxAssist Plus Version 2.0 is available on a single CD-ROM or on a series of diskettes for those running Microsoft Office 97 without a CD reader. To receive your copy, print out the registration form and licensing agreement available at: http://www.volunteersinhealthcare.org/softinfo.htm and fax the completed application forms to the VIH toll-free fax service at 888-642-5196.

Regional Conference on Medical Transportation

On Tuesday, July 31, 2001, a conference featuring discussion of non-emergency medical transportation issues will be held in Orlando, FL.

This one-day forum will present creative transit and transportation funding concepts, including case studies that demonstrate ways health and senior organizations can deal with transportation issues. Conference participants will be able to network with experts in the field of non-emergency medical transportation and learn more about innovative transportation programs and effective transportation contract management.

Visit www.ctaa.org for site and registration information. Questions about the conference should be addressed to Jessica McCann at mccann@ctaa.org.

NACHC Annual Convention

The National Association of Community Health Centers, Inc invites you to make your reservations for the NACHC 32nd Annual Convention and Community Health Institute, to be held from August 25 - 28, 2001, at the Adam's Mark Denver Hotel in Denver, CO.

Complete information, including a committee meeting schedule, preliminary program highlights, and a registration form can be found at www.nachc.com.

For further information, contact Jennifer B. Shehan at 202-659-8008.

A New Web Resource

The Provider's Guide to Quality and Culture is a web-based tool that can help health care providers deliver culturally and linguistically competent health care to multicultural populations.

The Guide offers information on common health problems encountered in a broad spectrum of ethnic and cultural groups and helps providers understand the cultures of targeted minority, immigrant and refugee peoples. It features interactive quizzes, helpful references, and links to other related web-based resources.

This new tool, supported by HRSA, was developed by Management Sciences for Health (MSH), a nonprofit organization devoted to the improvement of global health. MSH will update the Provider's Guide regularly and further expand the site's interactivity in the near future.

To access The Provider's Guide to Quality and Culture website, go to: http://erc.msh.org/quality&culture.

NIH Launches CAM on PubMed

Two members of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM) and the National Library of Medicine (NLM), have joined to create a new component of PubMed, a comprehensive medical literature database.

Complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) has become increasingly popular in the last decade and public interest in unconventional medical therapies continues to grow. CAM on PubMed is a new subset of PubMed and provides direct access to over 220,000 references and journal articles related to CAM.

CAM on PubMed can be accessed from the NCCAM website or directly through PubMed.

For additional information, a FAQ fact sheet is available at: http://www.nih.gov/news/pr/feb2001/nccam-05a.html.

State Health Facts Online

The Kaiser Family Foundation has created a new web-based resource that permits users to study data on more than 200 health-related topics. State Health Facts Online offers current health information for residents of all 50 states, the District of Columbia and U.S. territories at no charge to users, including health policy information on issues such as managed care, health insurance coverage, Medicaid and Medicare enrollment and spending, minority health and HIV/AIDS.

Users can easily access data on a single state, or compare and rank data across all 50 states at www.statehealthfacts.kff.org. The site features easy-to-read tables and color-coded maps can be downloaded for customized comparisons.

CAP Compendium

Anxious to see what your fellow grantees are doing? HRSA will be publishing a compendium of 2000 and 2001 CAP grantees that will describe and honor your drive, plans, and accomplishments and provide contact information for networking and information sharing among grantees. A full-page summary of each grantee organization will be included in the Compendium, which will be disseminated among all CAP grantees and other stakeholders interested in your progress under the Community Access Program.

In order to ensure accurate information, we need your immediate input. If you haven't already done so, please complete your Compendium template as soon as possible and email your response to Adele Zeno at azeno@synthesisps.com.

Communities in Action

On June 21-23, a Communities in Action conference was held at the Marriott Wardman Park Hotel in Washington, D.C. The conference theme was "Better Health for More People with Less Money," and provided an important networking opportunity for more than 700 participants with similar objectives to compare notes and discuss progress.

Fact Cards, with "fast facts" including point of contact information and a brief summary of goals and/or achievements, were prepared for CAP grantees who attended the conference.

California CAP Meeting

California CAP Grantees met in a daylong meeting in San Francisco on June 28 to learn more about HIPAA regulations and exchange information on other topics of mutual interest.

During the morning session, Robert Falk, an attorney with Powell, Goldstein, Frazer & Murphy, LLP, conducted an in-depth seminar on the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996. Documents are available to aid communities in developing HIPAA-compliant materials and processes. For more information, contact Audrey Smolkin

During the afternoon session, grantees discussed a number of common issues in addition to HIPAA-related concerns. Participants agreed to schedule a follow-up meeting in the near future.