Technical Assistance Calls

Technical Assistance calls for grantees are continuing every other Tuesday from 2 to 3 or 3:30 PM EST. The schedule for September 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.

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.

HHS To Offer "Micro-Grants" To Organizations That Support Healthy People 2010

On July 16th HHS announced the agency's plans to award hundreds of "micro-grants" to community organizations for activities that support the goals of Healthy People 2010, the nation's health and prevention agenda for the next decade. HHS will launch the new micro-grant initiative with a two-year project, committing $500,000-$700,000 for Year One. Grants in amounts of up to $2010 each will be used to foster the prevention efforts of local not-for-profit groups, including faith-based organizations. Grantees may use the funding for anti-tobacco campaigns, substance abuse forums, or other projects aimed at enhancing quality of life and eliminating health disparities. Projects that involve coalitions of community groups are expected to receive preference in obtaining funds.

HHS will choose several organizations to recruit, review and award grant applications in different geographic areas. The simple application process will also be available electronically.

For more information, please visit: http://www.hhs.gov/news/press/2001pres/20010716.html.

For more information on Healthy People 2010, go to: http://www.health.gov/healthypeople.

CAP Grantee Conference Set for October 2001

The Fall 2001 CAP Grantee Meeting will take place October 14-17 in Arlington, Virginia, close to Washington National Airport. The focus of the conference is: Building Partnerships: Leveraging Resources to Extend Community Health.

The meeting will open on Sunday night with a grants management briefing for the newest CAP grantees, awarded September 2001. A networking reception for all grantees will then take place later in the evening. Two full days of sessions will be offered on the 15th and 16th, followed by one half day of optional session on Wednesday, October 17th. The optional session will be on clinical redesign. More details on this and the rest of the conference can be found at the CAP website:www.capcommunity.org.

The event will take place at the Hyatt Regency Crystal City in Arlington. Reservations can be made by calling (703) 418-1234. Ask for "in-house reservations" and reference the Community Access Program to get the discounted conference rate. Please call to make your reservations as early as possible.

It's very important for grantees to be involved in the development of the conference agenda. If you would like to participate in the planning process, please contact Audrey Smolkin at (215) 861-4794 or email asmolkin@hrsa.gov.

For questions regarding conference logistics, please contact Dawn Farrell Mitchell at dmitchell@synthesisps.com (301) 770-8970 ext. 13, or Wendy Houston at whouston@synthesisps.com, (301) 770-8970 ext. 12.

Coming soon...the Communities in Action videoconference, "Communities in Action to Reduce and Eliminate Health Status Disparities," will take place on Wednesday, September 26, 2001. The goal of the event is to build and sustain the momentum to transform the nation's health care system to provide 100 percent access and zero health disparities. Content and logistics of the videoconference are still in development. For more information please contact Dennis Wagner at 301-594-4121.

To learn more about Communities in Action, visit their web site at: http://www.bphc.hrsa.dhhs.gov/cca/

The Health Resources Services Administration (HRSA) and Bureau of Primary Health Care (BPHC) will be sponsoring a National Faith-Health Leadership Forum from April 3-6, 2002 at the Xerox Training & Conference Center in Leesburg, Virginia. The objectives of the forum are to obtain guidance and direction for BPHC to better utilize the Faith-Health Initiative, to increase the practice of preventive medicine, and to improve accessibility and quality of health care. Plenary sessions and interactive workshops will focus on the tools, technologies, models and best practices that the faith and health communities can use to address access to health care and health disparities.

For more information on the conference, please contact Jim Gray at jgray@hrsa.gov.

CAP Collaborative Awarded Local Funding

Leon County Collaborative members have been meeting since 1995 to address a critical need for primary care services and pharmaceutical assistance for uninsured residents in their community. In July, the Leon County Commission agreed to provide $1.2 million in primary health care funding for Leon County for the 2001-2002 fiscal year. Funds will come from a combination of reserves and a small Municipal Services Tax (MSTU) on local real estate. The award follows a long series of public hearings and votes at both City and County levels.

After trying to garner local support for several years, the Collaborative believes the CAP Grant helped provide the validation they needed to finally receive local financial assistance. According to Art Cooper, director of the Leon County Health Department, CAP funding provided "the infrastructure and momentum needed to keep the energy in the community moving to this point."

Congratulations Leon County!

To learn more about the Leon County Collaborative, contact director Art Cooper at Art_Cooper@doh.state.fl.us.

Case Management Leads To SKYCAP Success

The Southeast Kentucky Community Access Program (SKYCAP) was initiated by the University of Kentucky's Center for Rural Health in September of 2000. The Program utilizes Family Health Navigators (FHNs) who work with local providers to facilitate a holistic care management system that provides physical, mental and environmental care to uninsured residents of their communities. This holistic approach, combined with effective MIS implementation, has led to a substantial reduction in the cost of hospitalization and emergency room visits for counties served by the SKYCAP program. The cost of hospitalizations for the two county area was drastically reduced after residents enrolled in the program. Cost of emergency room visits also decreased dramatically after program entry.

The SKYCAP program clearly demonstrates the positive economic impact of successful case management efforts. Congratulations SKYCAP!

To learn more about SKYCAP's FHN program, contact director Fran Feltner at fjfeltn@pop.uky.edu.

Do you have exciting or interesting news you would like to share with other grantees?

Please send your ideas to Audrey Smolkin at asmolkin@hrsa.gov.

Annual Federal Child Health And Well-Being Report

The Federal government has released its fifth annual report on the status of children in the nation. "America's Children: Key National Indicators of Well-Being, 2001" examines the changing population and family context in which children are living, and focuses on the areas of economic security, health, behavior, social environment and education. This year's study includes two additional reports on childhood asthma prevalence and youth employment.

The report is available in its entirety at http://www.childstats.gov/.

ASTHO Promotes Children's Oral Health

The Association of State and Territorial Health Officials (ASTHO) recently released an access brief on children's oral health entitled, "Children's Oral Health: State Initiatives and Opportunities to Address the Silent Epidemic". The brief discusses oral health policy issues and challenges, and examines initiatives of five states that are working to improve children's oral health status. Examples from Alabama, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Washington and Wisconsin are used to demonstrate opportunities available to expand access to oral health care through utilization of public and private resources, and establishment of interdisciplinary, collaborative partnerships. The authors believe that states, communities, health care providers, and individuals are each responsible for helping children obtain and maintain optimal oral health.

To view the entire access brief, visit: http://www.astho.org/access/documents.html. Choose the first brief listed under Maternal and Child Health. Additional oral health information is available at HRSA/HCFA's Oral Health Initiative website, located at: http://www.hrsa.gov/oralhealth/.

Kaiser Reports Safety Net Challenges

A new report from the Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured examines the financial challenges of safety net providers trying to serve the uninsured residents of their communities. While policymakers debate the future of medical care for millions of uninsured Americans, the cost of uncompensated care continues to increase and safety net providers struggle to find new ways to subsidize care for the uninsured population.

The report focuses specifically on a study of safety net hospitals in five major metropolitan areas of the United States: Los Angeles, Houston, Denver, Boston and Detroit. Site visits and comprehensive interviews were conducted with hospital administrators, staff, other providers and local officials to assess the different methods that providers use to respond to both common and site-specific challenges. The research suggests that two key factors for determining the success and future viability of a safety net provider are the amount of implicit financial support they receive from all levels of government, and the magnitude of the uninsurance problem in their specific community.

To access the full report, please visit: http://www.kff.org/content/2001/2250.

ANF Releases Four New Reports from the NSAF on SCHIP

Assessing the New Federalism (ANF) is a multi-year Urban Institute Research Project focused on monitoring and assessing the devolution of social programs from Federal to state and local levels. This series of articles presents findings from the National Survey of America's Families (NSAF), a major new economic, health and social study of children and adults under the age of 65. The results are analyzed specifically as they relate to SCHIP, the State Children's Health Insurance Program (http://www.hcfa.gov/init/children.htm).

The articles are on the following topics:

"Why Aren't More Uninsured Children Enrolled in Medicaid or SCHIP?"
Read the full report at: http://newfederalism.urban.org/html/series_b/b35/b35.html

"How Familiar Are Low-Income Parents with Medicaid and SCHIP"
Please visit: http://newfederalism.urban.org/html/series_b/b34/b34.html

"Has the Jury Reached a Verdict? States' Early Experiences with Crowd-Out under SCHIP"
To read the full report, visit: http://newfederalism.urban.org/html/op47/occa47.html

"Are We Responding to Their Needs? States' Early Experiences Serving Children with Special Health Care Needs under SCHIP"
For more information, go to: http://newfederalism.urban.org/html/op48/occa48.html

To visit the Urban Institute, please go to: http://www.urban.org/.

ANF's website can be found at http://newfederalism.urban.org/

NSAF site is located at: http://newfederalism.urban.org/nsaf/cpuf/index.htm

CMS (formerly HCFA) Guide Now Available On The Web

The Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services' guide, "Continuing the Progress: Enrolling and Retaining Low-Income Families and Children in Health Care Coverage" is now available online. The guide is intended to assist States in ensuring that low-income families and children have access to health insurance benefits, but can also be helpful for any organization dealing with public program application processes. The six chapters of the guide examine:

• Medicaid Application and Eligibility Processes

• Medicaid Renewal and Termination Processes

• Medicaid/TANF (Temporary Assistance for Needy Families) Delinking

• Medicaid Eligibility Options

• Program Monitoring by States

• State Simplification Strategies

The comprehensive guide is available at two locations on the HCFA website: http://www.hcfa.gov/medicaid/wrefhmpg.htm or http://www.hcfa.gov/init/outreach/examples.htm

HIPAA Help

There are a variety of HIPAA related TA websites available. Please see the last page of the newsletter (under Web Quicklist) for more information.

CAP Compendium

The CAP Compendium of 2000 and 2001 grantees is in development. An interim version including summaries of each of the current 76 grantees will be disseminated to all CAP grantees at the upcoming October CAP Grantee Conference. The Compendium is an exciting opportunity to share your own experiences and learn from other grantees.

All current grantees should have returned their Compendium templates and reviewed and approved their subsequent summaries by August 21, 2001. If you are a current grantee and have not completed these tasks and require assistance, please contact Christine Ayman at cayman@synthesisps.com

An alphabetical listing of all of the websites mentioned in this newsletter, along with additional important or relevant online resources.

HIPAA TA Websites

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: