The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services on May 1 announced Community Health Center Capital Development grant awards. In Kansas, five community health centers will receive the awards, totaling nearly $22 million to support renovation and construction projects designed to expand services and serve more patients. Of the five community health centers, four had received grants from the Affordable Care Act (ACA) Opportunity Fund to support their proposals.

The ACA Opportunity Fund is a pooled fund established by five foundations that fund health programs and efforts in Kansas to assist nonprofit organizations and state agencies in pursuing federal funding available to support health reform law implementation. The REACH Foundation is one of the contributors to the ACA Opportunity Fund.

Read the Kansas Health Institute story on the Kansas recipients of the HHS Community Health Center Capital Development grants, and a related article on the ACA Opportunity Fund.

Read the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services press release on the grant awards.

Announcements

The Wyandotte Health for All (WHFA)Task Force has scheduled four open community meetings to invite feedback and questions on the results of health assessments conducted in Wyandotte County. WHFA is a partnership of organizations working to promote health equity. Led by the Unified Government of KCK/Wyandotte County Public Health Department, the University of Kansas and El Centro, the WHFA Task Force has been working on community health improvement strategies using a Mobilizing for Action Through Planning and Partnerships (MAPP) approach. The Wyandotte County effort is one of 10 REACH CORE projects funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Community meetings will be held:

• May 3, 10:15 a.m.-12:15 p.m. – Bonner Springs Family YMCA, 2251 S. 138^th Street, in Bonner Springs, KS
• May 14, 5:30-7:30 p.m. – Children’s Campus, 444 Minnesota Avenue, Kansas City, KS
• May 18, 11:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m. – Wyandotte County Health Department, 619 Ann Avenue, Kansas City, KS
• May 30, 5:30-7:30 p.m. – Kansas City Kansas Community College, 7250 State Avenue, Jewell Building, Room 2325, Kansas City, KS

RSVP is requested but not required.

By Mike Sherry   

Approximately $115,550 remains in the Affordable Care Act Opportunity Fund, a $450,000 pool of seed money created last year by the Health Care Foundation of Greater Kansas City, the Kansas Health Foundation, the REACH Healthcare Foundation, the Sunflower Foundation and the United Methodist Health Ministry Fund.

The Health Reform Resource Project in Topeka is administering the fund. The aim is to help nonprofits, including government agencies, position themselves for funding through the Affordable Care Act programs.

For example, seven of the grants have gone to community health centers that needed architectural designs for expansions. The clinics could benefit from dollars available through the Health Resources and Services Administration.

Read complete story.

In our work, we come across a number of news items and reports related to the REACH Foundation’s funding priorities and strategic goals. “What we’re reading at REACH” is a collection of links to noteworthy articles that have caught our attention.

Recently, there have been a number of reports and articles on the barriers to access to dental care. Following are stories and reports on this topic:

Kansas Public Radio produced two stories on the registered dental practitioner model that has been presented as one approach to improving the dental workforce shortage in Kansas:

• About the proposed model for Kansas
• About a W.K. Kellogg Foundation study of the quality of dental practitioners worldwide.

The New York Times published an opinion piece by Louis W. Sullivan,  former secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services from 1989 to 1993, who wrote in early April about the national dental workforce shortage.

ABC World News produced a report on the difficulty children on Medicaid face in obtaining dental care. 

A report, Dental Crisis in America: The Need to Expand Access, was released and reviewed at the Senate Committee on Health, Labor and Pension’s Subcommittee on Primary Health and Aging meeting on February 29, 2012.

In an article published this week on Health Affairs’ GrantWatch blog, President and CEO Brenda Sharpe talks about the foundation’s Medical Home Initiative that began in 2007. Eight safety net clinics in the bi-state metropolitan area are currently participating. Since 2008, the foundation has contracted with Qualis Health to provide technical assistance, training and coaching to help clinics examine their operations and adopt patient-centered practices considered essential to a medical home.

In the last eight months, four of the eight participating clinics have achieved Patient-Centered Medical Home recognition by the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) for meeting core standards for primary care, such as enhanced access and continuity of care; managing patient populations; care management; supporting patients’ self-care; tracking and coordinating care; and measuring and improving performance.

Silver City Health Center, Cabot Westside Health Center and Children’s Mercy West-The Cordell Meeks Jr. Clinic have received Level III recognition; the Health Partnership Clinic of Johnson County has received Level I recognition. Other clinics involved in the initiative are preparing their applications to NCQA for consideration later this year.

Read about the Medical Home Initiative.

In our work, we come across a number of news items and reports related to the REACH Foundation’s funding priorities and strategic goals. “What we’re reading at REACH” is a collection of links to noteworthy articles that have caught our attention.

The Kansas Health Institute has published an Annual Insurance Update 2011 that provides an overview of insurance status of Kansans.

The University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation have released the 2012 county health rankings for all states, including summary reports for Kansas and Missouri.

An audio report on Kansas Public Radio on a proposed registered dental practitioner model focuses on the dental workforce shortage in Kansas [written version here].  “Dental deserts” are also receiving national attention in an op-ed by a Louis Sullivan, M.D., a former secretary of the Department of Health & Human Services.

Medical students from the University of Kansas School of Medicine have opened a clinic inside Wyandotte High School called the BullDoc Health Center. It is modeled after the JayDoc Free Clinic, a program that has received REACH Foundation grant support.  The Kansas City Star also featured this new health center. 

An older but relevant article from Health Affairs on the management skills new primary care doctors will likely need.

MERRIAM, KANSAS – The REACH Healthcare Foundation Board of Directors elected eight members to the Board at its March 22 meeting. The REACH Foundation is a charitable organization that provides grants and other support to improve health care and health access. The Foundation is governed by a 17-member volunteer Board of Directors. The following individuals were elected to serve three-year terms that begin June 1.

Bill Bruning, principal of The Bruning Company, is an attorney with health policy expertise and former president and CEO of the Mid-America Coalition of Health Care. He is co-chair of the American Psychiatric Association Partnership for Workplace Mental Health Advisory Council. Bruning has served one term on the REACH Board.

John Cowden, M.D., Interim Section Chief and Staff Physician of General Pediatrics at Children’s Mercy Hospitals & Clinics, and Assistant Professor, Pediatrics, University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Medicine. Cowden also serves as Medical Director of Children’s Mercy’s Office of Equity and Diversity.

Chad Moore, Director of Operations for Children’s Mercy Pediatric Care Network (CMPCN), a network that coordinates the medical care of pediatric patients in the Greater Kansas City area who are enrolled in managed care. Moore has served one term on the REACH Board.

J. Stuart Munro, M.D., Chair of Psychiatry at the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Medicine, and Medical Director and Associate Dean for the Center for Behavioral Medicine. Munro is President-elect of the American Association of Chairs of Departments of Psychiatry.

Raymond Rico, an attorney with Garcia Immigration Law Firm in Kansas City, Kansas. Rico previously worked as policy and research associate for the National Immigration Law Center in Washington, D.C.

Janie Schumaker is Service Leader of Emergent/ Urgent Services at Heartland Regional Medical Center in St. Joseph, Mo., responsible for managing performance targets. She previously worked in performance improvement at T-System, Inc. Schumaker has served one term on the REACH Board.

Rachelle Styles, tax manager for J.E. Dunn Construction Company, serves as corporate liaison for the company’s tax requirements and as corporate federal and state government tax correspondent. Styles is a graduate of the Greater Kansas City Chamber of Commerce Centurions Leadership program.

Elizabeth Wehlage, a registered dental hygienist at the Community Health Center of Southeast Kansas in Iola, with responsibility for patient care and dental outreach services. Wehlage is a member of Class V of the Oral Health Kansas Dental Champions program 

Each year, the REACH Board seeks to elect members who bring demographic and geographic diversity as well as leadership skills and business, nonprofit and health care expertise. To be eligible, individuals must be at least 18 years of age and reside in the Foundation’s six-county service area. Members also may not hold elected federal, state or local office. Information on the REACH Foundation Board, including core responsibilities, a roster of members and application information is available at http://reachhealth.org/about/board-of-directors/. The deadline to apply for 2013 is December 14, 2012.

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About the Foundation:  The REACH Foundation awards grants to nonprofit organizations in a six-county area encompassing Allen, Johnson and Wyandotte counties in Kansas; Cass, Jackson and Lafayette counties in Missouri, and Kansas City, Missouri. The Foundation has invested more than $33 million in grants and initiatives in the region since 2005.

The following is a list of informative articles previewing these arguments:

The New York Times: A Guide to the Supreme Court Challenges to Obama’s Health Care Law, an interactive overview of the legal challenges.

The New York Times: At Center of Health Care Fight, a 1942 Case of a Farmer’s Wheat, an article detailing the history of the Commerce Clause.

National Public Radio: Obama’s Health Care Law in Court: An Overview, an audio report clearly breaking down the legal challenges.

SCOTUS Blog: Argument Previews, Health care, Part I, the power to decide?, Health care, Part II, the fate of the mandate, Health care, Part III, beyond the mandate, Health care, Part IV, the Medicaid expansion, a series of blog posts previewing each of the four issues to be argued from a detailed legal perspective. 

Cover Missouri, Health Reform: The Case Before the U.S. Supreme Court, a two-page overview of the legal challenges. 

The following is a list of general resources on the ACA:

Healthcare.gov, the federal government’s website regarding the ACA, which includes pages on the effects of the ACA in Kansas and Missouri.

Kaiser Family Foundation, Health Reform Resource, a comprehensive sub-website devoted to information surrounding all aspects of health reform. 

Cover Missouri includes multiple reference guides and fact sheets regarding the ACA and its impact on Missouri.

Kansas Health Institute recently completed a series of briefs exploring the ACA and its impact on Kansas.

The Health Care Foundation of Greater Kansas City tracks both regional and national reports and has original reporting on the ACA and the Kansas City region.

As of March 15, 2012, the REACH Foundation is placing a hold on new requests for capacity grants, advocacy grants and CEO discretionary grants due to a large number of grant proposals already under consideration.

New requests may be considered again in the fall should any discretionary funding remain. If you have a grant request in process, please contact a program officer to determine if your application will be considered at this time.

In our work, we come across a number of news items and reports related to REACH Foundation’s funding priorities and strategic goals. “What we’re reading at REACH” is a collection of links to noteworthy articles that have caught our attention.

The Atlantic had an article on the increasing the number of young doctors opting to work in hospitals as opposed to primary care.

The New York Times examines one of the first and largest Accountable Care Organizations (A.C.O.’s) operated by Advocate Health Care in Chicago.

U.S. Supreme Court Hearings on the Affordable Care Act

A collection of informative articles and blog posts regarding the U.S. Supreme Court hearings on the ACA, which REACH will update throughout next week.