HHS awards more than $8.6 million for Patient-Centered Medical Home recognition
August 4, 2016 - Today, HHS Secretary Sylvia M. Burwell announced more than $8.6 million in funding for 246 health centers in 41 states, the District of Columbia, the Federation of Micronesia and the Northern Mariana Islands. The awards will help to improve quality of care and patients’ and providers’ experience of care through the Patient-Centered Medical Home (PCMH) health care delivery model.
Health Center Week, August 7-13, #NHCW16
For more than 50 years, community health centers have delivered comprehensive, high-quality preventive and primary health care to patients regardless of their ability to pay. In 1965, the Health Center Program started with just two clinics. Today, there are nearly 1,400 health centers that serve approximately 1 in 13 people in the United States.
Health Center Week, established more than 30 years ago, celebrates the work of these health centers to deliver high quality health care services that reduce ethnic and racial disparities in care and help people lead healthier lives. Hundreds of events across the country occur throughout the week, including photo and video contests and social media events.
Visit the Bureau of Primary Health Care's National Health Center Week webpage for more information.
Clinicians: Hear the Latest from CDC Experts on Zika Virus Prevention
Thursday, August 4 from 3:00 to 4:00 p.m. ET (Dial In: 800-369-2003; Passcode: 9822683). Drs. Irogue Igbinosa and John Brooks will discuss and answer questions on the recent expanded CDC recommendations covering pregnant couples, as well as information on what couples who are not pregnant or are planning to become pregnant can do to reduce the risk for Zika virus transmission:
- Interim Guidance for Prevention of Sexual Transmission of Zika Virus – United States, July 2016. CDC is expanding existing guidance for the prevention of sexual transmission of Zika. The updated recommendations cover all pregnant women including those with female partners. The guidance also includes what couples who are not pregnant can do to reduce the risk of sexual transmission of Zika.
- Interim Guidance for Health Care Providers Caring for Pregnant Women with Possible Zika Virus Exposure - United States, July 2016. CDC has updated interim guidance for health care providers caring for pregnant women in the United States with possible Zika exposure, including recommendations to expand real-time reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction testing.
HHS forges unprecedented partnership to combat antimicrobial resistance
July 28, 2016 - To address one of the greatest modern threats to public health — antibiotic resistance — the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the Wellcome Trust of London, the AMR Centre of Alderley Park (Cheshire, United Kingdom), and Boston University School of Law will create one of the world’s largest public-private partnerships focused on preclinical discovery and development of new antimicrobial products.
Made possible through a cooperative agreement, the partnership promotes innovation and could provide hundreds of millions of dollars over five years to increase the number of antibiotics in the drug-development pipeline.
The Combating Antibiotic Resistant Bacteria Biopharmaceutical Accelerator, or CARB-X, represents a global innovation project for antibiotic products research and development.
Ending LGBT clinical bias
Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people continue to experience discrimination in health care – underscoring the need for a dramatic shift in attitudes for a long-stigmatized minority and more behavioral health specialists working in primary care clinics.
Not only does providing primary and behavioral health services in a single setting improve patient outcomes, said HRSA public health analyst Kim Patton in a recent webcast, it costs less.
More than 1,100 health professionals listened in June to a panel of experts who said tighter integration of mental health is overdue.
Learn more about ending LGBT clinical bias.
Medicaid and CHIP Managed Care Final Rule
On April 25, 2016, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) released the Medicaid and CHIP Managed Care Final Rule, which aligns key rules with those of other health insurance coverage programs, modernizes how states purchase managed care for beneficiaries, and strengthens the consumer experience and key consumer protections. Summary fact sheets are available. This final rule is the first major update to Medicaid and CHIP managed care regulations in more than a decade. See the related blog co-authored by the CMS Administrator and CMCS Director, Medicaid Moving Forward.
Learn more about the Medicaid and CHIP Managed Care Final Rule
