In the 2019-2020 contract year, as part of the Ending the HIV Epidemic initiative HITEQ conducted an environmental scan to determine the role of EHRs and health IT in health center capacity and ability to expand HIV screening and prevention. The full report is available for download. 

PrEP is a highly effective biomedical intervention that prevents HIV. Despite the established association between HIV risk and substance use, PrEP access as well as uptake and persistence among persons with substance use disorders remains low. To fully realize HIV prevention efforts across health systems, and as substance use/healthcare-seeking patterns evolve with COVID-19, person-centered PrEP service delivery needs to involve renewed and coordinated efforts involving substance use treatment providers. This webinar helped clinicians overcome PrEP implementation challenges, assess PrEP eligibility, and identify strategies for addressing side effect and adherence concerns.

In collaboration with Health Outreach Partners (HOP), AAPCHO continues to promote the importance of documenting social determinants of health (SDoH) interventions to demonstrate the value and scope of health center enabling services (ES). AAPCHO and HOP were joined by the Community Health Care Association of New York State (CHCANYS) to highlight how state, regional, and national partners can leverage SDoH and ES data for Value-Based Payment (VBP).
Through a national webinar, participants learned useful strategies with tools and resources to successfully implement a standardized data collection methodology for the tracking and documentation of non-clinical data. In turn, health center stakeholders, including health center and Primary Care Association (PCA) staff, will be able to articulate or better demonstrate how they are using non-clinical, ES data for VBP. This national webinar was also be conducted for health center and PCA staff to share insights and recommendations on how they plan to use enabling services data for the transition to VBP in their local, state, or regional context.

Course Description: This program is intended to provide an overview of the current pandemic (SARS-CoV-2) also known as the COVID-19 coronavirus. We will provide some basic information about the virus itself in addition to how it is impacting Rural Health Clinics (RHC), Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHC) and Critical Access Hospitals (CAH) from correct coding and professional billing perspectives. We will cover the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act) and its impact on properly reporting telehealth services during the COVID-19 pandemic. Each of the items below will be addressed throughout the session:

• A discussion of what the COVID-19 virus is
• Impact of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act)
• Applicable CPT, HCPCS II and ICD-10-CM codes will be discussed
• Telemedicine services will be covered, Telehealth visits, Virtual check-in services (VCS), E-visits
•  “Originating” versus “distant” sites
• Overview of some state-specific Medicaid directives

The HITEQ Center, in collaboration with BC3 Technologies, LLC, hosted this webinar that explored key concepts and best practices in utilizing an electronic health record in routine HIV Screening. This webinar sought to motivate and educate the clinical team on how the electronic health record can be used as a tool in the workflow of a primary practice. Aspects of clinical decision support, reminders, and alerts were covered with an emphasis on best practices, challenges, solutions, and lessons learned.