In today's complex healthcare environment, robust tracking systems are crucial for ensuring patient safety and maintaining continuity of care for health centers’ most vulnerable patients. The potential consequences of health centers not maintaining an effective tracking program are poor patient outcomes, dissatisfied patients, ineffective communication, and potential medical malpractice lawsuits. Not only do tracking programs lower risk and improve care, but community health centers must implement comprehensive tracking systems for referrals, hospitalizations, and diagnostics to meet HRSA and Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA) requirements.

Updating your service area is a crucial step for community health centers aiming to align services with community needs. It’s also required. Chapter 3 of HRSA’s Site Visit Protocol asks if the health center uses the most recent Uniform Data System (UDS) to update the zip codes on HRSA’s Form 5B-Service Sites annually. Here's a quick guide on what to consider and how to make this happen.

More than almost any other nonprofit, health centers have a tremendous burden to ensure that board minutes are readable and clearly indicate compliance with HRSA requirements. Future board members might read these minutes to understand what was decided, but a HRSA reviewer certainly will read them to determine if your organization is still worthy of receiving significant taxpayer funding to fulfill the mission of providing high-quality healthcare to communities that otherwise lack access.

During the Health Center Operational Site Visit (OSV) process, there are a number of patient record samples that are requested by the HRSA review team. These requests for documentation cover chapters 4, 7, 8, and 10 in the HRSA Site Visit Protocol. This is a part of the preparation process that can take a great deal of time and it's important to understand what the HRSA reviewers are looking for.

In the ever-evolving landscape of healthcare, the integration of artificial intelligence (AI) has emerged as a transformative force, promising to revolutionize patient care, streamline processes, and drive efficiency. However, to fully harness the potential of AI and ensure it aligns with the Quintuple Aim, a structured framework is essential.

Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs) play a critical role in providing access to healthcare for underserved populations. To ensure that care is delivered in a manner that respects the diverse needs of these communities, FQHCs must adhere to specific requirements and guidelines related to culturally competent care.

In April of 2024, The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) issued a Final Rule modifying the Standards for Privacy of Individually Identifiable Health Information under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) and the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act of 2009 (HITECH Act). The final rule was effective June 25, 2024, and health centers must be in compliance after December 23, 2024.

This new rule has raised questions with community health centers as to how it applies to Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs) and their privacy practices.

If you are like most health centers this year, you may have been overwhelmed with the changes in the FTCA (Federal Tort Claims Act) requirements. You may have felt the changes were unclear and you were confused about how to meet the requirements. Or maybe you had significant turnover in your staff and some of your quarterly Risk Management Assessments or risk management trainings fell through the cracks. The submission deadline may have crept up on you amidst summer vacations, EMR “go-lives”, and budgetary struggles. If any of this describes your experience, you’re not alone.

But the silver lining in all of this is that you made it through and now is the time to put the systems in place so next year’s application is much less stressful! In the following article, we will share strategies for moving toward continuous FTCA compliance.

When it comes to Chapter 12 of the HRSA Site Visit Protocol (SVP),so many of get stopped in our tracks. For the rest of us, we just assume the documents we selected for Form 5A are sufficient. Neither response is correct. With a review of the details in the Site Visit Protocol for Chapter 12: Contracts and Subawards along with the Compliance Manual, we can nail down with certainty what reviewers need for compliance and why.

In this blog post we will review what documents are required, what questions are being answered, and why those questions are being asked. We’ll turn to the Site Visit Protocol for the first two points, and the revert back to the Compliance Manual for the last point.

So, you’re done with submitting your UDS data for the year and you are now turning your focus to this year’s Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA) application…you may be asking yourself, “What do I need to do first?”.

Prepare for your HRSA Pre-OSV Conference Call.

The Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA) assessment in the FTCA Deeming Requirements section of the Site Visit Protocol (SVP) was discontinued effective October 27, 2023.

Community health centers are required to develop and maintain policies or procedures that demonstrate the health center is working to mitigate patient safety risks. Four of those policies are Referral Tracking (RT), Hospitalization Tracking (HT), Diagnostic Tracking (DT), and After-Hours Call Follow-up Tracking (AH) policies.

RegLantern has developed a clever solution to the Naming Convention in our platform to assist users with easily applying the naming convention in front of the document name for all HRSA documents.

The HRSA Site Visit Protocol was updated on April 13, 2023.

HRSA has updated this year’s FTCA deeming application! The RegLantern team has reviewed the document in detail and guides your team through the changes.

Bringing on a new CEO or Program Director is an exciting time for a health center. There is fresh energy and new opportunities. There are also learning curves for the CEO, Board and staff as everyone adjusts to a new leadership and a new vision for the organization.

FTCA redeeming application…don’t wait!