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.

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.

Prepare for your HRSA Pre-OSV Conference Call.

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.

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.

HRSA updates Site Visit Protocol with minor changes focused on look-alikes and FTCA-deemed organizations.

During kick-off calls for VOSVs, Health Centers are being handed documents with extensive Naming Conventions. What does this mean? How do I handle them having different numbers?

FTCA requires community health centers to train their Board and staff in certain key areas.

When consulting with health centers about their HRSA-compliant credentialing and privileging policies (HRSA Site Visit Protocol, Chapter 5: Clinical Staffing), I have frequently been asked the question over the past six months: “Can we require our staff to receive the COVID-19 vaccine?”

If you just finished your HRSA OSV, now is the time to get into continuous HRSA compliance mode. Here’s how!