Lone Star Association of Charitable Clinics
News and Events
National Association of Free Clinics Annual Summit
The National
Association of Free Clinics (NAFC),
in partnership with its
host member clinic Rhode Island Free Clinic will
be holding its third annual Summit
October 28-30, 2008
at the Biltmore Hotel
in Providence, Rhode Island. This event is expected to
attract 400-450 attendees. This annual Summit
is the only national
meeting that brings together medical directors, clinical and
pharmacy personnel, management level staff and volunteers
from America’s 1,200+ Free Clinics. Last year, over 325
people attended this annual meeting in Dallas.
There are 47 million uninsured Americans. Our nation’s Free
Clinics serve 2-4 million of these Americans each year.
Free Clinics spend over
$17,000,000 on pharmaceutical and medical supplies
annually. Free Clinics mobilize tens of thousands of health
care professionals. Every $1 donated to a Free Clinic
generates $35 in services.
Register today
www.regonline.com/08NAFCSummit and
be apart of the ONLY national event for Free Clinic
executives, staff, volunteers and supporters. Be apart of
this exciting event.
Register today and take advantage of the early bird pricing
option. NAFC is happy to announce that we will also be
offering CEUs at this Summit.
Insurance Policy for Retired Physicians
A
Defense only insurance policy for retired physicians at a
very low cost is being offered through Texas Joint
Underwriters Association. For information call
512-452-4370.
Insider Tips for Strong Grant Proposals
Experienced grant seekers know how to make
their proposals stand out and also how to manage the
proposal process, which includes planning, research,
writing, and communicating with prospective donors. Here’s
how they do it.
Start by thinking about the purpose of the proposal document
-- to convince the funder that your project addresses a
specific need or issue they care about, and to assure the
funder that your organization has the competencies and
capacities in place to do the work. In very concrete terms,
you’re telling the foundation how you propose to spend its
money.
Many grant writers make the mistake of focusing on the prose
and leaving the budget until last. In fact, the detailed
budget you send with the proposal is often one of the first
proposal sections the program officer will examine.
Consider the program officer’s role, which is to find
promising projects that most closely match the goals and
priorities of the foundation, and then make the case (in
many instances) to colleagues and, ultimately, to the
foundation’s board of directors. Think about how you can
make the program officer’s job easier: Will this information
help make your case or not? To quote one grantmaker,
“Proposal writers should avoid ‘fluff,’ repeatedly stating
in general terms how important the program is without
providing details to back up the claim.”
In addition, remember that program officers are inundated
with requests. To make your proposal stand out, the answer
is not flashy graphics or color, which can make the program
officer think you’re all “style” and no “substance.”
Instead, clearly and concisely focus on three questions:
* What are you going to do?
* Who will benefit? and
* Why is it important?
Although many foundations are looking for innovative, new
program ideas, they may be hesitant to take a risk on an
unknown entity. The sustainability section of your proposal
is your chance to demonstrate that you have a fiscally
viable project and organization.
Keep these insider tips in mind, and never lose sight of
your long-range goal: developing partnerships with
foundations to solve problems in your community and make the
world a better place.
From Caroline Herbert, The NonProfit Times e-mail, 11/29/07
More Than 40M U.S. Residents Say They Cannot Afford
Adequate Health Care, According to CDC Study.
More than 40 million people in the U.S. said that they
cannot afford adequate health care and
that they did not receive
needed health services because of costs, according to an
annual
report released by
CDC on Monday,
Reuters reports. According to the report,
in 2005, nearly
"15 million adults did not
obtain eyeglasses, 25 million did not get dental care, 19
million did
not get needed prescribed
medicine and 15 million did not get medical care due to
costs"
(Fox,
Reuters,
12/3).
In addition, the report found
that about 30% of young adults between the ages of 18 and 24
do
not have a usual source of
medical care, 30% lack health insurance and 10% of adults
between
the ages of 45 and 64 do not
have a usual source of medical care. According to the
report, one
out of five adults younger than
age 65 in 2005 said they were uninsured for at least part of
the
previous year and most said
they were uninsured for more than 12 months. The report also
found that about one-third of
children in families with incomes below the federal poverty
level did
not receive dental care in
2005, compared with fewer than one-fifth of children in
higher-income
families. Access barriers
included regional physician shortages, lack of
transportation to
physicians and clinics, and
shortages of organs for transplants.
The report also indicated some
improvements in other areas of health care. About 87% of
young children between 19
months and 35 months old in 2006 received immunization shots
for
bacterial meningitis, up from
41% in 2002. The percentage of adults with high cholesterol
declined from 21% between 1988
and 1994 to 17%, according to the report. In addition, about
25% of adults in 2004 avoided
seeking treatment for cavities, down from 50% in the early
1970s, the report found (Reinberg,
HealthDay/Washington Post, 12/4).
"Mortality from heart
disease, stroke and cancer has continued to decline in
recent years,"
according to the report.
Life expectancy was 77.8 years old for a baby born in 2004,
the report
found.
Health Care Spending
According to the report,
"The United States spends more on health per capita than any
other
country, and health
spending continues to increase. In 2005, national health
care expenditures
in the United States
totaled $2 trillion, a 7% increase from 2004. Hospital
spending, which
accounts for 31% of
national health expenditures, increased by 8% in 2005."
The report found that
private insurance plans paid for 36% of total personal
health care
expenditures in 2005,
while the federal government paid 34%, state and local
governments
paid 11%, and patients
paid 15%. Prescription drug costs accounted for 10% of total
health
care spending in 2005 (Reuters,
12/3).
Comments
CDC
Director Julie Gerberding in a prepared statement said,
"There has been important
progress made in many areas of health, such as increased
life expectancy, and decreases in
deaths
from leading killers such as heart disease and cancer. But
this report shows that access
to
health care is still an issue where we need improvement."
Report
author Amy Bernstein, chief of the analytic studies branch
at CDC's
National Center
for
Health Statistics, said, "People tend to equate access
to care with insurance. But access
to care
is more than insurance," adding, "People assume that if you
have health insurance of
any
kind that you're OK, but that's not the case." However,
according to Bernstein, health
insurance "is critical" to accessing care. She said, "We
have a lot of evidence that people who
don't
have health insurance are much less likely to receive
services than people who do"
(HealthDay/Washington
Post, 12/3).
The report is available
online.
IOM Releases Report on "What Works in Health Care"
RWJF President and CEO Risa Lavizzo-Mourey, M.D., M.B.A.,
Comments on IOM's Road
Map
for Identifying the Nation's Most Effective Health Care
Services
According to a new report, the nation must
significantly expand its capacity to use scientific
evidence to assess "what works" in health
care to deliver higher quality and more cost-effective
care for all Americans.
The report, released by the Institute of
Medicine (IOM) and funded by the Robert Wood Johnson
Foundation (RWJF), recommends an
organizational framework for a national clinical
effectiveness assessment program to develop
standards, set priorities and facilitate systematic
reviews of clinical data.
"We believe that good health care can
happen with the right mix of evidence, decision-making
and timely action," says RWJF
President and CEO Risa Lavizzo-Mourey, M.D., M.B.A. "Policy-
makers, clinicians and patients are
clamoring for this kind of information power, and we need to
accelerate progress in putting this
evidence in their hands."
RWJF has invested in key building
blocks to move in this direction, including building a
rapid-
learning health care system and
expanding the use of predictive mathematical modeling to
answer health care questions. A
program such as the one recommended in the IOM report, can
"translate into stronger health care
decisions, better patient outcomes and a healthier future
for
all Americans," she adds.
Download the report at the RWJF website under Publications
and
Research.
2008 Federal Poverty Level Guidelines
LSACC Executive Director
-
The Board of Directors is pleased to
announce the hiring of Dr. Nettie Miller as Executive
Director. Nettie has more than 30 years of professional
experience including 12 years in social work, 10 years
in college teaching and counseling and more than 10
years working with non-profit organizations. She holds
a B.S. in psychology from Oklahoma State University, a
Master's in Social Work from the University of Texas,
and a Ph.D. in Educational Psychology from Texas A&M
University. Dr. Miller has served on several boards, is
a Licensed Professional Counselor and is committed to
helping others improve their lives.
IRS
Compliance Guide for 501c3 Public Charities
HRSA -
Introduces Training Tool to Improve Provider-Patient
Communication
-
HRSA has launched a new Web-based health
communications training tool designed to improve
interaction between health care providers and their
patients.
The interactive training course, “Unified Health
Communication: Addressing Health Literacy, Cultural
Competency, and Limited English Proficiency,” aims to
raise the quality of provider-patient interactions by
teaching providers and their staff how to gauge and
respond to their patients' health literacy, cultural
background, and language skills.
The course's five modules take four to five hours to
complete. Modules 1 through 4 provide an introduction to
health communication, health literacy, cultural
competency, and limited English proficiency. In Module
5, participants can apply information learned in
previous modules to test their ability to communicate
effectively with patients. Self-paced instruction allows
participants to complete one or more modules at a time.
For more information, visit:
http://www.hrsa.gov/healthliteracy/training.htm
Panel Releases Principles for Good Governance
-
The Panel on the Nonprofit Sector has released
Principles for Good Governance and Ethical Practice: A
Guide for Charities and Foundations.
The Guide represents the first time that charities
and foundations reflecting a broad cross-section of the
American nonprofit community have come together to
develop principles of ethical conduct, accountability
and transparency that they aspire to and encourage all
organizations to follow. The Panel strongly encourages
nonprofits to examine the 33 Principles and determine
how best to apply them to their operations.
Congratulations to TIPHER
-
The Institute for
Public Health Education and Research, Inc. [TIPHER],
which opened House of Hope, a charitable medical/dental
clinic, in New Braunfels on December 1, 2007.
Direct Relief International Product Donations to Member
Clinics
-
Direct Relief
International is one of the largest non-sectarian health
assistance organizations in the US serving communities
afflicted by poverty and disasters.
Direct Relief has offered LSACC members the opportunity to receive
monthly product donations. If you are a LSACC member
clinic, and are interested in receiving the free monthly
listing of products (with free shipping on orders!),
please contact Amy Fox at
afox@directrelief.org.
Henry Schein Medical Supplies
-
Henry Schein offers
medical supplies to charitable clinics at a reduced
cost. You DO NOT have to be a member of LSACC to
receive this discount. For more information or a
catalog, contact Michael Clawson, sales rep, at (252)
327-8833.
Uninsured Americans
- The U.S. Census Bureau released its
annual
report that estimates the number
of uninsured Americans, showing that there are now 46.6
million Americans living
without health insurance.
THI release report on uninsured Americans
-
The Texas Health Institute (THI) released the results of
its comprehensive study on the uninsured in Texas - A
Vision for Change: Policy Solutions for Increasing
Health Coverage in Texas on January 31, 2007.
As a result of the study, THI has developed an
educational guide outlining a number of policy solutions
for consideration by the Texas State Legislature and
other policymakers. When combined together, the proposed
solutions could cut the number of uninsured Texans by
almost half. The study also examines the corresponding
economic impact of reducing the number of uninsured
Texans, and uses the state demographer's latest numbers
on uninsured Texans.
The THI study and other statistics show that Texas has
the highest rate of uninsured in the nation. More than
5.59 million Texans - nearly 25 percent of the state's
total population - lack basic health coverage. For the
full report, go to
www.texashealthinstitute.org.
Liability
Insurance for Retired Physicians
- For information on obtaining Defense-Only
Medical Liability Insurance, Call Underwriting at
the Texas Medical Liability Insurance Underwriting
Association, a.k.a. Joint Underwriting Association
or Texas JUA, 512-452-4370. Ask for Carrol
Hendricks.
- Eligible applicants include retired physicians
doing charity care (practicing under the immunities
of the Civil Practice and Remedies Code, Chapter
84).
- The insurance is for defense - only coverage; it
does not pay indemnity (claims, awards, or
settlements).
- The coverage is on an occurrence basis so that a
physician may cease volunteer work, let the coverage
lapse, and not have to pay for tail (run-off)
coverage.
- The annual premium of $250 purchases $25,000
limits of coverage for defense costs.
- Retired physicians may maintain licenses free of
charge to provide care as a volunteer health care
provider. See the Texas Board of Medicine website
for details.
MedServe Health Corps Program
Aidmatrix
-
Aidmatrix is a nonprofit organization based
in Dallas, TX that helps 35,000 charities
worldwide get The Right Aid to the Right
People at the Right Time™. Aidmatrix has
received a grant that allows them to offer
charitable clinics in Texas a free one year
membership to the National Association of
Free Clinics (NAFC). NAFC members can take
advantage of discounted products, such as a
vial of 50 diabetric strips for $11.70, and
donated products, like Allegra and Advil.
To learn more contact
communications@aidmatrix.org
or visit their
website at
www.aidmatrix.org.
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