WVHKFC UPDATE FOR JANUARY, 2005

 

 

Coalition Meeting and Children's Policy Forum,

February 15, 2005

    A Public Policy Forum on Children's Issues will be held on February 15 in Charleston. The Forum will be held at the Charleston House Holiday Inn, 600 Kanawha Boulevard East, along the river in downtown Charleston. CEUs for social workers will be available. There is a registration fee of $25 (includes lunch) Pre-Registration is required.
    Registration will begin at 9:00 followed by the Opening Plenary Session: “Opportunity for All” from 10:00-11:00.
    Public Policy Briefing Sessions include: Early Care and Education, Family Economic Security, Social Services and Health Care and Disability Issues. These will be followed by a Luncheon Program, including Outstanding Media Award for 2004
The afternoon sessions will include a workshop (open to all): Making Children a Public Priority: Effective Communication Strategies to Advance Child and Family Issues and caucuses (open to members of): Family Leadership First, Partners in Early Learning, Partners in Prevention and the WV Healthy Kids and Families Coalition.
    A reception with First Lady Gayle Manchin will be held at the Governor's mansion from 5:00-6:00.
    If you have questions, please contact Connie Leinen at TEAM for West Virginia Children at 523-9587, ext. 316, or connie@teamwv.org. The complete brochure and registration form is available for download at www.wvhealthykids.org
    The Forum and Children’s Day at the Legislature are being hosted by the Coalition for West Virginia's Children and Prevent Child Abuse WV. Other funding supporters include the Benedum Foundation, the Episcopal Diocese of WV, Family Leadership First, WV Developmental Disabilities Council, WV Healthy Kids and Families Coalition, and WV KIDS COUNT Fund.

Children's Day at the Legislature
February 16, 2005

    Let your voice be heard. Fill the halls of the State Capitol and speak up for children. Children’s Day at the Legislature will begin at 8:00 am on February 16th.
    Activities will include: Exhibits, advocacy tips, hot topic briefings, meet with your Legislator, and a Children’s Day Rally with remarks by First Lady Gayle Manchin.
    If you have questions, please contact Connie Leinen at TEAM for West Virginia Children at 523-9587, ext. 316, or connie@teamwv.org.

WVHKFC Partners with United Way of Central West Virginia

    The WV Healthy Kids and Families Coalition is working with the Parents as Teachers Program of the United Way of Central West Virginia on an exciting new project to provide information and train parents in taking care of the minor medical needs of their children. The project will give 250 parents a copy of the book What To Do When Your Child Gets Sick. Parent as Teachers staff will work with parents on how to use the book.
    The goal is to increase parents’ confidence in taking care of the minor medical needs of their children and reduce the use of Emergency Room and clinic services. The project is part of a two year grant by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Center for Health Care Strategies to study health care access for CHIP and Medicaid families.

WVHKFC Receives Grant 

  The WV Healthy Kids and Families Coalition has received a small Robert Wood Johnson Foundation grant for $20,000 through the Center for Health Care Strategies to work with the United Way of Central West Virginia to disseminate the findings and promote the recommendations of the “Experiences in Receiving Health Care by West Virginia CHIP and Medicaid Families.”

Health Care Access in WV-New Report Now on the Web

    With funding from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the Parents as Teachers Program of the United Way of Central WV interviewed 101 Medicaid and CHIP families in the Kanawha Valley to understand their experiences with the health care system and to identify barriers to quality care.
    The interviews covered a wide range of issues including the availability of a medical home and services for children including dental care, transportation, stigma of public programs, language and literacy barriers, health education and managed care.
Some of the major issues identified in the study were lack of access to care after hours and on weekends; lack of knowledge about the use of alternatives such as calling a nurse line or self-care. Most families in the study use the Emergency Room as their source of care after regular office hours.
    The study suggests that West Virginia has an opportunity to improve health care and control costs for Medicaid and CHIP children and families by improving the coordination and access to care after hours and by educating families on the use of a nurse line and basic self-care. To view the entire report, Experiences in Receiving Health Care by West Virginia CHIP and Medicaid Families click here. 

School Based Health Systems Partnership Receives Grant

The School Based Health Systems Partnership has received a grant for $75,000 from the Claude Worthington Benedum Foundation to continue its work of bringing a variety of stakeholders together to coordinate school health services. The grant will support the development of a plan for school health services including outcomes and goals for child health and the role of schools in assuring that children’s health needs are being met.  

Get Involved – Help Us Plan the First-Ever Child Health Conference in WV

    The WVHKFC and other partners is seeking health care, education and social service professionals to help plan for a child health conference to be held towards the end of 2005. If you can’t attend planning meetings in Charleston, you can participate by reviewing ideas for the conference, making recommendations for topics and speakers, and helping to get the word out. Contact Renate Pore at renateepore.pore@verizon.net if you want to be involved.

WV Council of Churches Public Policy Issue Priorities for 2005

    The WV Council of Churches has released their Public Policy Issue Priorities for 2005. Among the issues released, ‘HOPE FOR CHILDREN’ addresses areas of concern for the well-being of WV’s children. The West Virginia Council of Churches is concerned that, during this era of budget cutbacks the many needed and positive governmental programs to protect the children’s safety net are subject to the budget ax. especially focus our concerns in the following areas:

Early Childhood Care and Education:
The first years of life are the most important in the intellectual, emotional and social development of children. They endorse 4-year-old kindergarten and other programs that improve the quality of childcare and parenting.

Children’s Health Coverage:
West Virginia has done well in providing health coverage through Medicaid and CHIP (Children’s Health Insurance Program) to about 240,000 children living in families earning at or below 200% of the federal poverty level. They continue to support the expansion of CHIP to serve children from higher income uninsured families, allowing parents to buy low-cost health coverage for their child and ensure that the child has access to health care.

Long School Bus Rides:
The West Virginia Council of Churches supports legislation to define reasonable travel time for bus transportation to school as 30 minutes for students in grades kindergarten through fifth grade; 45 minutes for students in grades six through eight; and 60 minutes for students in grades nine through 12.

Child Welfare:
The State of West Virginia averages 3,000 children in out-of-home care each day. They endorse improvements in our state’s child welfare system as is envisioned by the policy brief, “Worth our Care,” including the elimination of 400 children being sent to out-of-state care through West Virginia’s foster care system.

For more info call WVCC at 344-3141.

WV CHIP Office on the Move

The WVCHIP office will be moving to a new location - EFFECTIVE January 31, 2005. The new address is:

West Virginia Children's Health Insurance Program (WVCHIP)
1018 Kanawha Blvd, East
Suite 209
Charleston, WV 25301
Phone: 558-2732
Fax: 558-2741

Callers must use 558-2732 and then dial the extension for the person they are trying to reach at the automated directory. Direct lines that are in place now will be disconnected on January 31.

WVPCA Supports Remote Dispensing at FQHC’s

    Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHC’s) wish to move filled prescriptions and prepackaged drugs from the licensed in-house pharmacy at their main health care site to their smaller, usually remote satellite locations.
    For many low-income, uninsured West Virginians, FQHC’s and other safety-net providers represent the sole source of access to both health care and prescription drugs. This is demonstrated by the fact that 94% of prescriptions filled at Rite-Aid and 85-90% of prescriptions filled at independent retail pharmacies are reimbursed by third party payers. If remote dispensing is not allowed, many health center patients could be forced to continue to forgo access to potentially life-saving prescription drugs.
    However, if allowed to remote dispense, FQHC’s could potentially begin providing an additional 80,000—100,000 affordable prescription every year to health center patients through either the 340b drug program or manufacturer indigent drug programs. The infrastructure is in place and no additional legislation beyond remote dispensing is necessary to expand the program.
    Remote dispensing is not a threat to retail pharmacies due to the fact that only patients of the FQHC are eligible to participate in the program and access 340b drug prices and most individuals utilizing 340b and indigent drug programs are uninsured or underserved residents that either can’t afford to visit a pharmacy and purchase their drugs or do not have access to a local retail pharmacy due to geographic or socioeconomic issues.
Many retail pharmacies may actually benefit from the 340b program since the majority of FQHC’s around the state will more than likely participate through a contract with a local retail pharmacy.
    The WVPCA recommends the addition of a provision to Chapter 30 of the WV State Code permitting delivery of prescription drugs to the patient’s licensed medical home. In turn, the legislation will compel the Board of Pharmacy to revise Title 15 of the WV Board of Pharmacy Legislative Rules to include “medical home” as an approved location to remotely dispense.
For more information on this recommendation contact:

Brian Cunningham, Project Director
WV Primary Care Association
Ph: (304) 346-0032
brian@wvpca.org