On May 1, 2013, AltaMed Health Services, The Latino Coalition and impreMedia hosted “We, the People” a healthcare symposium on the preparations at a local and national level for the implementation of the Affordable Care Act. The timely discussion was a part of America’s Small Business Summit, a three day conference hosted by the US Chamber of Commerce and The Latino Coalition.

With a special introduction by Cástulo de la Rocha, CEO of AltaMed Health Services, Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius delivered the keynote address on the Affordable Care Act and the Latino community. Other speakers included Brian T. Moynihan, CEO of Bank of America, who spoke about the future of the economy and its impact on small businesses; Hector V. Barreto, Chairman of The Latino Coalition hosted a spirited panel discussion on the impact of the Affordable Care Act on America’s small business community. And impreMedia and Latino Decisions released the results of a national poll with insights on what Latinos in America are thinking about the Affordable Care Act. Results can be viewed at: http://www.latinodecisions.com/blog/2013/05/01/new-national-latino-health-care-survey-results/ Panelists included: Mayra E. Alvarez, Office of Health Reform, HHS; Dr. Matt Barreto and Dr. Gabriel Sanchez , Latino Decisions; Dr. Katherine Flores, National Hispanic Medical Association. The panel was moderated by award-winning journalist, Maria Hinojosa, President of Futuro Media Group.

Visit @HHSLatino on Twitter to view tweets and pictures from the event, including this one:

@HHSLatino: Secretary @Sebelius with @CalEndow @LatinoCoalition @impreMedia and @AltaMed_Health

On March 25, 2013, Southwest Community Health Center President/CEO Katherine S. Yacavone welcomed Congressman Jim Himes to the new dental department located at the newest Southwest Community Health Center location on Albion St. in Bridgeport, CT. During this visit, Congressman Himes was given a tour of the Dental Department and also given a sneak peak at what will soon be the Medical portion of the health center. Congressman Himes has been a huge supporter and advocate for Community Health Centers throughout his district and has supported Southwest Community Health Center on numerous projects across the city.

On April 4, 2013, Southwest Community Health Center and Katherine S. Yacavone were honored to hold a health forum which welcomed Senator Chris Murphy to the health center’s 968 Fairfield Ave, Bridgeport, CT, facility. This forum was well attended by many leaders in health care across Fairfield County, in addition to some active community members. Senator Murphy’s personality quickly made the audience feel comfortable and confident and helped to foster great discussion about the present and future of health care in our area.

–Submitted by Katherine S. Yacavone and Samuel Diaz III, Southwest Community Health Center

Representative Jared Huffman recently visited West County Health Centers, in western Sonoma County, California.  During the visit the Congressman was asked to sign on to the FY2014 Bilirakis-Pallone health center support letter, and he did!

West County Health Centers Executive Director, Mary E. Szecsey, was quoted in this article about the visit:

“It took 75 years for us to get this health care legislation passed,” she said. “We all need to take advantage of this great legislation, but we can’t do that unless we do staff and patient training and get people enrolled.”

Guest blog post by Dana Lawrence, Director of Communications & Grassroots Advocacy for Michigan Primary Care Association, and Regional Field Representative for NACHC

As the staff person who launched Michigan Primary Care Association’s (MPCA) first social media site in 2009, I am a firm believer that social networking is an effective way to communicate with a variety of different audiences – including elected officials.

That belief was reaffirmed this week as I worked to advocate for Michigan’s U.S. Representatives to sign on to the Bilirakis-Pallone Health Center Letter that is circulating in the U.S. House until April 10th. With just a few key strokes and clicks of the mouse, one U.S. Representative retweeted an MPCA tweet and another started following MPCA. It was a good day!

The Congressional Management Foundation conducted an online survey of Congressional staff in 2010 about their opinions and practices related to constituent communications, including social media. Key findings confirm that Congressional offices are using social networking to help gauge public opinion, they include social media sites among tools used to communicate the views and activities of Members of Congress, and that social networking allows Members to reach people they had previously not communicated with.

Following and communicating with/about Members of Congress on Twitter is easy. By doing a little research to find out who from your state’s Congressional delegation has a Twitter account and then following them, you can open the door to two-way, real-time communication.

Here’s a quick “how to” that’s worked for me in my role as the Director of Communications and Grassroots Advocacy at MPCA. I’m sure you’ll settle into your own routine, but hopefully you will find these steps useful as a starting point.

1. Determine which of your Congressional Members have Twitter accounts. I found govtrack.us to be a great source for that information. It lists Members of Congress by state and provides comprehensive information about each one, including their Twitter handle.

2. I (and by “I” I mean MPCA) then started following each Member on Twitter. (One caveat to remember is that when following an elected official on Twitter from your Health Center’s Twitter account, be sure to follow them in their official capacity as a Member of Congress, not as a candidate running for office.)

3. In a few instances Members of Congress (or more likely, their staff) have started following MPCA back, right off the bat. When that happens, I can use MPCA’s Twitter account to directly message them to ask for their support of an issue impacting Health Centers – such as to sign the FY14 Health Center Funding Letter.

4. Even when a Member isn’t following MPCA, I can still communicate with them by including their twitter handle in a tweet. For example, this week when Congressman Sander Levin signed on to the Bilirakis-Pallone Letter I (speaking as MPCA) tweeted, “Thank you U.S. Rep Sander Levin @repsandylevin for signing on to the Bilirakis-Pallone letter in support of Health Centers! #fqhc.” Imagine my excitement when he retweeted this thank you.

I’ve replicated this process for communicating via social networking with members of the Michigan Legislature, as well. Happy tweeting!

–Dana Lawrence

You can follow MPCA on Twitter at @michpca and Dana at @danaslaw

Guest blog post by Stephen Fishbach, Word Nerd for Mobile Commons.  Campaign For America’s Health Centers uses Mobile Commons’ platform to text action alerts to health center advocates.  Sign up to receive advocacy text messages by texting ADVOCATE to 69866.

Lower-income and minority populations are notoriously difficult to reach with healthcare information. With text messaging, however, you can reach undeserved populations with health tips, increase medication adherence, encourage smoking cessation, remind patients about their doctors’ appointments, and change people’s behaviors.

That’s why we at Mobile Commons have launched Mobile Commons for Health, a service that’s designed to make it easy for healthcare providers such as community health centers to launch mobile health campaigns of your own. We can help you get reliable information straight into people’s pockets – and start helping your communities live healthier lifestyles.

Encourage Healthy Behaviors with Targeted Text Messaging
At Mobile Commons, we’ve seen firsthand how text messaging can greatly increase healthcare outcomes.

• Working with the New York City Department of Health, we saw text messages double the quit rates of heavy smokers.

• With Howard Brown Hospital and New York Presbyterian, we saw that text messages helped HIV+ patients adhere to their complicated medication schedules.

• With Planned Parenthood, we’ve seen text messages provide personal answers for teens’ difficult questions.

• With the California Department of Public Health, we connected Californians with vaccination clinics in their communities.

Our new healthcare edition can help you achieve similar outcomes in your own communities. Here’s just a sample of what you can do:

Change Behaviors: Whether you’re encouraging better parenting or helping people quit smoking, changing behaviors is one of the most difficult but vital tasks a healthcare provider can undertake.

A Mobile Commons campaign can help make that difficult process easier. We send targeted messages to people on the device they always have with them, in a way that grabs their attention.

Adherence and Reminders: People often neglect to do what they’re supposed to – even if they know it’s good for them. Now there’s a solution.

Mobile Commons can send adherence reminders and appointment information, timed to people’s schedules. Study after study shows that text messages have a measurable impact on people keeping to their prescribed regimens. By sending targeted information directly to their cell phones, a Mobile Commons campaign provides a non-invasive reminder that can have dramatic results.

One-to-One Counseling & Live Chat: How do you get sensitive health information to people when they need it most? Mobile Commons makes it easy for your health hotline or on-staff educators to provide immediate, personal educational information through a live text “chat” or direct text message.

By combining the immediacy of a personal conversation with the anonymity of texting, a Mobile Commons campaign can connect at-risk populations with your health resources, in a way in which they feel comfortable.

Health Tips: Keep your communities informed with regular health tips. Send out weekly or monthly tips with insight and information about healthy living.

Reach Everyone – No Matter their Income Level
30% of the US population does not have regular access to the Internet and email. Non-English speakers, people with disabilities, and those living near the poverty line often do not have reliable web access. Conversely, it’s these very populations who often have the most need of vital public-health-related communications.

Mobile technology erases the digital divide. Text messaging is more common among underserved populations. Hispanics and African Americans, for example, both use SMS at a rate 3-5 times greater than the general population.

Respecting Patients’ Privacy
Because we know how sensitive healthcare information is, we have also added enhanced privacy features to Mobile Commons for Health. Healthcare companies can block out phone numbers in the web interface, and obscure protected health information. We also have restricted rules around passwords and automatic logoff, to ensure the information’s safety.

Contact Us Now
If you want more information, or to see an overview of how our platform works, email us at info@mobilecommon.com. Or check out our overview video!

Guest blog post by Teal Whitaker, Client Services Representative, HealthPoint, Renton, WA

“Breaking down barriers and providing access to all.”

At HealthPoint, a non-profit Community Health Center with clinics throughout King County, Washington, we don’t only believe in doing so, we accept it as our mission. It is an integral part of what we do. That is why we speak out about Medicaid Expansion. We want to be advocates in our legislature and our local communities.

Recently in Letters to the Editor a provider and a board member of HealthPoint urged our legislature to consider the benefits of the program and the costly result of not passing it in our state. With first-hand knowledge of what medical coverage would mean for the uninsured, they cited the many reasons why the program is beneficial. Mainly, there will be more access to more patients. The benefits will also include state savings (about $210 million) and positive job creation (about 10,000 jobs). Both letters are linked below.

Kimberly McDermott, MD, HealthPoint Provider

http://www.bellevuereporter.com/opinion/192531201.html

Chad Horner, Chair of HealthPoint Board of Directors

http://www.kentreporter.com/opinion/193707521.html

Why speak out?

As a Client Services Representative at HealthPoint, I see many patients in need of resources to manage their medical bills and the price of crucial diagnostics and exams. For an uninsured adult, this can mean thousands of dollars out of their pockets. There is a lack of resources and the level of need is rising. Our whole organization feels the effect of this everyday.

By offering medical coverage to an estimated 79,000 people in King County alone, Medicaid Expansion means more of our patients will be in our clinics instead of our emergency rooms. On a daily basis, we meet with patients who are not in control of their own health. They are not receiving the care they need because they cannot afford to do so. Some patients have to choose whether to pay for their medications or put food on the table. That is why we speak out about Medicaid Expansion. We want to be a voice for our patients, no matter what language they speak.

It is time to break down the barriers and give more people access to the health care they deserve. We want our state to make the right choice.

–Teal Whitaker

Attending NACHC’s 2013 Policy & Issues Forum in D.C. this week, March 20-23?  Click here to access this year’s Advocate Logistics.

The document includes tips for getting around D.C., including navigating Capitol Hill.  Wondering which P&I sessions will help prepare you to meet with your Members of Congress?  Looking for a list of conference advocacy sessions?  Click here!

Guest blog post by Toni Estep, CEO of Open Door Health Services in Muncie, Indiana

Reading one of the recent blogs regarding Connecticut’s “Text 2B Heard” campaign, I thought about what our health center, Open Door Health Services, has been doing regarding our advocacy efforts. Unlike the folks in Connecticut, we have stayed with the low tech approach to engage our patients. With the Sequester approaching we brought our management team together to brainstorm ideas about what we can do to get the word to our Senators and Congressman. One of the mechanisms that has worked for us in the past has been asking patients sign petitions that we then fax to Washington, DC. On Monday and Tuesday before the sequester was to kick in, we faxed petitions with almost 1,000 signatures from patients at all of our sites! To motivate the staff to remember to do this we held weekly competitions with small prizes for those securing the most names!

Indiana’s 6th District has a new Congressman, Luke Messer, who visited our health center for the first time this past week. His visit was a result of our outreach with his staff. We have been working with his local office which alerts us to his visits to town and I recently attended a small community forum where the Congressman answered questions. This helps us to be seen even if the issues aren’t always the ones we are there to address. At that meeting the topic was gun control, but I was able to meet some of his key staff and it resulted in a visit from his District Director, Mike Lynch on February 15. I was able to take him on a tour of our building and provide up to date information to him about what sequestration would do to our health center. The visit was very productive and allowed him to see first hand what happens at a community health center.

Regardless of what happens in March our Advocacy Team will not be stopping. Plans are already in place with trained volunteers to staff computers in our waiting rooms at each of our sites and assist patients to send emails to Congress. The staff has put advocacy messages on small candy bars that will be given to our patients. We are continuing with our petitions, and we are having patients outline their handprint with their name in the center on large rolls of paper. We are even getting the children involved in this. Our plan is to take these large signs to NACHC’s P&I on the Hill visits. What a great visual it will be to unroll these eight foot plus signs in Members of Congress’ cramped offices!

–Toni Estep

Guest blog post by Steven L. Evans, MSM, Public Affairs/Marketing/Development Coordinator, and a former board member, for New Horizon Family Health Services, Inc. in Greenville, SC.  Mr. Evans will be speaking at this year’s NACHC Policy & Issues Forum on Friday, March 22, 3:30pm, during a session titled “Growing Your Health Center’s Grassroots Advocacy Program.”

The health center movement is the living illustration of grassroots activism at its best. During the inaugural years of the movement, community leaders educated, empowered, and engaged everyone willing to embrace the new model of health care. It is that same fervor to community service and activism that calls the leadership of today’s community centers. The leadership that continuously answers the call of the faintest voice in the village is the community health center board. The community health center boards are influential reflections and representatives of the communities that trust and depend on the quality, affordable, and patient-centered health care delivered by health centers throughout the nation. Because of board members’ steadfast commitment to the health center cause and their trusted connections within the public and political circles, they are the logical architects to draft the blueprints for effective advocacy committees. After the blueprint has been drafted, the leadership then prepares an organizational culture and community commitment that effectively support all that it means to be a community health center.

Community health center boards have been nominated and confirmed because of their community trust and their relationship to the local community health center mission. The community trust is respected by constituent and congressman alike. Thus, the board becomes the perfect liaison between the layman and legislation. Whether patient or community partner, board members know and understand the mission and vision of their respective community health centers. Knowledge is power, and board members do not hoard that power. Board members share their knowledge to empower health center staff members, patients, the general public, and elected officials to make better choices on behalf of the health center movement. The boards recognize the expertise of health center staff and the dedication of community volunteers. Leading by example, health center boards are able to form advocacy committees that are composed of board members, community health center staff members, and community advocates to develop a landscape designed to fully engage all parties in the advocacy process. Once all of the stakeholders and policymakers are engaged in the advocacy process, the accountability becomes a continuous driving force for everyone one. The advocacy committee then becomes effective because of accountability, education, transparency, and involvement.

Understand a blueprint is just a blueprint if a structure is never constructed. The board may be the necessary architects for the design and framework, but the local community health center must become the floors for the advocacy to stand upon. The local community and community partners must become the walls that protect the core of the health center movement. The patients must be the windows that allow the world to see how wonderfully health centers care and serve all. The elected officials must then become the roof of the edifice to protect the structure from all of the elements that could damage all that the health center movement champions and patients have struggled to build.

–Steven L. Evans

Learn about the sequester and what it means for health centers in this 1 minute video from Edward M. Kennedy Community Health Center CEO Toni McGuire: