June Technical Council Activity Summary
/Board of Directors - 6/6
This month’s Board of Director’s meeting featured a guest presentation by Jenny Slagle and Toni Lodge on Native Health Education. The meeting then shifted focus to an update on our Medicaid Transformation and how we are going to allocate Value Based Payments and our Regional Infrastructure.
From there we introduced our Equity and Social Determinants of Health proposals. BHT is proud to have approved an investment into Equity work going forward. This includes developing equity projects with our Spokane Collaborative workgroup.
Community Voices Council - 6/11
The CVC is still recruiting new members! Please help us spread the word. We will be hosting a CVC Open Houses on July 9th to serve as informational interviews for folks who might like to join. Click here for more info, position description, and link to apply.
Tribal Partners Leadership Council - 6/20
June's Tribal Partners Leadership Council meeting had all representatives from the Kalispel Tribe, Spokane Tribe, Colville Tribe, American Indian Community Center, Lake Roosevelt Community Health Center, and The NATIVE Project.
The Health Care Authority awarded a $50,000 Trauma Informed Approach (TI) grant to Better Health Together to support work within our region. BHT has allocated $8,000 to support TIA work specific to our Tribal Partner's needs. The Tribal Partners had quite a bit of positive discussion and potential trainers. One trainer identified is Dr. Maria Yellow Horse Brave Heart at the University of New Mexico. Dr. Brave Heart has developed a model of historical trauma, unresolved grief, and interventions in Indigenous peoples. The group decided that they would like utilize the funding to invite Dr. Brave Heart to implement a Train the Trainer curriculum mid-September 2019. The event would be open to Tribal Partner staff only, with the opportunity for the partners to offer outside trainings. To prepare, each Tribal Partner will identify priorities of specific topics to cover to ensure it is meeting the deliverables of the grant and their needs. An example is that the Colville Tribe would like focus on Suicide Awareness.
The TPLC group was given updates of Medicaid Transformation activities: Spokane Collaborative Letter of Interest; Spokane Collaborative, upcoming Equity Assessment, and newly released Network Analysis questionnaire.
The Health Care Authority Tribal Liaison office was present and gave an update of the Tribal Federally Qualified Health Center Alternative Payment Methodology work that was recently authorized by a State Plan Amendment by Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. This allows Tribes to designate their Tribal Health programs as Tribal FQHCs so that they will receive the Indian Health Service encounter rate for the same outpatient services and the same number of encounters per day that Tribal clinics receive under the Medicaid State Plan.
The Tribal Partners had general discussion about their individual Tribal Carve-out project and agreed that they will work toward a shared project that their individual plans can intersect with. They set a general timeline of October 2019 to have a shared plan outlined. There was discussion about electronic health record needs and interoperability with other large providers and a recommendation that the referral process be a focus of the shared project. Other thoughts were around case management in general and supportive housing. The group would like to invite Amerigroup to the next meeting for an overview of the Foundational Community Supports program and contracting information.