Senior staff from HRSA's Bureau of Primary Health Care (BPHC) will provide updates on policy and programmatic developments related to health center funding, compliance, oversight, UDS, FTCA, quality measurement, COVID-19, and related issues.

Maurice Denis, Associate Vice President, Membership and Marketing, NACHC, Master of Ceremonies Daniel E. Dawes, J.D., Executive Director of Satcher Health Leadership Institute at Morehouse School of Medicine, will deliver the keynote address at NACHC’s 2021 Virtual Policy & Issues Forum in March. As a nationally recognized health care and public health leader and policy expert who has been at the forefront of major federal health policy negotiations, including the Affordable Care Act, Dawes will discuss the critical bridge between social and political determinants of health and its potential to bring about greater health equity and ultimately, better health outcomes for marginalized people and communities.   Dawes currently leads several major health equity projects, including several intended to mitigate the impact of COVID-19 on communities of color such as the national COVID-19 resiliency network (NCRN), established through a cooperative agreement between the HHS Office of Minority Health and Morehouse School of Medicine, as well as a project with Google.org, CDC Foundation and Gilead Sciences to create the nation’s first health equity tracker.   Dawes is the author of two groundbreaking books: 150 Years of Obamacare and the Political Determinants of Health, which have received critical acclaim from all sides of the political spectrum. 2021 Leader Sponsors

This session will provide a clear rundown of the 2021 Health Center Policy Agenda and advocacy strategy. It will be the main opportunity for advocates to hear this year’s “asks” and to dialogue with NACHC Policy and Advocacy staff about how best to carry our collective message forward. Tips and information on how to effectively communicate our agenda to Members of Congress and their staff will be highlighted. Best practices for virtual meetings with Members of Congress will also be provided. Don’t go into your virtual meetings unprepared - this is your best opportunity to prepare for your virtual Hill visits and hone your skills to be a more effective advocate.

2020 will always be the year of COVID-19. The successes include the development and production of multiple vaccines with cutting edge science, unparalleled collaborations, and investments globally. However, attention and resource infusion to build the implementation infrastructure for vaccinating the country has been lacking. Health centers remain key to building, implementing, and tailoring service delivery to meet the needs of their patients and communities. This session will highlight the current state of COVID-19 policies and health center promising practices for keeping staff and patients safe, fostering trust of vaccines and the systems that distribute them, vaccine reporting/dashboarding, and validating external vaccines.

The application of collective leadership to influence and impact policy, legislation and payment is what what we all work towards and strive to achieve each and every day.  This holds true in addressing health equity.  A Health Center CEO, a Primary Care Association (PCA) and Medicaid Managed Care Organization (MCO) looked at the concerning disparity data, incentives to take action locally to address health inequality and then applied the evaluation of those results to broader systems of change across the market region.  

Sponsored by McKesson Medical-Surgical. Click into the McKesson Virtual Showcase in the Sponsor Directory to join this informative session.

Sponsored by UHC Solutions. Click into the UHC Solutions Virtual Showcase in the Sponsor Directory to join this informative session.