As part of the American Rescue Plan, HRSA’s capital grant opportunities provide health centers with funding to support construction, expansion, alteration, renovation, and other capital improvements to modify, enhance, and expand health care facilities. This session will focus on project planning guidance for health centers at any stage of the planning and financing process, focusing specifically on health center growth post-COVID-19. It will highlight how to leverage funds for projects from various sources, including local foundations, state and local sources, NMTC, tax-exempt bonds, banks, CDFIs, USDA, HRSA LGP, etc. Health center representatives will also share examples and lessons learned from their own capital development experiences.

General Session: The New Era of Data Exchange: What Health Center Leaders Need to Know – A Discussion with the National Coordinator of HIT Welcome Gina Capra, MPA, Senior Vice President, Training and Technical Assistance, NACHC Keynote Speaker: Micky Tripathi, PhD, MPP, National Coordinator for Health Information Technology, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services               In 2021, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services made several important changes to federal regulation to improve the flow of usable health care data to and from community health centers. We will hear from the National Coordinator for Health IT, Micky Tripathi, on the approach to interoperability in the new age of Fast  Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR) and the U.S. Core Data for Interoperability (USCDI). Dr. Tripathi will describe the benefits and opportunities for health centers in this new era of data exchange and respond to a panel of HCCN, PCA, and health center representatives as they describe some of the opportunities and challenges they see in the health center space for collaboration and improvements in the quality and coordination of care using health IT.  As the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology, at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Micky Tripathi leads the formulation of the federal health IT strategy and coordinates federal health IT policies, standards, programs, and investments. He has over 20 years of experience across the health IT landscape. Panel Discussion Moderator: Julia Skapik, MD, MPH, FAMIA, Medical Director, Informatics, NACHC Panelists: Lindsay Dietz, BSW, MAPM, Director of Program Services and HCCN Director, Arizona Alliance for Community Health Centers Joe Acosta, Chief Technology Officer, Kentucky Primary Care Association Michael A. Holmes, Chair of the Board, NACHC and Chief Executive Officer, Cook Area Health Services, Inc.

Responding to the demands of the community during the time of vaccine delivery has been difficult. This session will discuss strategies to move your health center to remote operations. Presenters will review quick ways to move your staff to a remote workforce and ensure that you can responsibly vaccinate the community where they are through networking and connectivity. The session will also include IT strategies to deploy a “clinic in a bag” so that when your vaccination teams go out into the community, they have the ability to connect directly back to your network and EHR.