Northwest AHEC Practice Support would like to celebrate great work going on in its seventeen-county region. Grace Clinic of Yadkin Valley in Elkin, NC was one of six Free and Charitable Clinics nationally that received funding from grantee: Becton, Dickenson and Company (NYSE:BDX) to provide multi-year diagnostic testing.  This initiative which began in 2017 is called Point of Care, Enhancing Clinical Effectiveness (PoCECE) program.  The PoCECE program provides a Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendment (CLIA) waived point-of-care test system consisting of instruments, reagents and quality control to perform the following tests: Cholesterol, LDL, HDL, Triglycerides, Macroscopic Urinalysis, Microalbumin, INR, Hemoglobin A1c, Strep A, HIV, Rapid Hepatitis C, Pregnancy, Flu A & B, and RSV.  The grants also include technical support consisting of standard operating procedures, equipment setup and configuration, competency training and documentation.¹

The third webinar in the Quality & Population Health Webinar series, formerly the Advanced Medical Home (AMH) Webinar series, will be held November 16 from 5:30-6:30 p.m. and will focus on PCP Assignments and Working with Clinically Integrated Networks (CINs). Following the presentations, there will be time for Q&A. This webinar series is designed to support providers, practice managers, quality improvement professionals, care managers, and CINs. We hope you can join us!

HRSA has collaborated with the CDC to create a Checklist for Pediatric COVID-19 Vaccination. It includes helpful information and tips including resources, readiness reminders and guidance on vaccine supply and administration to children.

Effective Oct. 22, 2021, NC Medicaid-enrolled providers can bill code 99401 with HM modifier for telephone outreach to unvaccinated Medicaid beneficiaries. The goal of the outreach is to educate the beneficiaries on the vaccine and assist them in scheduling an appointment, ideally in the office where the outreach is originated.

With the anticipated approval for COVID-19 vaccines to be expanded to include younger children, now is a good time to review evidence-based tools and resources provided by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention. You are a trusted source of information on this important topic, and it can be difficult sometimes to manage the mis-information that has many parents so concerned.  

Help us respond to your health workforce needs!
The NC Center for Health Workforce is working with NC AHEC, the UNC Sheps Center and other stakeholders to take action to address North Carolina’s health workforce needs. An initial step in this process is to gather your concerns about recruitment, retention and skill needs of your workforce. We’ll use this information to work with policymakers and educators to develop responses and solutions.

Please join NC Medicaid Chief Medical Officer (CMO) Dr. Shannon Dowler, along with all the NC Medicaid Managed Care plan CMO’s, for the October Back Porch Chat on October 21 from 5:30 - 6:30 p.m.

This webinar will review new COVID-19 surge response offerings from NC Medicaid, including a COVID-19 vaccine incentive program for NC Medicaid beneficiaries. It will also review how to help a patient who needs Behavioral Health and Individual Developmental Disabilities (I/DD) Tailored Plan behavioral health services move from a standard plan to NC Medicaid Direct.

In efforts at improving transparency, this webinar will provide an overview of a claims dashboard and clinical quality measures, and show results across plans in our first quarter of NC Medicaid Managed Care.

Finally, it will summarize the “latest and greatest” in recent Medicaid bulletins and answer your questions. Please use this link to submit your questions in advance.

While heart disease remains the leading cause of death for women in the U.S., the American Cancer Society estimates that over 43,000 women will die of breast cancer in 2021. Those same estimates show that North Carolina will lose about 1,400 women, with nearly 10,000 new cases diagnosed this year.  Breast Cancer is the second - leading cause of cancer deaths in women in the Tar Heel state.

For those serving NC Medicaid Direct beneficiaries, be on the lookout for a new primary care case management (PCCM) agreement from NC Carolina Community Care Networks within the next 1-2 weeks.