Weekly Calls Hosted by The Federal Office of Rural Health Policy

The Federal Office of Rural Health Policy is currently hosting weekly calls focused various topics related to the Affordable Care Act for its grantees and stakeholders. These calls are open to all, so feel free to pass along the call-in information to anyone who may be interested. Thanks to those of you who joined us this week for our discussion on SHOPs, tax credits/subsidies, and the unbanked population. We had some great questions and feedback and your participation is much appreciated!

Below is the information for the next call, responses to some questions that came up during the last call, and links to our previous webinars.

Thank you for your hard work and we look forward to the next call!

ORHP ACA Office Hours

July 24, 2013
3-4 pm Eastern
Call-in Number: (800) 857-3749
Passcode: ORHPACA
Adobe Connect Session: https://hrsa.connectsolutions.com/orh1/

Agenda

1) Exemptions to the Insurance Mandate (which groups do not need health insurance)
2) Income Requirements for Subsidies and Tax Credits
3) Medicare-Medicaid Enrollees (“Dual-Eligibles”)

4) ACA Updates

Outstanding Questions

The following questions came up during the last office hours session (7/17/2013) and we wanted to provide some further information:


Q: Is the funding received from HHS by a community health center to be used for only enrollment activities?

A: As you know, HHS awarded $150 Million awarded to community health centers nationwide earlier in July. This funding is to be used for outreach & education as well as enrollment. Here is the link to the press release for more information: http://www.hhs.gov/news/press/2013pres/05/20130509a.html

Q: Where can we find income guidelines for the exchanges for families?

In general, to be eligible for subsidized coverage on the health insurance exchange, an individual must have an income between 100 to 400 percent above the federal poverty level ($11,490 to $45,960 for an individual in 2013 and $30, 656 to $92,200 for a family of four). There is a sliding scale applied to income which determines what percentage of your income you will pay towards health insurance coverage. For example, if your family income is at 200% FPL, you will only pay 6.3% of your income towards health insurance for your family and the remaining will be covered by a tax credit. This is a good and complex question, and we want to make sure we answer it fully. We are going to set aside some time on the next call to discuss further.


Q: How will the subsidies work in practice? (If I’m a consumer, how does the money from the subsidy flow?)

A: Great question and we are looking into this a bit more. Stay tuned!


Previous Office Hours Recordings

• 7/10 Topic: Consumer Assistance https://hrsa.connectsolutions.com/p94lfk0wtzg/

• 7/3 Topic: Medicaid Expansion https://hrsa.connectsolutions.com/p3yhxuz449f/

• 6/26 Topic: ACA 101 https://hrsa.connectsolutions.com/p5r0fh8fbcg/

• Audio from the office hours on 7/17 will be circulated next week



Funding Opportunities

1. The Federal Office of Rural Health Policy has released a funding opportunity in support of the rural Access to External Devices Grant Program. The purpose of this program is to: (1) purchase automated external defibrillators; (2) provide defibrillator and basic life support training in automated defibrillator usage; and (3) place automated external defibrillators in rural communities.

All applications are due June 17, 2013. It is expected that 7 programs will be funded up to $200,000 per year for a three-year project period.

More on this funding opportunity can be found at: http://www.grants.gov/search/search.do;jsessionid=qSgKRVxNMv5yppTP1PTsDjnLP2421WpVSWS7VqqnLrtQ2SRPDBRp!222120898?oppId=234958&mode=VIEW

2. Grant funding will soon be available through the USDA for distance learning and telemedicine efforts aimed and serving rural America. The Notice of Funding Availability for the USDA’s Distance Learning and Telemedicine (DLT) Grant Program will be released in the coming days. The DLT grant program is designed to assist community facilities serving rural areas acquire distance learning and telemedical technologies to link with other professionals to improve the services delivered to rural Americans.

• $17 million in grant funding is expected to be available and each award will be between $50,000 and $500,000.

• Applicants must be 1) a legally incorporated organization operating a rural community facility directly or serving an organization that operates a rural community facility and 2) must currently deliver or propose to deliver distance learning or telemedicine services through and beyond the three-year grant period.

For more information on the DLT Grant Program as well as an application toolkit, please go here. Prospective applicants are encouraged to begin preparing applications today and to reach out to their State USDA Rural Development Office for support. If you do plan to apply, please e-mail Sam Morgan at sam.morgan@wdc.usda.gov  so USDA staff can know how many applications to expect. You can e-mail dltinfo@wdc.usda.gov  with questions about the program.