Bill Text: MS HB413 | 2014 | Regular Session | Introduced
Bill Title: Mississippi Qualified Health Center and Rural Health Clinic Capacity Building Grant Program; establish.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Republican 1-0)
Status: (Failed) 2014-03-04 - Died In Committee [HB413 Detail]
Download: Mississippi-2014-HB413-Introduced.html
MISSISSIPPI LEGISLATURE
2014 Regular Session
To: Public Health and Human Services; Appropriations
By: Representative Mims
House Bill 413
AN ACT TO ESTABLISH THE MISSISSIPPI QUALIFIED HEALTH CENTER CAPACITY BUILDING GRANT PROGRAM UNDER THE ADMINISTRATION OF THE STATE DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH FOR THE PURPOSE OF MAKING COMPETITIVE GRANTS TO MISSISSIPPI QUALIFIED HEALTH CENTERS TO USE IN INCREASING ACCESS TO CARE TO UNINSURED OR MEDICALLY INDIGENT PATIENTS IN MISSISSIPPI; TO PROVIDE THAT GRANTS AWARDED TO MISSISSIPPI QUALIFIED HEALTH CENTERS SHALL ONLY BE USED BY THOSE CENTERS TO INCREASE PATIENT ACCESS TO PREVENTATIVE AND PRIMARY CARE SERVICES; TO PRESCRIBE THE POWERS OF THE DEPARTMENT FOR THE ADMINISTRATION OF THE PROGRAM; TO PROVIDE THAT THE DEPARTMENT SHALL ESTABLISH A FUND FOR THE PURPOSE OF PROVIDING CAPACITY BUILDING GRANTS TO MISSISSIPPI QUALIFIED HEALTH CENTERS IN ACCORDANCE WITH THIS ACT; TO CREATE A SPECIAL FUND IN THE STATE TREASURY TO BE KNOWN AS THE MISSISSIPPI QUALIFIED HEALTH CENTER CAPACITY BUILDING GRANT PROGRAM FUND, FROM WHICH GRANTS AND EXPENDITURES AUTHORIZED IN CONNECTION WITH THE PROGRAM SHALL BE DISBURSED; AND FOR RELATED PURPOSES.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF MISSISSIPPI:
SECTION
1. For purposes of this act:
(a) "Mississippi qualified
health center" means a public or nonprofit entity that provides
comprehensive primary care services that:
(i) Has a community board of
directors, the majority of whom are users of such centers;
(ii) Accepts all patients that
present themselves despite their ability to pay and uses a sliding-fee-schedule
for payments; and
(iii) Serves a designated
medically underserved area or population or health professional shortage area,
as provided in Section 330 of the Public Health Service Act.
(b) "Uninsured or medically
indigent patient" means a patient receiving services from a Mississippi
qualified health center who is not eligible for Medicaid or Medicare for health-care
costs or receiving third-party payments via an employer.
(c) "Department" means the
State Department of Health.
(d) "Primary care" means
the basic entry level of health care provided by health-care practitioners or
non-physician health-care practitioners, which is generally provided in an
outpatient setting.
(e) "Medically underserved area
or population" means an area designated by the Secretary of the United
States Department of Health and Human Services as an area with a shortage of
primary care providers, high infant mortality, high poverty and/or high elderly
population.
(f) "Health Professional Shortage Area (HPSA)" means an area designated by the United States Department of Health and Human Services as having shortages of primary medical care, dental or mental health providers and may be geographic, demographic or institutional.
(g)
"Competitive grant" means a grant awarded after scoring against other
grant applications by the department to a Mississippi qualified health center
in accordance with this act.
(h) "Program" means the
Mississippi Qualified Health Center Capacity Building Grant Program established
in this act.
SECTION 2. The Mississippi Qualified Health Center Capacity
Building Grant Program is established, under the direction and administration
of the State Department of Health, for the purpose of making competitive grants
to Mississippi qualified health centers for their use in increasing access to
care to uninsured or medically indigent patients in Mississippi. The
Mississippi Qualified Health Center Capacity Building Grant Program shall be
established with such state funds as may be appropriated by the Legislature and
will be prorated based on the level of appropriated funds.
SECTION 3. (1) Any Mississippi qualified health center
desiring to participate in the program shall make application for a competitive
grant to the department in a form satisfactory to the department. The
department shall receive grant proposals from Mississippi qualified health
centers. All proposals shall be submitted in accordance with the provisions of
grant procedures, criteria and standards developed and made public by the
department.
(2) Grants that are awarded to Mississippi qualified health centers shall
only be used by those centers to increase patient access to preventative and
primary care services by one of the following:
(a) Offering extended service hours, including, but not limited to,
primary care medical and preventive services, dental services, optometric
services, laboratory services, diagnostic services, pharmacy services,
nutritional services, social services and other services as required by Section
330 of the Public Health Services Act;
(b) Expanding satellite, school-based, or mobile facilities to provide services;
(c) Implementing and expanding workforce collaboration initiatives to increase access to services for MQHC patients; or
(d) Establishing
programs to reduce the inappropriate use of emergency rooms for non-life
threatening illnesses and increase access to primary care services in
outpatient settings.
(3) Grants received by Mississippi qualified health centers under this
act shall not be used:
(a) To supplant federal funds traditionally received by those
entities, but shall be used to supplement them; or
(b) For land
acquisition or capital construction costs.
(4) Grants receive by Mississippi qualified health centers under this act
shall provide:
(a) A justification of how the project will increase access to care, eliminate barriers to care, address major health needs, and reduce health disparities for the uninsured or medically indigent;
(b) The service area of each proposed capacity building project;
(c) The number of new patients to be served, including the uninsured;
(d) The number of additional health care providers and staff needed to serve the proposed population; and
(e) The projected total cost associated with the capacity building project.
(5) The department shall:
(a) Develop regulations, procedures and application forms to govern how the competitive grants will be awarded.
(b) Structure an objective review committee to ensure that grants are competitively awarded and distributed based on need and feasibility. The objective review committee shall include individuals who have knowledge and experience of federally qualified health center (FQHC) operations and management, grant writing and administration and of major policy and access issues involving primary care services. No member of the review committee shall participate if he or she could have any monetary effect on any business with which that member is associated, as defined in Section 25-4-103.
(c) Develop an audit process to assure that grant monies are used to provide and expand access to care for primary health care services.
(d) Use criteria based on Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) new access points and new service/expansion criteria for guidance in developing and promulgating rules and regulations.
(e) Review and consider in developing program parameters and criteria the growth priorities as contained and identified in the FQHC statewide strategic growth plan.
(6) The department may establish an advisory council to make recommendations regarding the development and promulgation of regulations, procedures, application forms, objective review committee structuring and timeline for the program.
(7) The department shall
establish a fund for the purpose of providing capacity building grants to
Mississippi qualified health centers in accordance with this act. The
total amount of grants issued under this act shall be Four Million Eight
Hundred Thousand Dollars ($ 4,800,000.00) per state fiscal year, and no individual
grant to a qualified health center shall exceed twenty-five percent (25%) of
the annual award unless there are not enough qualified applications. All
approved grants shall be awarded within thirty (30) days of approval by the
department.
(8) The department may use a portion of any grant monies received under
this act to administer the program and to pay reasonable expenses incurred by
the objective review committee and any established advisory council; however,
in no case shall more than one and one-half percent (1-1/2%) or Seventy Two
Thousand Dollars ($72,000.00) annually, whichever is
greater, be used for program expenses.
(9) No assistance shall be provided to a Mississippi qualified health
center under this act unless the Mississippi qualified health center certifies
to the department that it will not discriminate against any employee or against
any applicant for employment because of race, religion, color, national origin,
sex or age.
SECTION 4. There is created a special fund in the State Treasury to be known as the Mississippi Qualified Health Center Capacity Building Grant Program Fund, from which grants and expenditures authorized in connection with the program shall be disbursed. All monies received by legislative appropriation to carry out the purposes of this act shall be deposited into the Mississippi Qualified Health Center Capacity Building Grant Program Fund.
SECTION 5. This act shall stand repealed on July 1, 2020.
SECTION 6. This act shall take effect and be in force from and after July 1, 2014.
