For more than 50 years, Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHC), commonly known at Community Health Centers, have delivered affordable, accessible, quality, and value-based primary health care to the nation’s most vulnerable individuals and families. Health centers serve more than 28 million people across the country and they are leading the nation in driving quality improvement and reducing health care costs for America’s taxpayers.
Numerous Community Health Centers have turned to InteliChart to stay connected with their patients between medical visits and proactively encourage behaviors that lead to good health and well-being. InteliChart’s Healthy Outcomes is a complete platform with smart solutions that give health centers the power to maximize their patient engagement capabilities while significantly enhancing workflows associated with patient management.
“Community Health Centers are vital to our nation’s healthcare system, and we are pleased to help them efficiently manage the health of their patients with our innovative, user-friendly solutions,” said Gary Hamilton, InteliChart CEO. “Providers who establish relationships with and understand their patients can help them adhere to their care plan and make other positive health choices to overcome potential care obstacles.”
Why FQHCs select InteliChart
The primary drivers FQHCs cite for selecting InteliChart’s Healthy Outcomes include:
- System affordability
InteliChart delivers superior technology at an affordable price. FQHCs continually keep an eye on
their bottom line while addressing barriers to care in their communities. The solutions on the Healthy Outcomes platform overcome those barriers by giving patients easy access to their medical information, all within a health center’s budget. - Immediately available integration
InteliChart maintains complete integration with your system today. No additional technical requirements needed to integrate with your system.
- InteliChart’s proven record of success
Numerous FQHCs, industry-leading EHR vendors, hospitals, health systems and physician practices have selected InteliChart as their patient engagement platform, collectively representing over 50 million patients.
- Patients control interaction with their health record
InteliChart empowers patients to have better control over how they interact with their health record from viewing test results and requesting medication refills to completing forms and scheduling their own appointments. Patients are also able to select their preferred mode of communication and providers can automate outreach based on those preferences.
Population Health Management
Health centers reduce health disparities by emphasizing care management of patients with multiple health care needs and the use of key quality improvement practices, including health information technology. This is where patient engagement has the power to elevate population health management, from identification of high-risk populations to activation of those populations.
Tracking and managing patients in accordance with quality payment programs and value-based care initiatives is often a manual, inefficient workflow. Patient Activate, the population health management solution on the Healthy Outcomes platform, automates that process to reduce care management stress and deliver positive outcomes for patients and staff.
Whether managing a very specific group of patients or several large populations, Patient Activate gives health centers simple yet powerful tools to define parameters that precisely identify patients to manage, monitor and intervene with.
Grants Funds Available for Community Health Centers
Most health centers receive Health Center Program federal grant funding to improve the health of underserved and vulnerable populations. On March 25, 2021, the White House and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced that HHS’s Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) would be awarding $6.1 billion in supplemental funding grants to the nation’s 1,376 FQHCs. The funds were allocated from the $7.6 billion for FQHCs that was included in the recent $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan Act law.
As described in the American Rescue Plan Act and detailed by HRSA in its award release, the funds are intended to be used “to respond to and mitigate the spread of COVID-19 and enhance health care services and infrastructure.” It is important to note that the funds do not have to be used solely on activities related to the pandemic. To the contrary, funds may be used to support a range of activities during the two-year performance period running from April 2021 through March 2023, as well as pre-award costs dating back to January 31, 2020.
This link details allowable uses of funding: https://bphc.hrsa.gov/program-opportunities/american-rescue-plan/allowable-uses-funding. Below are select categories that speak directly to the use of grant funds for engagement-related tools such as patient portals and solutions for self-scheduling, notifications, and population health management.
- COVID-19 Response and Treatment Capacity
Develop and Deploy Digital Tools: Develop and/or enhance websites, patient portals, digital applications, and other tools to support scheduling, show rates, and follow up for COVID-related services including screening, vaccination, testing, and contact tracing.
- Recovery and Stabilization
Population Health and Social Determinants: Enhance or update patient population and community needs assessments; update strategic plans, policies, and procedures to reduce disparities in access, care delivery, and clinical quality measures; expand or develop new partnerships with social services organizations that can address identified social determinants of health; and develop or enhance the data infrastructure necessary to track and close social service referral loops.
Patient Engagement: Enhance patient activation and engagement, including through virtual and in-person outreach and education, self-management programs and techniques, partnerships with families and caregivers, patient-centered care coordination, and other evidence-based interventions to support self-care.
“While consistent patient engagement is important during times of crisis such as a pandemic, it’s even more so when it’s business as usual,” asserts Hamilton. “When patients are communicated with regularly and encouraged to take a more active role in improving their outcomes, the result is lower costs and greater value-based care payments for Community Health Centers.”
About InteliChart
InteliChart delivers Healthy Outcomes, the market-leading, patient-engagement platform that helps providers attain superior patient outcomes. The Healthy Outcomes solution suite consists of Patient Portal, Patient Intake, Patient Notify, Patient Survey, Patient Schedule, Patient Activate, and Patient eVisit.
Located in Charlotte, NC, InteliChart was founded in 2010. Industry-leading EHR vendors, hospitals, health systems and physician practices have selected InteliChart as their patient engagement platform, collectively representing over 60 million patients. We integrate with 35-plus EHR products and a single integration accesses all the solutions in our Healthy Outcomes suite. For more information, visit www.intelichart.com.
