Sunday, June 15, 2025
6/15/2025
Fiscal Year 2025 Expanded Hours. - HEALTH CARE NEEDS/BARRIERS TO ADDRESS: An objective of Healthy People 2030 is to reduce the proportion of people who can't get medical care when they need it. In order to attain this objective, medical care should be affordable, available, accessible, acceptable and accommodating. According to the National Health Interview Survey (NHIS, 2021), 8.5% of persons in 2019 were unable to obtain or had delayed obtaining necessary medical care due to cost. Although the most recent data reports an improvement to 7.0%, disparities remain. Valley Healthcare System's service area includes Harris, Muscogee, and Talbot Counties in Georgia. In the service area, 38.1% of residents live with income below 200% FPG, more than the state (32.9%) or U.S. (29.8%) averages. Among these are the working poor. In addition, 17.8% of service area residents live on income below 100% FPG (American Community Survey, Census Bureau, 2016-2020). Georgia is not a Medicaid expansion state, and as a result the number of uninsured has remained higher than the nation(10.8%). Around 9.0% of households have no vehicles available, exceeding the state average of 6.3%. There is also a documented shortage of primary care providers available to serve area residents. All three service area counties have health Professional Shortage Area (HPSA) and Medically Underserved Area (MUA) designations. The population to 1.0 FTE primary care physician ratio in the service area is 6,516:1, higher than the statewide ratio of 1,490:1 or the national ratio of 1,305:1. To exacerbate an already critical limitation of primary care services within the area, a recent announcement by the Walmart Corporation gave notice that all Walmart Care clinics in the service area will be closing. The last day for virtual care visits was May 31, 2024 and the last day for in-person patient appointments is June 28, 2024. PROPOSED PROJECT AND SERVICES: Valley Healthcare System (VHcS) operates seven sites in GA: one in Fortson (Harris Co), one in Talbotton (Talbot Co), and four in Columbus (Muscogee Co), including two mobile units and two school-based sites. Seventy-two FTE medical and support staff provide services directly or via referral that include: general primary medical care, diagnostic lab and radiology, screenings, coverage for emergencies during and after hours, voluntary family planning, immunizations, well child services, gynecological care, prenatal, intrapartum, and postpartum care, preventive and additional dental care, pharmaceutical services, case management, eligibility assistance, health education, outreach, transportation, translation, mental health and substance use disorder services, optometry, nutrition, additional enabling supportive services, psychiatry, and physical therapy. Through the support of the Expanded Hours initiative, patients will have access to these services through additional hours of in-person appointments. Operating hours will be increased by two hours per week at the Columbus site. Supplementing the direct in-person care will be the inclusion of contractual Tele-Optometry and OnMed Virtual Care services for understaffed departments such as Vision and in the Talbot and Harris county sites, providing an additional 2,835 operating hours of service annually. An additional 2.35 FTE staff will be required to support this expansion. VHcS projects serving an additional 1240 new patients during the 2-year performance period. Through this application, VHcS is requesting FY 2025 Expanded Hours program grant funds in the amount of $470,000.00. COMMUNITY/TARGET POPULATION GROUPS TO BE SERVED: The target population groups to be served include those within the Harris, Talbot and Muscogee County service area with incomes at or below 200% of federal poverty guidelines and those with cultural, scheduling, or transportation barriers.
HHS’ Tracking Accountability in Government Grants System (TAGGS) website provides access to detailed descriptions of grants, loans, aggregated direct payments and other types of financial assistance awarded by the HHS Operating Divisions (OPDIVs) and the Office of the Secretary Staff Divisions (STAFFDIVs).