Health Center Controlled Network - Funding Opportunity Number: HRSA-25-018 Assistance Listing Number(s): 93.129 Applicant Name: Community Health Centers of Arkansas Descriptive Title of Applicant's Project: Fiscal Year 2025 Health Center Controlled Network (HCCN) Cooperative Agreements For nearly four decades, the Community Health Centers of Arkansas (CHCA) has supported health centers by providing training and technical assistance to expand access to affordable, high-quality healthcare. CHCA’s comprehensive services enable health centers (HCs) to deliver care effectively and efficiently, aligning with its goals of increasing access, reducing health disparities, and enhancing healthcare outcomes for all Arkansans. Through partnerships with local, state, and federal entities, and collaborations with policymakers and organizations, CHCA advocates for policy changes that empower HCs to provide affordable, accessible, and high-quality healthcare. These efforts benefit uninsured, insured, and underserved individuals, and Medicare and Medicaid recipients throughout the state. A key aspect of CHCA’s work is advancing health information technology (HIT) among HCs, including the adoption and advancement of Electronic Health Records (EHRs) and other technologies to improve patient outcomes and streamline operations. In 2012, CHCA established the Arkansas Health Center Controlled Network (HCCN), comprised of 11 member health center organizations, to collaborate with federal and state agencies and other partners and facilitate HIT advancement initiatives. The HCCN focuses on HIT, data security, analytics, and transforming healthcare delivery, enabling HCs to provide high-quality, patient-centered care, improve interoperability, and transition to value-based care models. Through communications and collaborations with the HCCN, the HCs have expressed specific needs for assistance and training in advancing the use of technology (telehealth, digital tools, and remote patient monitoring), developing strategies that enhance quality and workflow to improve efficiency and reduce provider burden, support in extracting, preparing, analyzing, and reporting data to inform decision-making and meet reporting requirements, improving clinical decision support, reducing the duplication of tests and interventions, and fostering better communication and care coordination between patients and providers. Perhaps above all, HCs have expressed the importance of furthering collaborations and enhancing data-sharing capabilities to improve provider-to-provider collaborations and clinical decision support systems. To address these needs, the HCCN will offer training and technical assistance in data management and analytics and interoperability of systems and digital health tools to assist HCs in improving clinical quality, health outcomes, and operations. The HCCN’s assistance in improving bi-directional interoperability with healthcare providers and community-based organizations will allow HCs to strengthen care coordination, reduce duplication of testing, and improve referral and information-sharing processes. Focused training and technical assistance with UDS+ implementation will assist HCs in the submission of disaggregated patient-level data, as required by HRSA, and the HCCN will assist HCs in using data and advanced analytics to update operational, financial, and clinical processes to deliver value-based care, increase access to healthcare, and reduce health disparities. Additionally, targeted training on telehealth access for individuals with disabilities or limited English proficiency will specifically address barriers such as accessibility, language interpretation, and cultural considerations to reduce health disparities and ensure that all patients benefit from the use of digital health tools to improve health outcomes.
