In response to funding opportunity HRSA- 24-057, Linking Eligibility Across the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program Parts - Dissemination Assistance Provider, JSI aims to increase access to care for people with HIV by promoting efficiencies in Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program (RWHAP) eligibility and confirmation across all RWHAP Parts. Founded in 1978, JSI is dedicated to improving people’s lives around the world through greater health, education, and socioeconomic equity for individuals and communities. For over 30 years, JSI has worked closely with the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), HIV/AIDS Bureau (HAB) and RWHAP recipients, subrecipients, planning councils/bodies, clients, and key stakeholders to improve health systems and outcomes for people with HIV. This funding opportunity builds on work JSI conducted for HAB in 2019-2020 to assess RWHAP eligibility policies and procedures, focusing on six-month recertification and rapid eligibility determination. The findings from that project supported HAB’s reassessment of RWHAP eligibility determination requirements, which helped to inform PCN 21-02, Determining Client Eligibility and Ensuring Payor of Last Resort in the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program. PCN 21-02 provides RWHAP recipients and subrecipients a significant opportunity to improve the customer experience with applying for and continuing RWHAP services, and includes best practices for promoting continuity of care and services in the RWHAP, namely streamlining eligibility across service categories and RWHAP Parts and using other electronic data sources to confirm client eligibility. There is a demonstrated need for increased understanding of best practices, facilitators, challenges/barriers, and related tools to promote efficiencies in the intake, navigation, and determination of RWHAP client eligibility and eligibility confirmations across all RWHAP Parts. To address these needs, JSI will: 1) Design and conduct a systems assessment
to identify current administrative systems, technologies, and tools utilized to determine client eligibility, confirm eligibility, and obtain client consent; 2) Develop and coordinate peer-to-peer information exchanges to share support, guidance, and feedback on best practices that promote efficiencies in the determination of client eligibility; 3) Develop and broadly disseminate tools and materials that describe best practices, facilitators, and challenges/barriers to streamlining eligibility; and 4) Make recommendations for continuing capacity-building with RWHAP recipients and subrecipients across all RWHAP Parts. Our dissemination approach will focus on developing and sharing high-quality, highly accessible, and practice-focused tools and materials to help RWHAP recipients and subrecipients in streamlining eligibility processes across RWHAP Parts. JSI and its project partners bring: a comprehensive and nuanced understanding of RWHAP eligibility policies and procedures from our work with recipients and subrecipients across all RWHAP Parts; expertise and experience in all aspects of RWHAP administrative requirements and sharing, integrating, and using data across programs and systems; and a deeply held commitment to engaging people with lived experience in advancing efforts to improve health outcomes and quality of life for people with HIV.