HCAN 2022 Annual Report

Board Chair’s

partners,

Since 1965, community health centers have been drivers of community health and well-being. A movement that started with two health centers has grown to a nationwide system of 1,400 organizations serving 30 million patients a year. In Nebraska, health centers provide community-focused, high-quality health care to over 113,000 individuals annually. In the last ten years, Nebraska health centers have experienced an 80% increase in the number of patients served, expanded to over 80 service locations, and brought services directly to the community through mobile units and school-based services.

Nearly 70% of Nebraska health center patients are of a racial or ethnic minority and almost one-third are best served in a language other than English. Last year, health centers provided health care to 6,600 people experiencing homelessness, 2,000 agricultural workers and over 1,000 veterans. For individuals who, far too often, feel marginalized and under-represented, Nebraska’s health centers continue to be safe, trusted places where people know they will be seen and cared for without judgement or bias.

Like all health care providers, health centers are facing

financial and workforce shortages that severely limit our ability to expand clinic locations and services provided.

In collaboration with HCAN, we are engaging in creative solutions like the Medical Assistant Apprenticeship Program that will allow staff to learn while they continue to work in the health center. Not only will this program help us grow a critical component of our workforce, it provides a roadmap for opportunity and growth for our staff. New partnerships in 2023 will also bring opportunities to strategically grow the health center footprint across the state, especially in rural areas where gaps in health care access still exist.

In 2023, HCAN’s role as a guide and resource for Nebraska’s health centers is more vital than ever. Federal funding reauthorization, the beginning of the Medicaid redetermination process and the official end of the public health emergency will bring new challenges and opportunities. We know that we are stronger when we work together to advance equitable access to health care in Nebraska. Together, we employ 1,200 Nebraskans, save the overall health care system $187 million annually, and have an economic impact of over $240 million. We will continue to leverage that impact to expand access to health care for all.

“Ensuring access to healthy food, supporting people as they apply for health insurance benefits, co-locating our services with community

and making sure new parents have the resources and support they need, are critical to building healthy communities.”

Brad Meyer CEO at Bluestem Health

Who We Are

Our Mission: To Advance the Health Center Movement

Our Vision: Access, health, and well-being for ALL

Our Values:

• Accountable

• Intentional

• Elevate

• Inclusive

• Agile

• Results-Oriented

Our Commitment to Diversity, Equity and Inclusion:

HCAN is committed to building a culture that celebrates diversity and strives for equity. We are dedicated to combatting the public health impact of systemic inequities and racial injustice through advocacy, education, and training.

HCAN Board of Directors

Brad Meyer, Board Chair, Bluestem Health

Tami Smith, Vice Chair, Heartland Health Center

Kathy Nordby, Secretary/Treasurer, Midtown Health Center

Dr. Gage Stermensky, Community Action Health Center

Kenny McMorris, Charles Drew Health Center, Inc.

Andrea Skolkin, OneWorld Community Health Centers, Inc.

Terri Ford-Wolfgram, Good Neighbor Community Health Center

Associate Members

Bill Wypyski, All Care Health Center

Mari Kaptain-Dahlen, Siouxland Community Health Center

What We Do

• Provide technical assistance and training to community health centers

Network with organizations at the regional and national level for healthcare excellence and equity

• Promote the cost effective delivery of affordable, quality primary health care services

• Promote healthcare workforce development, recruitment, and retention

• Educate Nebraskans on the mission, services and value of community health centers

Our Health Centers Who We Serve

113,528 patients served in 62 counties at over 80 sites*

Bluestem Health

1021 North 27th St | Lincoln, NE 68503

Ph. 402.476.1455 | www.bluestemlincoln.com

6 service delivery locations

Charles Drew Health Center, Inc.

2915 Grant St | Omaha, NE 68111

Ph. 402.451.3553 | www.charlesdrew.com

15 service delivery locations

Heartland Health Center 2116 W Faidley Ave Suite 2100 | Grand Island, NE 68803

Ph. 308.382.4297 | www.heartlandhealthcenter.org

3 service delivery locations

Midtown Health Center

302 West Phillip Ave | Norfolk, NE 68701

Ph. 402.371.8000 | www.midtownhealthne.org

19 service delivery locations

Community Action Health Center 975 Crescent Dr. | Gering, NE 69341

Ph. 308.632.2540 | www.capwn.org

3 service delivery locations

Good Neighbor Community Health Center 4321 41st Ave | Columbus, NE 68602 Ph. 402.562.7500

www.goodneighborcommunityhealthcenter.com

5 service delivery locations

OneWorld Community Health Centers, Inc. 4920 South 30th St | Omaha, NE 68107

Ph. 402.734.4110 | www.oneworldomaha.org

21 service delivery locations

*Includes School Based Health Centers (SBHCs), public housing and mobile units

Who We Serve

Patients Served by Health Centers

Our Impact

Value and Impact of Nebraska’s Health Centers

$93 Million savings to Medicaid

$187 Million savings to the overall health system 24% lower costs for health center Medicaid patients

Nebraska’s community health centers provide high-quality, affordable health care homes for any Nebraskan seeking medical, dental, or behavioral health services. Health centers ensure that all Nebraskans, especially underserved populations, have access to high-quality, comprehensive, affordable health care, regardless of their ability to pay. Health centers serve a racially, culturally, and socioeconomically diverse population and serve as a critical component to the safety net program, serving 31% of the uninsured population and 27% of the uninsured children in Nebraska.

12% 4-Year Patient Growth

100% of Health Centers have installed Electronic Health Records

100% of Health Centers are using Telehealth to provide remote clinical care services.

Nebraska’s health centers provide tremendous value and impact to the communities they serve.

Bluestem Health

Lincoln

(402) 476-1455

bluestemlincoln.com

Locations

Main Clinic

1021 N 27th St.

Lincoln, NE 68503

Piedmont Clinic

Bryan Health East 1500 S 48th St STE 412 Lincoln, NE 68506

Thompson Clinic

Bryan Health West

2222 S 16th St STE 435 Lincoln, NE 68502

Kreshel Clinic

3100 N 14th St Lincoln, NE 68521

Health 360 Clinic 2301 O St STE 2 Lincoln, NE 68510

19,947 Patients Served

55,048 Patient Visits

18,224 Medical Patients

2,789 Dental Patients

1,315 Enabling Service Patients

4,183 Patients best served in a language other than English

1,481 Patients who experience homelessness

81% Patients at or below 200% of Federal Poverty Guideline

Racial

Charles Drew Health Center, Inc.

Omaha

(402) 451-3553

charlesdrew.com

Locations

includes4SchoolBasedHealthCenters

Grant Street 2915 Grant St Omaha, NE 68111

30 Metro 5319 N 30th St STE A Omaha, NE 68111

Omaha Healthy Start 2912 Manderson St Omaha, NE 68111

Crown Tower 5904 Henninger Ave Omaha, NE 68104

Florence Tower 5100 Florence Boulevard Omaha, NE 68110

Evans Tower 3600 N 24th St Omaha, NE 68110

Jackson Tower 600 South 27th St Omaha, NE 68105

Teen & Young Adult Health Center at Benson 5920 Maple St Omaha, NE 68104

13,238 Patients Served

40,293 Patient Visits

9,773 Medical Patients

1,618 Behavioral Health Patients

2,182 Patients best served in a language other than English

3,689 Dental Patients

126 Enabling Services Patients

2,291 Patients who experience homelessness

97% Patients at or below 200% of Federal Poverty Guideline

Racial and/or Ethnic Minority Patients

% of patients served who identify as a racial and/or ethnic minority

Uninsured Patients

% of uninsured patients served

Medicaid/CHIP Patients

% of patients on Medicaid/CHIP served

Community Action Health Center

Gering • Chadron (308) 632-2540

capwn.org

Locations

Main Office

3350 10th St

Gering, NE 69341

Health Center

975 Crescent Drive

Gering, NE 69341

Chadron Dental Clinic

221 Chadron St

Chadron, NE 69337

Racial and/or Ethnic Minority Patients

Uninsured

Patients % of uninsured patients served Medicaid/CHIP

Good Neighbor Community Health Center

Racial

Heartland Health Center

Grand Island • Ravenna

(308) 382-4297

heartlandhealthcenter.org

Locations

Main Location

2116 W Faidley Ave

STE 2100 Grand Island, NE 68803

Quick Care

423 W 4th St Grand Island, NE 68803

Ravenna Clinic

104 W Seneca St Ravenna, NE 68869

6,695 Patients Served

23,829 Patient Visits

5,087 Medical Patients

324 Behavioral Health Patients

2,134 Dental Patients

2,381 Patients best served in a language other than English

462 Patients who experience homelessness

93% Patients at or below 200% of Federal Poverty Guideline

Racial and/or Ethnic Minority Patients

% of patients served who identify as a racial and/or ethnic minority

Uninsured Patients

% of uninsured patients served

Medicaid/CHIP Patients

% of patients on Medicaid/CHIP served

Midtown Health Center

Norfolk

Locations

Norfolk Clinic

302 W Phillip Ave

Norfolk, NE 68701

Norfolk Xpress Clinic

210 S 3rd St

Norfolk, NE 68701

Madison Clinic

222 Main St

Madison, NE 68748

West Point Clinic

303 Plaza Drive

West Point, NE 68788

Racial

OneWorld Community Health Centers, Inc.

Locations includes5SchoolBasedHealthCenters

Main Location

Livestock Exchange Building 4910, 4920, 4930 S 30th St Omaha, NE 68107

Bellevue 2207 Georgia Ave Bellevue, NE 68005

Northwest Omaha 4229 N 90th St Omaha, NE 68134

West Omaha 4101 S 20th St Omaha, NE 68137

Plattsmouth

122 S 6th St Plattsmouth, NE 68048

Teen & Young Adult - South

4310 S 24th St Omaha, NE 68107

Teen & Young Adult - West

2520 S 130th Ave

Omaha, NE 68144

48,348 Patients Served

170,941 Patient Visits

43,387 Medical Patients

6,112 Behavioral Health Patients

16,272 Patients best served in a language other than English

9,016 Dental Patients

11,748 Enabling Services Patients

1,424 Patients who experience homelessness

98% Patients at or below 200% of Federal Poverty Guideline

Racial and/or Ethnic Minority Patients

% of patients served who identify as a racial and/or ethnic minority

Uninsured Patients

% of uninsured patients served

Medicaid/CHIP Patients

% of patients on Medicaid/CHIP served

Advocacy Patient

HCAN spearheads advocacy efforts for the community health centers, focusing on issues that directly impact access to affordable, communitybased health care as well as social factors like food security, housing and economic assistance that impact our health center patients.

Legislative Summary

• HCAN provided Written or Oral Testimony 29 times, on 25 Bills

• HCAN supported 24 Bills and opposed 1

• 9 out of 24 supported Bills were passed/ amended into Bills that did pass

• The one opposed Bill did not leave Committee

• HCAN had 2 Bills introduced on its behalf

• Funding for Capital Construction did not pass

• Enshrining FQHCs as a required Service did pass

25 29

Bills Times

Total number of bills HCAN testified, or advocated on, in order to promote access, health and well-being for all.

Total number of times HCAN provided written or oral testimony on bills that included Medicaid, Workforce, Economic Assistance Programs and Social Determinants of Health issues.

Legislative Activity for

2022

HCAN plays a vital role in educating our federal, state and local policy makers about community health centers. We advocate for health access and coverage and set legislative priorities and policies that promote access to quality, equitable healthcare.

Examples of bills HCAN advocated for the 2022 session:

LB 855

Adds FQHC services to the list of required Medicaid services

LB 698

Requires Medicaid to cover Continuous Glucose Monitoring Devices

LB 767

Passes the Pharmacy Benefit Manager regulation act which includes 340B protections

LB 1014

Includes an additional $5 Million in ARPA funding for the Rural Health Provider Incentive Program

LB 1024

Includes $335 Million in spending towards disadvantaged communities in North and South Omaha

LB 1007

Removes the local match requirement for the Rural Health Provider Incentive Program

Year in Review

HCAN facilitates training and technical assistance opportunities to support community health centers’ commitment to provide high-quality, comprehensive healthcare services. Throughout the year, HCAN offers monthly peer-to-peer team calls, annual conferences, webinars, in-person trainings and individual assistance to health center leadership, boards, and staff.

HCAN works with regional and national partners to provide timely and high quality trainings as well as guidance on any new or ongoing federal and state initiatives. Throughout the past year, HCAN facilitated 119 trainings, workshops, and peer learning networks. In total, nearly 1,300 health center staff and partners attended.

Peer Learning Networks for 2022

HCAN actively hosts nine peer learning networks for HCAN members, Iowa associate members, and partner Primary Care Associations. In total, 658 health center staff participated in these peer learning sessions with an overall participant satisfaction metric of 4.13/5.

Continuous Glucose Monitoring Pilot Project

HCAN received private foundation dollars in the Spring of 2022 to purchase Continuous Blood Glucose monitoring devices. Two pilot health centers partnered with uninsured patients to monitor their uncontrolled diabetes. In total, patients participating in the 3-month CGM pilot saw a significant change in their Hemoglobin A1c – 10.0 to 8.9

HCAN Online Community

2022 also marked the launch of our online community. HCAN’s website now offers a community engagement platform to allow HCAN members the opportunity to connect with their peer network, download available resources, and register for upcoming events. To date, 227 user accounts have been created for the HCAN online community.

HCAN Medical Assistant Apprenticeship Program

HCAN successfully launched our MA Apprenticeship in July of 2022. This apprenticeship program is formally registered with the Department of Labor. To date, over 65 apprentices have joined the program with representation from all seven Nebraska FQHCs. HCAN’s program is currently netting a 91% pass rate.

Outreach & Enrollment

HCAN hosted its annual Assister Fall Training on Thursday, October 20th and Friday, October 21st in Omaha, NE at the University of Nebraska - Omaha. Navigators and Certified Application Counselors gathered together for a hybrid event including both virtual and in-person attendees.

Assisters from all over the state got together to hear from the 2023 Marketplace Insurers, Nebraska Medicaid Managed Care Organizations, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), Immigrant Legal Center, Medicare and Nebraska Medicaid to help them prepare for Open Enrollment 10.

Assister Fall Training

The two-day training had almost 60 assisters from all of Nebraska, and parts of Iowa.

HCAN Career Center

In an effort to aid health center recruitment, HCAN launched an online Career Center in early 2022. HCAN’s Career Center provides a one-stop shop for all open job postings, connecting professionals looking for work with a Nebraska community health center.

The HCAN Career Center, powered by YM Careers, finds and connects qualified candidates with open positions. YM Careers’ Job Flash emails exposes active health center jobs to passive job-seeking professionals, in addition to those that actively find our site. Throughout 2022, HCAN members have posted 571 jobs. Open jobs have been viewed 7,028 times, resulting in 127 applications.

Find it at https://hcan.careerwebsite.com/

HCAN Annual

Conference

In September, HCAN hosted our two-day, in-person annual conference in Omaha. The 2022 HCAN Conference: Advancing the Health Center Movement welcomed health center leaders, staff, partners, sponsors, and exhibitors from across the country. In total, 50 health center attendees representing 89% of HCAN membership engaged in this training and networking opportunity.

Exceptional Patient Care Award

• Mariela Muñoz, Nurse Care Manager, OneWorld Community Health Centers, Inc.

• Carliss Miller, Lead Health Navigator, Charles Drew Health Center, Inc.

Dr. Jeremy Howe, Physician and Associate Medical Director, OneWorld Community Health Centers, Inc.

At the conference, HCAN presented the 2022 Exceptional Patient Care Award to health center staff members who exemplify outstanding service and commitment to improving the health and well-being of their patients and communities. The award winners pictured above demonstrate exceptional

contributions to the Community Health Center Movement through their service, leadership, and dedication to the health center mission.

Envolve Vision Van

HCAN and Nebraska Total Care, a subsidiary of Centene, brought the Envolve Vision Van back to Nebraska in October 2022. The van made eleven stops throughout the state at local health centers to provide FREE vision screenings, and access to prescription and reading glasses. Doctors and technicians accompanying the van performed mobile vision screenings free of charge to both adults and children (ages 5-18). Over the course of these two weeks, the vision van team performed 718 screenings, wrote 428 prescriptions for eyeglasses, and distributed 141 readers. The total return on investment for this project was nearly $51,000. This was the third time the van partnered with HCAN, having visited Nebraska previously in 2017 and 2018.

HCAN is thankful to the volunteer doctors and technicians that traveled with the van, the Nebraska Total Care staff on-site to discuss health plans, and the Centene staff for funding these extremely successful events.

2022

Platinum Level Partners

Gold Level Partners

Silver Level Partners

Bronze Level Partners

HCAN’s CEO

Every year, I have the opportunity to reflect on the impact that HCAN has had on our members and the impact our health center members have had on the communities they serve. HCAN is now entering its 12th year as an organization, and I will be coming up on my 8th anniversary as CEO. To put into perspective what has happened in those time frames is simply remarkable.

Amy Behnke, JD

Chief Executive Officer

Health Center Association of Nebraska

Health centers are serving 50,000 more patients now than they were in 2011 when HCAN was founded. Patients from 62 of Nebraska’s 93 counties receive care at a health center. Service delivery locations have grown to nearly 80 sites, including schools, mobile units and sites co-located with community partners. Health centers employ nearly 1,200 Nebraskans and are economic drivers in the communities they serve.

Likewise, HCAN has experienced significant change and growth. In early 2022, the HCAN staff collaboratively developed and implemented a new organizational structure to allow for staff development and program expansion. With this new organizational structure came an updated mission, vision, and value statements, and a documented commitment to keeping diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice at the center of our work.

HCAN also expanded our programming; virtual educational offerings, in-person opportunities, on-demand resources, and round table discussions were all designed to meet health centers where they’re at. Last year,

HCAN conducted 119 training and peer learning events, launched our HCAN Career Center, and implemented a Department of Labor-approved Medical Assistant Apprenticeship Program.

In 2023, we will be introducing a Dental Assistant Apprenticeship Program, as well as a new peer learning group centered on addressing the Social Determinants of Health (SDOH). HCAN will also work in partnership with Nebraska health centers to develop and implement a tele-behavioral health network.

In January of this year, we started a project to collect patient stories from the health centers. And, while all of them are equally inspiring, there are two simple words from one of the patient testimonials that perfectly sum up what it means to be a health center patient – “I matter”. That quote from a patient encompasses everything that the health center movement stands for – making sure that, regardless of who they are or where the come from, patients know they matter, they are valued, and they will be treated with dignity.

This coming year holds great opportunity to expand equitable access to health care across our state. Every Nebraskan deserves to have a health care home where they feel valued and where they know they matter. I am so grateful to have been a part of eight years of growth and opportunity in Nebraska’s health center movement and I look forward to the promise of years to come.