Jewish Healthcare Foundation Board of Trustees Approves $2.529 Million in Grants

On Monday, December 9, the Jewish Healthcare Foundation Board of Trustees approved $2,529,000 in grants, including a three-year grant to establish a Pennsylvania Center for Health Information Activation; two-year grant to implement a Medical Assistants (MA) Champions Program; a matching grant to demonstrate the Safety Net Accountable Care Organization model, designed to lower healthcare costs while improving quality of care for vulnerable populations; a grant to develop a set of expert guidelines for Legionella prevention and remediation; and the renewal of JHF annual grants to the United Way of Allegheny County and the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh.

The Pennsylvania Center for Health Information Activation (CHIA) will serve as a trusted source of analytic insights in western Pennsylvania and across the Commonwealth, conducting and distributing research on healthcare service utilization, cost of care, outcomes, safety and efficiency, population health, and healthcare disparities. “The democratization of data,” said JHF President and CEO Karen Wolk Feinstein, PhD, “changes everything for consumers, policy makers, providers, and purchasers.

“CHIA will serve as a neutral party to analyze and disseminate actionable data and help consumers and other stakeholders understand how to use the data, as well as provide information on provider costs and quality in a way that supports provider quality improvement and policy efforts.

“The Center,” continued Feinstein, “will maximize the effectiveness of PRHI’s (JHF’s Pittsburgh Regional Health Initiative, an operating arm of the Foundation) new designation as a Qualified Entity (QE) under the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ Medicare Data Sharing for Performance Measurement Program.”

While current reimbursement and scope of practice issues limit the roles Medical Assistants (MAs) can play, if MAs are appropriately trained, mentored and deployed, they can improve practice efficiency by freeing time of physicians and nurses to attend to tasks and services that are best matched to their training and scope of practice. The MA Champions program is designed around the Champions program model that JHF has funded and directed over the past decade to build skills necessary to be successful change agents in healthcare quality and safety and an established MA curriculum developed by JHF. Up to 12 MA Champions will be recruited from primary care practices and health centers in Western PA to participate in an 18-month program which will equip MA’s with education and skills they need to function as high-performing, value-added members of clinical care teams.

The Safety Net Accountable Care Organization grant builds on a conceptual model of primary care developed by The Forbes Fund and JHF to leverage the Affordable Care Act to build a stronger safety net for Allegheny County residents who exhibit complex health and social needs. Designed with the input of 25 community agencies representing a microcosm of Allegheny County’s primary care, behavioral health, and human service providers, the model includes several attributes that will reduce inappropriate emergency department use and hospital admissions.

Testing of this model may become part of a larger state-wide initiative: Pennsylvania’s Health Care Innovation Plan (PCIP). The JHF grant is a planning grant which funds the development of the business model and pilot testing. If it becomes part of the state-wide initiative, this grant may be matched by a Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation (CMMI) State Innovation Model (SIM) grant, if the PCIP model demonstration submitted by the State is accepted by CMMI for funding.

JHF funding for the development of guidelines, or best practices, for Legionella is the direct result of the 2011-2012 outbreak at the VA Pittsburgh Healthcare System, which brought to light the fact that existing expert guidelines are not current and, outside of hospital systems which have infection control, there is much ignorance as to what Legionella is, how to test for it, and what to do if a test is positive.

In addition to the preceding grants, the JHF Board of Trustees approved the renewal of a $900,000 block grant to the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh. Since JHF’s establishment in 1990 from the proceeds of the sale of Pittsburgh’s only Jewish hospital, Montefiore Hospital, the Foundation has provided an annual grant to the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh to be used by the Federation’s affiliated agencies to address the health needs of the Jewish community, including the elderly, children, families with children who have special needs, and the poor.

The Foundation also renewed its $65,000 contribution to the United Way of Allegheny County’s Impact Fund, which supports the core programs of United Way partner agencies, as well as new initiatives that address the critical community needs of children and families, employment, health, housing, neighborhoods, and seniors.