"Celebrating America's Health Centers: Turning the Vision into Reality" is the 2010 National Health Center Week theme, August 8-14. Highlights will include the 45-year anniversary of the creation of the Health Centers program which provides affordable, high quality, cost-effective health care to all people. 2010 National Health Center Week will also focus on the progress made so far toward fulfilling the goal of the "Access For All America" plan to provide a health care home to 30 million patients by 2015.

You are invited to join Idaho's 13 Community Health Centers in this weeklong celebration that will focus the spotlight on Idaho's Health Centers and their work to make sure that everyone who needs a health care home can have one at a health center.

Idaho Primary Care Association is looking for a qualified candidate to fill the full-time position of Project Specialist Patient-Centered Medical Home to provide professional-level project support and coordination under the direction of the Medical Home Facilitator. A position description is available for interested candidates.

In June 1990, the Coeur d'Alene Tribe opened the doors of the Benewah Medical Center at Plummer, Idaho,  to serve the healthcare needs of community members. On behalf of the Benewah Medical/Wellness Center staff, you are invited to join in the celebration of 20 years of service, June 25, 1-4 PM at their location in Plummer, Idaho. Activities for the afternoon include guest speakers at 1 PM, Shooting Star Dancers at 2 PM, at tours and lunch from 2:30-4:00.
More about the history of Benewah Medical Center.

More and more Medicare beneficiaries in Idaho are having a difficult time finding a physician who accepts Medicare or Medicaid. AARP Idaho conducted an in-state survey of 804 Idaho physicians. The February 2010 results of that survey were released in an in-depth look at why some physicians' doors are closed to new patients in Idaho.

Community leaders from Ada County and the City of Boise recently broke ground on a new Substance Abuse and Mental Health Crisis Center in Boise which will open its doors March, 2010. During a press conference at the construction site, it was announced that Terry Reilly Health Services had been awarded the operations contract for the new facility.

The Idaho Business Review has announced the recipients of its 2009 Idaho Health Care Heroes awards. Now in its fourth year, the Health Care Heroes program recognizes the invaluable contributions made by individuals and organizations statewide in the health care field. Ms. Denise Langston-Groves, Executive Director of Adams County Health Center, and Idaho Primary Care Association Board President, has been selected as an honoree in the Health Care Innovator category. Ms. Langston-Groves and awardees will be honored at a dinner event October 1 at the Boise Centre. Further details, click on Idaho CHC News.

Idaho Primary Care Association is saddened by the death of Senator Edward M. Kennedy and joins the nation in remembering this great statesman and national leader for his skills and tireless energies in making our nation a more just and more equal society. 

In a statement released by the National Association of Community Health Centers CEO and President Tom Coverden,  "The Community Health Center movement has lost its founding father, its greatest champion, its truest leader, and most fervent supporter and believer in what community health centers were created to accomplish--true justice and equity in health care for all. Senator Kennedy played a role in the birth of community health centers--December 11, 1965--when the doors of America's first community health center opened in the Columbia Point neighborhood of Boston. He secured the first Congressional funding directed toward health centers one year later. In 1975 he authored the federal law that defines health centers still in effect today. He reached across the aisle to work with legislators and President George W. Bush to grow the national community health center network to reach the 20,000,000 Americans it serves today. For all who work in community health,  the daily work is and will always be a lasting tribute to the memory and legacy of Senator Kennedy, and the cause to which he devoted his life of public service: health care for everyone as a fundamental human and civil right."

"...the work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives, and the dream shall never die."

The 2009 Community Health Institute (CHI) and EXPO, hosted by the National Association of Community Health Centers (NACHC) was held in Chicago, Illinois, August 21-25. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius was among federal officials to address this national conference of more than 2,000 Community, Migrant and Homeless Health Center representatives from across the country. Secretary Seblius  announced that more than $25.7 million in grants are being awarded to increase and improve health and support services at Community Health Centers. "These grants could not be coming at a better time, with more than 14.5 million Americans out of work, and 47 million without health insurance, the health centers are seeing more patients now than ever before." (More information on Secretary Sebelius' speech.) 

The Community Health Institute is an opportunity for thousands of health center administrators, clinicians and others to learn about the changing health care environment from top health officials and share perspectives from the front lines of public health.

Boise, ID, May 12, 2009 -- The Idaho Primary Care Association (IPCA) has been selected to serve as one of five Regional Coordinating Centers (RCC) across the nation for the Safety Net Medical Home Initiative by the Commonwealth Fund and Qualis Health. IPCA will receive $500,000 over the course of the four-year initiative to work with 13 Idaho safety-net primary care clinics to facilitate their transformation into Patient-Centered Medical Homes.

The four-year initiaitve builds on the work of the Governor's Select Committee on Health Care and will include work with the safety-net primary care clinics to help them reach high benchmark levels of quality, efficiency, and patient experience.

Click here for further information, and the complete Press Release
 

President Barak Obama signed into law Tuesday, February 17, the $787 billion plan to revive the economy, the largest government economic rescue plan in the nation's history. As a result, Community Health Centers will see the largest one-time investment in the system since the program began 45 years ago. The National Association of Community Health Centers (NACHC) has compiled a "Frequently Asked Questions" FAQ document covering the different sections of the legislation. Further details will emerge over the next several weeks.