Developing Telemental Health Partnerships Between State Medical Schools and Federally Qualified Health Centers: Navigating the Regulatory Landscape and Policy Recommendations.

BACKGROUND: Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs) deliver care to 26 million Americans living in underserved areas, but few offer telemental health (TMH) services. The social missions of FQHCs and publicly funded state medical schools create a compelling argument for the development of TMH partnerships. In this paper, we share our experience and recommendations from launching TMH partnerships between 12 rural FQHCs and 3 state medical schools. EXPERIENCE: There was consensus that medical school TMH providers should practice as part of the FQHC team to promote integration, enhance quality and safety, and ensure financial sustainability. For TMH providers to practice and bill as FQHC providers, the following issues must be addressed: (1) credentialing and privileging the TMH providers at the FQHC, (2) expanding FQHC Scope of Project to include telepsychiatry, (3) remote access to medical records, (4) insurance credentialing/paneling, billing, and supplemental payments, (5) contracting with the medical school, and (6) indemnity coverage for TMH. RECOMMENDATIONS: We make recommendations to both state medical schools and FQHCs about how to overcome existing barriers to TMH partnerships. We also make recommendations about changes to policy that would mitigate the impact of these barriers. Specifically, we make recommendations to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid about insurance credentialing, facility fees, eligibility of TMH encounters for supplemental payments, and Medicare eligibility rules for TMH billing by FQHCs. We also make recommendations to the Health Resources and Services Administration about restrictions on adding telepsychiatry to the FQHCs' Scope of Project and the eligibility of TMH providers for indemnity coverage under the Federal Tort Claims Act.

Establishing Clinical Pharmacy Services With Prescribing Privileges in a Federally Qualified Health Center Primary Care Clinic.

OBJECTIVES: To describe the process and cost of establishing clinical pharmacy services with prescribing privileges in a federally qualified health center (FQHC) primary care clinic. SETTING: The primary care clinic was located in a low-income area of Southern California and served patients with Medicaid and Medicare. The primary care clinic had preventive medicine and family medicine physicians, a family medicine residency program, behavioral health services, and a registered dietician. PRACTICE INNOVATION: New clinical pharmacy services were established at this FQHC primary care clinic. The medication assistance program was a stepping stone to establish rapport with the physicians. Credentialing and privileging was implemented for clinical pharmacists. An open protocol collaborative practice agreement was developed to allow clinical pharmacists to manage ambulatory patients. RESULTS: From August 2014 to June 2015, the clinical pharmacist interacted with 392 patients and spent 336 hours educating patients and providing disease state management. The pharmacist also provided consults to residents and providers. Diabetic patients made up 76% of all clinical pharmacy encounters. There were 86 face-to-face clinical pharmacy appointments with the pharmacist. The average time for clinical pharmacy appointments was 77 minutes. CONCLUSION: By describing ways to develop rapport with providers, how to credential and privilege pharmacists, and explain resources and costs of setting up a service, the hope is that more clinical pharmacists will be able to incorporate into independent or FQHC primary care clinics for improved management of ambulatory patients.