Health Center Controlled Network (HCCN) - Montana Primary Care Association

Health Center Controlled Network (HCCN) — Technology Innovations

The Health Center Controlled Network (HCCN) is a network of health centers working together as members in the HCCN. Montana’s 15 network members are made up of the 14 community health centers and one look-alike health center.

The Montana HCCN was founded on the principles of the Health Center Controlled Network model defined under Section 330(e)(1)(c) of the Public Health Service Act. The members work together to improve access to care, enhance quality of care and achieve cost efficiencies. The MT HCCN provides training and technical assistance to support its members to leverage health IT to participate in value-based payment by enhancing the patient and provider experience, advancing interoperability, and using data to enhance value.

Learn more about HCCN at the Health Resources & Services Administration website.

Enhance the patient and provider experience

The activities of the MT HCCN to enhance the patient and provider experience includes the following:

Increase patient access to personal health information through the use of health IT.
Promote the use of patient portals through providing training to health center staff on the features, benefits, and use of a patient portal. Improve patient engagement with digital tools such as remote monitoring devices and text reminders that facilitate communication between the health center patient and the provider.
Increase the use of registries to engage patients with upcoming or missed care opportunities.
Minimize provider burden and improve usability of the EHR through workflow re-design and encouraging best practices through training and technical assistance to Providers and provider teams.

Advance Interoperability

Advancing interoperability is of increasing importance and the MT HCCN is supporting these efforts by:

Encouraging data protection by supporting health centers to complete required annual security risk assessments and active updated breach mitigation and response plans. Training and technical assistance will be provided through annual HIPAA face-to-face training, quarterly webinars, and one-on-one training.
Increasing the number of health centers utilizing health information exchange to share information securely with other key providers and health systems.
Supporting the continued work with the State of Montana Immunization program to implement bi-directional interfaces and advocate for health centers through participation in the workgroups of the state-wide health information exchange Big Sky Care Connect.
In coordination with the Quality Data Initiative, encouraging data integration that supports the consolidation of clinical data from multiple clinical and non-clinical sources and supports value-based transformation through care planning, reporting clinical quality measures, and referral management.
Implementing DRVS across the network to support these efforts and improve data monitoring and reporting across the network. Integration of data through the use of DRVS from external sources such as Medicaid also supports data integration and the move towards value-based payment.

Use Data to Enhance Value

The MT HCCN seeks to increase the use of data to enhance value through the following activities:

Improving health center capacity for data analysis through training and technical assistance to support data standardization, management, and analysis.
Continuing collaborative work with the Quality Data Initiative (QDI) through webinars and intensive technical assistance to improve data capture, validation, and analysis and support health center readiness for value-based payment.
Providing on-going training and support for UDS reporting throughout the year.
Increasing the health centers collection and utilization of patient level and aggregate data on social risk factors to support coordinated effective interventions and develop a strategic direction for use of social determinants of health data across the network.
Continuing coordinated work with the Montana Health Justice Partnership, a workgroup to identify health harming legal needs, to support the collection of screening information, and collecting and analyzing data to confidently report improved outcomes for patients.

Uniform Data System (UDS) Resources

Each year, health center grantees and look-alikes are required to report on their performance using the Uniform Data System (UDS). The UDS is a standardized reporting system that provides information about health centers and look-alikes demographics, clinical quality measures and financial status. We can provide UDS compliance, data validation and reporting support. We offer annual UDS training and office hours to assist health centers in successful reporting of the UDS.

UDS Reporting Resources

2021 Annual UDS Training Presentation Slides

2021 UDS Annual Training Presentation Slide Deck
2021 UDS Annual Training Presentation Slide Deck – With space to take notes
The presentation slides include:
- Overview: Who, What, Where, When, and Why of the UDS (Slides 1-13)
- Patient Profile: ZIP Code Table, Tables 3A, 3B, and 4 (Slides 14-28)
- Services and Utilization: Tables 5 and 6A (Slides 29-57)
- Clinical Quality Measures: Tables 6B and 7 (Slides 58-89)
- Financials: Tables 8A, 9D, and 9E (Slides 90-121)
- Other Forms: Health Information Technology, Other Data Elements, and Workforce (Slides 122-127)
- Tips: Resources and Tips for Success (Slides 128-138)

Logistics

UDS Acronyms Used: A more comprehensive list is available in UDS Manual, Appendix I.

Reporting Guidance Resource Files

Reporting Requirements

2022 UDS Manual
2021 UDS Manual
2021 UDS Tables (PDF)
Health Center Changes and Uniform Data System (UDS) Reporting: Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ): This addresses questions about health center changes such as a new health center award or designation, new services or sites, or health center organizational changes.

Staffing and Utilization

Clinical Care

Financials

Additional Reporting Topics

System Resources

Data Resources

2020 UDS State Performance Indicator Statistics
- Comparison statistics of patient profile, quality of care, and service delivery indicators using 2020 UDS data, presented by state.
330 UDS 2020 Roll-Ups National Universal
Look-Alike (LAL) 2020 Roll-Ups National Universal
BHW 2020UDS Rollups National Universal
- The roll-up files each have the aggregated 2020 UDS data for the specified program.

HIPAA Resources

Quarterly HIPAA Webinars

See all upcoming webinars

12/16/21 HIPAA Series: Why it matters, using PCI DSS, NIST, and other Frameworks to address your Cyber Liability

9/16/21 HIPAA Series: Are you Ready for Ransomware?

6/17/21 HIPAA Series: Updating your Breach Mitigation and Response Plan

3/25/21 HIPAA Series: Covid-19 Insights on the New HIPAA Privacy Proposed Rule Materials

12/17/2020 Securing Your Remote Workforce

9/24/20 The Path to 42 CFR, Part 2, Past, Present and Future

4/16/20 Information Blocking Rules -Balancing Data Access with Privacy and Security

3/26/20 How to Keep Your PHI Secure, With Ransomware on the Rise

SLIDES

Telehealth Resources

Telehealth Tuesdays

Join the Montana HCCN for the next round of Telehealth Tuesdays, a webinar series designed to keep you up-to-date on the latest in telehealth and virtual health. See all upcoming webinars.

4/20/21 Telehealth Tuesday: UDS for Telehealth and State Legislation

2/16/2021 Telehealth Tuesday: Remote Patient Monitoring

1/19/21 Telehealth Tuesday: UDS Policy Updates and Funding Opportunities

10/20/20 Telehealth Tuesday: UDS for Telehealth and State Legislation

9/15/20 Telehealth Tuesday: Current Updates for FQHCs and Future Considerations

8/25/20 Telehealth Tuesday: Privacy and Secure Use of Telehealth

7/21/20 Telehealth Tuesday: MOMS Program and Warm Handoffs with Telehealth

6/16/20 Telehealth Tuesday: Emerging Trends in Telehealth

4/21/20 Montana Medicaid Telehealth Webinar for FQHCs