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As part of the Health Resources and Services
Administration’s (HRSA) ongoing effort to strengthen
the Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC)
Look-Alike Program, it will begin conducting
site visits to prospective and existing FQHC
Look-Alikes. The main purposes of the site visits
are to: 1) verify compliance with statutory,
regulatory, and policy requirements governing
the Program; 2) identify areas in which HRSA
can improve its FQHC Look-Alike technical assistance
efforts; and 3) better align monitoring and
oversight processes in the FQHC Look-Alike Program
with those of grants funded under the Health
Center Program (authorized under section 330
of the Public Health Service Act).
Over the next several months, HRSA anticipates
conducting approximately 20 site visits, of
which 10 will be “pre-designation” site visits
to organizations applying for FQHC Look-Alike
status, and 10 will be “post-designation” site
visits to existing FQHC Look-Alikes. The following
information provides further detail on the anticipated
process and outcomes of HRSA’s FQHC Look-Alike
site visits.
An organization will be selected for a site
visit based on the submission of a new designation
application or recertification application. All
paper applications (either new or recertification)
must be complete and approvable in order to
be considered for a site visit. [1]
The following selection factors will be applied
to ensure a varied mix of the 20 organizations
receiving site visits:
- Geographical region;
- Urban/rural status;
- Private/public status; and
- Single-site/multi-site status.
Once an organization has been selected to receive
a site visit, it will be scheduled to occur
approximately three weeks following notification
from HRSA. Each site visit is expected to occur
over two business days. Two independent consultants
and a HRSA Project Officer will conduct the
site visit and will notify the organization
as to how it should prepare (i.e., gather documents,
schedule meetings). During the site visit,
pertinent information will be collected from
the organization. Following the site visit,
HRSA will evaluate the findings and will provide
a written summary report to the organization,
including whether the organization demonstrates
satisfactory compliance with programmatic requirements.
HRSA will convene a national conference call
to present additional information on the FQHC
Look-Alike site visits and provide the public
with an opportunity to pose questions. Specific
information on the date and time of the conference
call will be posted on HRSA’s website and communicated
in a list serve notice. If you have questions
in the interim, please contact Twyla Adams or
Cristina Petruccelli at (301) 594-4300 or tadams@hrsa.gov
and cpetrucelli@hrsa.gov,
respectively.
[1]
In a small number of cases, HRSA may need to
conduct site visits outside of this review process.
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