Background

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), signed into law February 17, 2009, provides nearly $2 billion in grants to health centers to support the Act’s goals of job preservation and creation, economic recovery, help to people most impacted by the recession, increased economic efficiency, long-term economic investment in infrastructure, and the preservation of essential services.  The ARRA grants to health centers include approximately $500 million for New Access Points (NAP) and Increased Demand for Services (IDS), and $1.5 billion for the Capital Improvement Program (CIP) and Facility Investment Program (FIP).        

For the ARRA NAP and IDS, grant awards were made: to support new health center sites and service areas; to increase services and providers at existing health center sites; and to address increases in the number of patients, including uninsured patients, seen by health centers.  In addition, these funds will support the creation and retention of jobs in underserved communities across the country. 

As a requirement of this funding, health centers will report quarterly on both a standard set of ARRA reporting requirements as well as a set of health center program specific requirements.  For the health center program specific reporting requirements, grantees will report these elements through a Health Center Quarterly Report (HCQR) in the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) Electronic Handbook.  These quarterly reports will be separate and apart from the traditional Uniform Data System (UDS) reporting which will still be conducted on an annual basis.

Health Center Quarterly Reporting Requirements

The first HCQR for grantees receiving NAP and IDS awards is due July 10, 2009.  Those grantees that received NAP and/or IDS funding will report on the following elements: number of new or retained FTEs; number of new patients served; number of new uninsured patients served; and number of encounters provided to these new patients.  Reporting instructions and data elements are explained in the HCQR Manual which is posted at http://bphc.hrsa.gov/recovery/.  In the summer, the HCQR Manual will be revised to include additional reporting elements and instructions for the CIP and FIP funding opportunities.  

Technical Assistance Call

In order to help grantees prepare and submit their first HCQR report, HRSA will host a technical assistance call for grantees on Wednesday, June 10, 2009 from 3:00 to 4:30 PM EDT.

The HCQR Manual, call in numbers for the technical assistance call, and materials for the call will be posted at http://bphc.hrsa.gov/recovery/.  If you have any questions about HCQR, please contact udshelp330@bphcdata.net or 1-866-837-4357 (866-UDS-HELP).  

Sincerely,

James Macrae
Associate Administrator