MN HIV Services Planning Council Meeting

January 11, 2006

9:00 am to 12:00 noon (or earlier)

Redeemer Missionary Baptist Church

116 East 32nd St, Minneapolis

Minutes

 

Council Members Present:

Council Members Absent:

Gilbert Achay

Lois Crenshaw

Andy Ansell

John Cyzon

Dan Capouch

Rae Eden Frank – Excused
Paul Eknes-Tucker

LeMonte Graham

Dean Halland

Andrea Jenkins

Bob Hanson

Patrick Kramme

Randy Hornstine

Lee Lewis

Jim Lawser

Antonio Marante – LOA

Francis Mark

Ephraim Olani - Excused

Eric Meininger

Ron Schut

Gary Novotny

 

Susan Pfeil

 

Sarah Sensemen

 

Aaron Keith Stewart

 

Gwendolyn Velez

 

Willie Wesley

 

Ama Sabah

 

Consultant:

Becky Kroll - CLEAR

 

 

Guests:

 

Kathleen Clarke Anderson – Congressman Sabo’s office

 

 

 

G-HAT:

 

Julie Hanson Perez - MDH

Deborah Riley – DHS

Joe Freesmeier – Hennepin County

Eduardo Parra – Hennepin County

John Schur – Hennepin County

 

 

 


Staff:

 

Lori Lippert

Jennifer Fisher

 

I.          Welcome and introductions; lighting of the candle                                            

The meeting was called to order at 9:05 am. Sarah Sensemen lit the candle for the Women and Families Network. Introductions were made.

 

II.        Review the minutes and proposed agenda                                                          

Minutes were accepted with changes by unanimous consent.

Agenda was accepted with changes by unanimous consent.

 

III.      Open Forum                                                                                         

Jim Lawser reviewed the new meeting evaluation form.   Aaron Keith suggested another question added to the evaluation regarding feedback for the Planning Council Co-chairs.  There were no objections.  Evaluations should be filled out after every PC meeting and given to staff.

 

IV.        Co-chairs Update                                                                                             

Co-chairs will be meeting next week with the co-chairs of CCCHAP (the community planning group for HIV prevention services).

 

V.         Staff Update                                                                                                  

·         Facilitation training is scheduled for the 1/26/2006 Executive Committee Meeting.

·         Comp Plan has been submitted to HRSA.  Copies available.

Copies are available and will be sent out to all the titles and upon request as well.  Everyone should have received this electronically.  Contact staff if you want a paper copy.

The AIDS Housing Coalition is interested in establishing communication with the Planning Council.  Lori Lippert will be meeting with them. It was suggested that the Planning Council set up a meeting with Prevention and Housing every 6 months.  Lori will see if we can get minutes from them and will send our minutes to them.

                                                           

VI.        Committee written reports; time for questions, discussion                                 

A.          Community Participation Committee

Didn’t meet this month

B.           Needs Assessment and Evaluation Committee

·         Needs Assessment Plans for 2006

The committee has developed a 3-year plan.  They have decided what they are going to do for the next year in the context of looking at the next 3 years. 

1st year (2006) – phase 1 & phase II

Phase I - (scheduled to be completed by July for Prioritization) Consists of a brief consumer survey, working mostly through service providers and also a survey of various service systems, using mostly existing data and key informant interviews. (i.e. housing, mental health, primary care, etc.)

Phase II – is a more in-depth look at systems. (i.e. primary care)  NA&E committee will pick systems to be studied and try to identify the gaps and barriers in those systems. 

We know what the needs are but don’t know if the way we are designing and providing services is really addressing those needs.  Where is the breakdown?  We can’t move ahead until we find the problem in the system that is causing the barriers.  The goal is to better understand how CARE Act funds might be used to supplement or leverage other funds in the most effective way possible.

C.           Planning and Priorities Committee

·         ACTION ITEM:  Approval of Prioritization Process

Dan Capouch went over the ‘Action Item: 2006 Prioritization and Allocation Schedule’ and the ‘Prioritization Schedule - 2006’ handout with the Planning Council. 

The most important responsibilities for Planning Council are prioritizing services and allocating funds to them.  This is done once every two years.  The Council was asked to approve the process for doing the prioritization developed by the P&P committee and recommended by the Executive committee.

MOTION:  Andy made a motion to pass the Prioritization Schedule. It was seconded and a vote taken.  The prioritization schedule was accepted with 15 votes to accept and none opposed.

Question: How will the MAI be prioritized?

Answer:  A separate prioritization ballot will be used with the services that are eligible for MAI funding.  The Council will vote in February on what services those will be.  Allocations of MAI services will happen on the same day as the rest of the allocations but will be done in its own process.

Comment: The 2005 epi data won’t be available until after April.  No one anticipates any big changes in the data from 2004 to 2005 and it would be helpful for new council members to have the training as scheduled.  MDH can give a brief update on 2005 data after it is available, to identify any important trends.  There was general agreement expressed that it would be better to go ahead with the epi training early in the process, using 2004 data.   

 

·         ACTION ITEM:  Approval of Service Area/Activity Definitions

Staff apologized for not having paper copies of the service definitions here today but it has been sent out to everyone electronically.  The document was sent out to all Council members for review and input.  Changes are being made from the list used two years ago in order to bring the organization in line with the way HRSA categorizes services.  This will be the final list used to determine what service activities will be prioritized and eligible for allocations. 

 

Suggestion made to add ‘pharmacists’ to list of providers under clinical consultations -   ambulatory outpatient care.

 

Question:  What’s the difference between benefits counseling under ‘client advocacy’ and health insurance counseling under ‘health insurance’?  Why do they appear in two different service areas?

Answer:  They are funded under different service definitions because they differ:  Benefits counseling can cover a wide range of benefits counseling, such as private disability insurance, Medicare, Social Security, etc.  The focus is largely on decision-making regarding employment.  Health insurance counseling is specifically focused on helping people get and maintain coverage for medical care.

 

Question:  Why is herbal medicine specifically excluded under ‘food bank/home delivered meals’ but it is listed as an allowed service under ‘other support services-complementary care’?

Answer:  This reflects HRSA guidelines.  HRSA will not allow funds allocated for “food” to be used for herbal supplements, but it does allow some limited use of complementary care funds to be used for herbal medicines.  The latter require a physician’s referral.

 

The Council has always chosen to prioritize some services that it doesn’t actually allocate funds to (because there are other sources of funding for those services), in order to show that we recognize its importance. For example we have used State funding and to cover some of the cost of the insurance programs & left it on the list even though we haven’t used Title I funds because we want to make sure we show that we highly value that service. 

 

MOTION:  Dan Capouch moved to approve the Service Area/Activity Definitions, Bob Hanson 2nd the motion.  The Service definitions were passed; 16 concur and no one opposed.

D.          Operations Committee

Attendance records were passed out to council members. Jim reviewed the Attendance policy, attendance tracking sheet and point system.  Two columns will be added to the attendance sheet indicating 1st or 2nd term and additional committees/meetings. Members were asked to provide any corrections to their record to Jennifer Fisher or Lori Lippert in writing.  Attendance will be reviewed every 3 months for corrections and to make sure everyone understands the records. 

Operations will discuss which meetings count for extra points on attendance.  Council members attending extra meetings are responsible for sending this information to Planning Council Staff so it can be credited to the records.

E.           Community Voice Committee – no December meeting

 

VII.      Title I update, Eduardo Parra                                                                                      

·         PC Staff Hiring Update

Coordinator position – applications are received until Friday, January 13th. Administrative Specialist – posting closes Friday, January 13th as well. 

·         MOU Finalized

·         Reallocation of funds from Cost-share Assistance to Health Insurance  

Since the reallocation is happening within the same service activity this can be done administratively without a Council vote.  So this item is just for the Council’s information (no vote required). The grant manager met with the provider many times to try to understand the reason funds are not being spent and the provider continues to work on spending remaining funds on this service.

Cost-share assistance is significantly underspending.  Funds were reallocated to the insurance program in an attempt to buffer the short-fall of funds. The portion of ADAP funds that are used on the health insurance program ran out before the end of the fiscal year.  They are now funding the program with drug rebate dollars. This reallocation is helping to supplement that funding source to make it through the fiscal year. 

·         Upcoming Quality Management Trainings

Quality Improvement Plan Part 4 takes place Feb 17th Friday at noon.  Contact Diane Knust for details.  The Quality Management training sessions will be added to the calendar as well. 

 

VIII.    Title II and ADAP update, Deb Riley, DHS                                                                   

·         Medicare Part D

Medicare Part D went into effect at the beginning of the year.  All Medicare recipients need to fill out Social Security forms to determine their income bracket and if they are eligible for subsidies.  

Pushing everyone they can to get on Medicare part D program.  Trying to get Medicare supplement plans to the MCHA programs.  They are saying their costs will increase and some legal maneuvering going on to try not to let those people come on. 

There have been significant problems with people accessing prescriptions with pharmacies as the computer records with all the providers are not ready with all the eligibility information.  Some DHS clients have reported being charged up to $250 for medications. One problem DHS has encountered is the computer systems are not accepting the DHS contribution to the cost or are otherwise rejecting clients that they shouldn’t be.

 

·         Gilead Pharmaceutical Company is challenging the federal mandate that they give rebates for HIV medications.  As a form of protest, the DHS HIV/AIDS Programs is not allowing its staff to attend any local meeting the Gilead sponsors or where it has representatives.  For example, DHS staff won’t attend the Women, Family and Children’s Network meetings.  However, Dave Rompa is planning on attending ADAP meeting in Washington DC that is, in part, sponsored by Gilead, but he will let it be known at the meeting that MN DHS opposes Gilead’s actions.

 

If Gilead succeeds in this challenge it could undermine the entire rebate program which is a significant source of funding in MN and nationally for ADAP programs.

 

Next month DHS will report on the cost share program.

 

IX.               Announcements, evaluation, next agenda                                                                      

 

·         African American AIDS Task Force has moved its office to Suite 304 (in the same location).

·         Gary will light the candle next month – Randy will be a back up.

·         Next month will be Randy and Paul’s last month on the council. 

 

Meeting adjourned at 11:13 a.m.

 

Meeting Summary:

·         New meeting evaluations forms being used, starting with this meeting.

·         Needs Assessment and Evaluation committee presented its plans for the upcoming year’s (and beyond) needs assessment activities.

·         ACTION ITEM:  Prioritization Process approved

·         ACTION ITEM:  Service Area/Activity Definitions for prioritization approved

·         Hennepin County announced reallocation of funds from Cost-share Assistance to Health Insurance 

·         DHS gave update on the start-up of Medicare Part D

 

Documents distributed at or before the meeting:

·         Agenda

·         Committee Reports

·         Minutes from 12/13/05 Meeting

·         2006 Meeting Schedule

·         Attendance Policy

·         Planning Council Attendance Sheet

·         ACTION ITEM: 2006 Prioritization & Allocations Schedule

·         ACTOPM ITEM: Service Area/activity Definitions for 2006 Prioritization

·         Prioritization Schedule for 2006

·         Meeting Evaluation

·         Attendance Report (to Committee Members only)

 

Planning Council office 612-596.7894, or toll-free 888-638-3224 – web address is www.mnhivplanningcouncil.org

MDH’s website address for Epi data is www.health.state.mn.us/divs/idepc/diseases/hiv/index.html or call 612-676-5414

 

JF/lgl