December 3 -TheU.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)today launched Ready, Set, PrEP, a national program that makes medications for pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), taken daily to prevent HIV, available at no cost to people without prescription drug insurance coverage.

Although more than one million people at risk for HIV in the United States could benefit from PrEP medications, only a small fraction get them. TheCenters for Disease Control and Preventionand theU.S. Preventive Services Task Forcerecommend PrEP for individuals at risk of acquiring HIV. When taken as prescribed, PrEP is highly effective at reducing an individuals risk of acquiring HIV.

Ready, Set, PrEP is a key component of theEnding the HIV Epidemic: A Plan for America (EHE)initiative. EHE aims to reduce the number of new HIV infections in the United States by 75% in five years and by 90% in 10 years. By increasing awareness of PrEP and its access, the Ready, Set, PrEP program can provide thousands of people a safe, effective way to prevent HIV and bring our nation one step closer to ending the HIV epidemic.

Read the news release.

November 29 - The Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) plans to invest approximately $20 million through the AMF program to increase access to board certified addiction professionals who are practicing in underserved, community-based settings that integrate behavioral health with primary care services.

HRSA plans to fund an estimated 25 eligible grantees. AMF award recipients will receive up to $800,000 annually over a five-year period of performance to foster robust community-based clinical training of addiction medicine or addiction psychiatry physicians to provide opioid and other substance use prevention, treatment, and recovery services.

Review the AMF funding opportunity.

Deputy HHS Secretary Eric Hargan spent a day at HRSA last month, joining in a multi-agency observance of National Rural Health Day. A product of rural southwestern Illinois, the Deputy Secretary's home county today has a population of some 6,000 residents.

Providing health care to the estimated 57 million people who live in rural America is a challenge central to the mission of the Department and HRSA in particular, Deputy HHS Secretary Eric Hargan said at the agency's National Rural Health Day observance.

The fact that approximately one in every six Americans live or work in small towns and remote areas "imposes its own issues (and) dilemmas in how to provide that care in the best possible way," Hargan said. For that reason, transforming how people finance their health care and improving the value of the services they receive is at the core of the Administration's rural strategy, now underway.

Read more about our efforts to improve health care for rural Americans.

Health centers that serve farmworkers and their families now see close to a million patients annually, and are helping HRSA expand care into rural areas including treatment for opioid misuse disorder and HIV HRSA Administrator Tom Engels said on November 6.

Engels commended the work of the National Advisory Council on Migrant Health, which was kicking off a two-day meeting at HRSA headquarters. The Council is a congressionally mandated body that advises the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services on issues that affect migrant and seasonal farmworkers.

Read more about our efforts to improve migrant workers' health.

Congratulations to five HRSA-funded health centers recognized as 2019 Million Hearts Hypertension Control Champions:

• Alexander Valley Healthcare (Cloverdale, CA)
• Charles City Regional Health Services, Inc. (Charles City, VA)
• Community Health Centers of Southeastern Iowa (West Burlington, IA)
• Esperanza Health Centers (Chicago, IL)
• Marshfield Clinic Health System (Marshfield, WI)

This year the CDC Million Hearts initiative recognized a total of 17 clinicians, practices, and health systems that have demonstrated exceptional achievements in working with their patients to control hypertension. The champion organizations achieved 80% blood pressure control among their hypertensive population aged 18-85 years.

See the full list of 2019 Hypertension Control Champions.

Join us for a one hour webinar. Speakers from Iowa Department of Public Health/NuCara Pharmacy and Medical Advocacy and Outreach will discuss the unique issues rural Americans face in accessing HIV care and the opportunities that telemedicine provides to address those issues. They will also discuss opportunities to leverage existing infrastructures to support the extension of services and how to assess the costs and benefits of using telehealth in place of traditional service delivery models. Register today.

You can also access archived sessions of the telehealth learning series:

• Centers of Excellence: Leveraging Academic Excellence to Advance Telehealth Knowledge
• The Use of Telehealth to Improve Childrens Access to Health Care
• The Use of Telehealth to Increase Access to Dental Care

For more information, contact Nancy Rios.

Recordings of the recent Q&A sessions and updated FAQs for interested applicants are available on the technical assistance (TA) webpages for the fiscal year (FY) 2020 State and Regional Primary Care Association (PCA) and National Health Center Training and Technical Assistance Partners (NTTAP) cooperative agreements funding opportunities. Additional resources are also available, including EHBs user guides, data development tip sheets, and sample work plans.

The EHBs deadlines for these funding opportunities are:

• FY 2020 PCA: Tuesday, December 10, at 5:00 p.m. ET
• FY 2020 NTTAP: Tuesday, December 17, at 5:00 p.m. ET

Ciro Valent Sumaya, M.D., M.P.H.T.M., former HRSA Administrator, has died at 78 years old.

Dr. Sumaya received a Presidential appointment in 1994 to serve as HRSA Administrator. He was the first Hispanic person appointed to head a major federal public health service agency. The Secretary of Health and Human Services subsequently appointed Dr. Sumaya as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Health to lead the interagency initiative on the Future of Academic Health Centers.

He will be laid to rest in San Antonio, Texas. Read his obituary.