Strengthening Communities Fund is supported by American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

The Department of Health and Human Services announced on May 11 the availability of grants worth $50 million from the Strengthening Communities Fund, a new fund created by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. The fund will strengthen nonprofit and faith-based organizations that aid families and communities who are struggling in the economic downturn.

The Strengthening Communities Fund is divided into two parts. The Nonprofit Capacity Building program will make one-time, two-year awards of up to $1 million to lead organizations that will use the funds to support other faith-based or secular nonprofit organizations, HHS said in a press release.

The State, Local, and Tribal Government Capacity Building program will make one-time, two-year awards of up to $250,000 to state, city, county, and Indian/Native American tribal governments. Governments will use these grants to strengthen nonprofit organizations and increase the nonprofits’ involvement in projects that help turn the economy around.

Grantees for both programs must provide at least 20 percent of the total approved cost of the project from non-federal funds. This match may be met by cash or in-kind contributions.

HHS’ Administration for Children and Families’ Office of Community Services will administer the SCF programs. Applicants interested in applying for funds should visit www.acf.hhs.gov/grants/recovery.html. To track the progress of HHS activities funded through ARRA, visit www.hhs.gov/recovery . To track all federal funds provided through ARRA, visit www.recovery.gov .

In other news…

• The Senior Medicare Patrol project may be losing momentum, but it could still cause headaches for providers if their patients don’t understand how Medicare billing works.

In 2008, 57 Patrol projects in all 50 states and Puerto Rico had 4,685 active volunteers who educated beneficiaries in 6,869 group education sessions and held 24,505 one-on-one counseling sessions, the HHS Office of Inspector General said in a recent report. The projects also conducted media and community outreach.

The program aims to teach benes how to detect and report waste, fraud, and abuse in the Medicare program.

The programs had fewer active volunteers and saved Medicare less money than in previous years, the OIG noted. However, “the projects may not be receiving full credit for savings attributable to their work,” the report cautioned. Fraud and errors may be reduced “in light of Medicare beneficiaries’ scrutiny of their bills.”

The report is online at www.oig.hhs.gov/oei/reports/oei-02-09-00170.pdf  .

• Early use of home care services following a hospital stay by patients with at least one chronic disease saved Medicare $1.71 billion in the two-year 2005 to 2006 period, according to a study by Avalere Health. The study, sponsored by the Alliance for Home Health Quality and Innovation, also found that an additional $1.77 billion would have been saved in the same period if all Medicare beneficiaries with similar chronic diseases had accessed home care services.

Medicare could save $31.1 billion over the next 10 years if it expanded access to home care for chronic care patients, the study contends. The savings come from reduced hospitalizations and other reduced institutional costs.

AHHQI is an advocacy group founded by six for-profit home care chains.

• People tend to report more health problems after losing their jobs, according to a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation study recently dusted off by USA Today. In fact, study authors concluded that an unexpected job loss can have “significant and measurable health consequences for many Americans.”

Further, “while involuntary job loss could have significant negative consequences for subsequent health, poor health itself may also influence the risk of losing a job,” the study says. Researchers studied samples of men and women over a period of 15 to 35 years. RWJF recommends that policymakers address the adverse health consequences of losing one’s job.

• Medicare is now giving physicians the chance to designate hospice and palliative care as their specialty. Code 17 will be the new hospice code docs can choose when they self-designate their specialty on Medicare enrollment forms, CMS explains in April 24 Transmittal No. 1715 (CR 6311).