Learn more about our active grant projects
U.S. Department of Labor Workforce Opportunity for Rural Communities (WORC) Grant
October 2021 – September 2024
The Workforce Opportunity for Rural Communities (WORC) initiative will fund projects to invest in education, training, and career support services for OUD/SUD individuals in recovery. Training will include health worker skills curriculum, support for healthcare IT, and advanced soft skill training.
Kentucky RHIO is proud to partner with Kentucky Career Center, AppHarvest, Horizon Health, Pathways, Appalachian Kentucky Health Care Access Network (AKHCAN), Achieving Recovery Together (A.R.T.), St. Claire HealthCare, and Northeast Kentucky Substance Use Response Coalition. The partners will focus their efforts in the following 12 KY counties: Bath, Clark, Estill, Knox, Laurel, Lewis, Menifee, Montgomery, Morgan, Powell, Rowan, and Whitley.
Rural Communities Opioid Response – Implementation Grant
September 2020 – August 2023
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) awarded Northeast Kentucky Regional Health Information Organization (Kentucky RHIO) a $1 million grant in an effort to focus on Substance Use Disorder/Opioid Use Disorder in the state of Kentucky.
The Kentucky Opioid Community Healing Project (KOCH Project, pronounced “Coach”) includes the development of educational and prevention programing while enhancing long-term recovery systems. Substance Use Disorder/Opioid Use Disorder treatment will be expanded to incorporate rural healthcare providers, law enforcement, first-responders, and other community networks.
Kentucky RHIO is proud to partner with Estill Medical Clinic, Appalachian Kentucky Healthcare Access Network (AKHCAN) and Community Family Clinic. The partners will focus their efforts in the following KY Counties: Bath, Estill, Menifee, Montgomery, Morgan, and Powell.
Rural Health Network Development Planning Grant
July 2020 – June 2021
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) awarded Northeast Kentucky Regional Health Information Organization (Kentucky RHIO) a grant for the changing healthcare environment. These changes presents great challenges to the capacity of rural health clinics to address quality improvement efforts and more fully engage in value-based incentive programs. The Kentucky Rural Quality Care Initiative Network developed a training and technical assistance program focused on value-based care activities with Medicaid Managed Care Organizations, that can be replicated throughout rural health clinics. The mission and vision for this initiative is to advance health information technology infrastructure and meaningful use attestation for rural providers.
Network members brought expertise and many diverse experiences together to develop a shared mission, vision, values, and goals for the Initiative. Although, rural providers have achieved Meaningful Use stages 1 and 2, it had been difficult to be well-positioned for value-based care programs due to limited resources and lack of staff capacity. We identified what was needed by the RHCs and cross-referenced those needs with the value-based incentive programs.
Our combined efforts provided custom quality-based tracking programs, consultation services, and quality-based resources on the state and federal levels to help RHCs continue to meet quality/incentive goals. We have a comprehensive communication/data-sharing strategic plan to keep up with the on-going changes in healthcare.
Rural Communities Opioid Response Planning
June 2019 – May 2020
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) awarded Northeast Kentucky Regional Health Information Organization (Kentucky RHIO) a $200,000 grant to fund a Project ECHO that will offer curriculum for workforce capacity building around prevention and treatment of Opioid Use Disorder. Specifically, an educational module on alternate pain management techniques and in medication assisted treatment (MAT). Using a Project ECHO model, focusing on providing services to rural healthcare providers in Appalachian Kentucky to address the shortage of providers and services and to increase access to MAT and recovery services for low-income, medically underserved residents statewide in 54 rural HRSA-designated counties.
USDA Distance Learning & Telemedicine Program Grant
February 2018 – January 2021
The U.S. Department of Agriculture awarded Northeast Kentucky Regional Health Information Organization (Kentucky RHIO) grant to establish a telehealth hub to provide equipment to members to increase access to care and establish telehealth delivery processes across the network. Members also used telehealth to reduce costs for travel related to attending trainings, receive supervision and consultation, and access other resources. The current project is not related to telehealth; however, telehealth may be an option for network member clinics to increase patient access to services.
Rural Health Network Development Grant
July 2017 – June 2020
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) awarded Northeast Kentucky Regional Health Information Organization (Kentucky RHIO) a Rural Health Network Development program grant to fund training and technical assistance to Rural Health Clinics (RHCs) across the state of Kentucky to prepare them for payment reform. This program partnered with the Kentucky Primary Care Association and the Kentucky Office of Rural Health. Our interventions were targeted to an RHC’s level of need and will be focused on preparing RHCs for value-based payment models. We addressed statutory charge to expand access to, coordinate and improve the quality of essential health care services.
Rural Health Network Development Planning Grant
July 2017 – June 2018
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) awarded Northeast Kentucky Regional Health Information Organization (Kentucky RHIO) a Rural Health Network Development Planning Grant to fund the development of the regional telehealth network that encouraged the use of telehealth in rural health care facilities. Kentucky RHIO added three new network members who engaged in the planning activities: Community Family Clinic, which operates three Rural Health Clinics, Juniper Health, which is a Federally Qualified Health Center that operates three primary care clinics and one dental clinic, and Casa San Pio a rural health clinic.
This program’s service area included nine counties in Kentucky: Bath, Breathitt, Lee, Menifee, Montgomery, Morgan, Powell, Rowan, and Wolfe. Kentucky RHIO developed a network focused on increasing the use of telehealth across the region increasing access to health care services. The Network focused on access to care and telehealth to achieve efficiencies, expand access to, coordinate, and improve the quality of essential health services. Also, to strengthen the rural health care system. Specific activities included developing a plan to meet the needs of rural patients, formalizing the network, engaging in strategic planning, developing a sustainability plan, and developing shared processes and protocols for share services and shared staffing.
Rural Health Care Services Outreach Program
May 2015 – April 2018
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) awarded Northeast Kentucky Regional Health Information Organization (Kentucky RHIO) a $200,000 grant to fund the project to enhance services in rural northeastern Kentucky through a consortium of six health care organizations. The focus of this project is to utilize the Patient Centered Medical Home (PCMH) model of service delivery to increase care coordination, patient engagement and self-management to improve health outcomes for the target population. Kentucky RHIO utilized grant funds to provide consultation, training, and technical assistance to each network member with the goal of achieving PCMH recognition for each of the 17 participating primary care sites by the end of the project. Transforming health care delivery through the PCMH model were measured by consortium membership, the use of HIT to support care coordination, quality improvement efforts, numbers of patients receiving behavioral health services, and improvement on clinical measures for depression screening. Incentive from healthcare insurance payers generated from quality improvement efforts contributed to the sustainability of this project’s activities beyond the funding period.
Rural Health Information Technology Workforce Development Grant
September 2013 – August 2016
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) awarded Northeast Kentucky Regional Health Information Organization (Kentucky RHIO) a grant to offer education to increase the number of Health Information Technology (HIT) certified persons in existing clinics and newly interested students from community colleges and local communities. Kentucky RHIO and Kentucky Rural Health Information Technology (KRHIT) collaborated with Somerset Community College and health care organizations developed a workforce training program that helped train associate degree students with the Community College as well as professionals in the health field on HIT.
Kentucky RHIO used the grant award to build a rural-focused HIT training program; provide HIT specialist students with training opportunities and experiences with culturally competent, community focused rural hospitals/clinics; improve the viability of the network partners by increasing recruitment and retention of HIT specialists; established a replicable approach to educating and training HIT specialist students; built connections to providers withing the region to aid student job placement; increased the number of HIT specialists; Established partnerships that served as ongoing vehicles for addressing workforce challenges.
Rural Health Information Technology Network Development Grant
September 2011 – August 2014
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) awarded Northeast Kentucky Regional Health Information Organization (Kentucky RHIO) a grant to allow network members with the ability to transmit information between members of the consortium. In addition, the Kentucky RHIO provided Meaningful Use support to providers with the member organizations and provided light equipment funding to offset expense of health IT equipment necessary in implementing Meaningful Use.This project also allowed the Kentucky RHIO to being their IT service and support service line that has helped many provider offices with their IT infrastructure for a very reasonable cost.
The funded project focused on helping rural providers meet meaningful use standards by providing TA and equipment. Meaningful use was a first step for providers in the value-based care transition.