[Federal Register Volume 60, Number 78 (Monday, April 24, 1995)]
[Notices]
[Pages 20108-20109]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 95-10019]



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DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES
Health Resources and Services Administration


Availability of Funds for the Provision of Technical and 
Nonfinancial Assistance to Federally Funded Migrant Health Centers and 
Related Organizations

AGENCY: Health Resources and Services Administration, PHS.

ACTION: Notice of availability of funds.

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SUMMARY: The Health Resources and Services Administration announces the 
availability of approximately $1.4 million in fiscal year (FY) 1995, to 
support a total of four grants under Section 329(g)(1) of the Public 
Health Service (PHS) Act for the provision of technical and 
nonfinancial assistance to migrant health centers (MHCs).
    The above technical assistance includes the following activities:
    (1) Assist MHCs by the development of cost effective vision 
screening and treatment tools (e.g. health education and training 
materials, focometer), as well as, optometric technical assistance to 
MHCs (e.g. assistance request form, needs assessment, planning, 
training of providers and identification of community and regional 
resources).
    (2) Recruit, train and place, seasonal bilingual and culturally 
sensitive health (e.g., MDs, ODs, mid-levels) and allied health 
professionals (e.g., nutritionist, social worker, health educator and 
community service worker) at East Coast MHCs to perform outreach 
duties.
    (3) Provide technical assistance to MHCs nationwide to develop 
farmworker peer counseling and outreach programs; including the 
recruitment, training and placement of peer counselors, and program 
planning and identification of resources.
    (4) Recruit, train and place bilingual outreach teams (e.g., nurse 
practitioner/nurse, health educator/community outreach worker) in 
Florida that specifically target farmworker infants, children and youth 
up to 21 years of age not currently receiving health care services. The 
teams are to work with MHCs and other organizations serving 
farmworkers. Other activities of this grant are to assist in State and 
local strategic planning to increase farmworker access to MHCs and 
health services.
    The four grants will be awarded with a budget period of one year 
and a project period of up to three years.
    The objective of these activities is to improve access to 
preventive and primary care services for underserved populations, 
especially minority and other disadvantaged populations. This is in 
keeping with the health promotion and disease prevention objectives of 
Healthy People 2000, and also the objectives defined specifically for 
the farmworker population in the PHS publication Migrant and Seasonal 
Farmworker (MSFW) Health Objectives for the Year 2000. Potential 
applicants may obtain a copy of Healthy People 2000 (Full Report: Stock 
No.017-001-00474-0 or Healthy People 2000 (Summary Report: Stock No. 
017-00473-01) through the Superintendent of Documents, Government 
Printing Office, Washington, DC 20402-9325 (Telephone 202-783-3228). 
Potential applicants may obtain a copy of MSFW Objectives for the Year 
2000 through the National Migrant Resource Program, Inc., 1515 Capital 
of Texas Highway South, Suite 220, Austin, Texas 78746 (Telephone 1-
800-531-5120).
    Public Law 103-227, the Pro-Children Act of 1994, prohibits smoking 
in certain facilities in which education, library, day care, regular 
and routine health care and early childhood development services are 
provided to children. Smoking must also be prohibited in indoor 
facilities that are constructed, operated or maintained with Federal 
funds.

DATES: Applications are due June 8, 1995. Applications shall be 
considered as meeting the deadline date if they are either: (1) 
received on or before the deadline date; or (2) postmarked on or before 
the deadline date and received in time for orderly processing. A 
legibly dated receipt from a commercial carrier or the U.S. Postal 
Service will be accepted in lieu of a postmark. Private metered 
postmarks will not be acceptable proof of timely mailing. Applications 
which do not meet the deadline will be considered late and will be 
returned to the applicant.

[[Page 20109]] ADDRESSES: Application materials (PHS Form 5161-1 with 
revised face sheet DHHS Form 424, as approved by the Office of 
Management and Budget (OMB) under control number 0937-0189) may be 
obtained from the Bureau of Primary Health Care (BPHC), Office of 
Grants Management, Nancy Benson, (301) 594-4260, 4350 East-West 
Highway, 11th Floor, Bethesda, MD 20814. Ms. Benson is available for 
further information regarding application submission procedures and to 
provide assistance on business management issues. Completed 
applications should be mailed to: Grants Management Officer, BPHC, c/o 
Houston Associates, Inc., 1010 Wayne Avenue, Suite 240, Silver Spring, 
MD 20910.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: For general program information, 
contact Mr. Antonio Duran, Director, or Helen Kavanagh, Migrant Health 
Branch, Division of Community and Migrant Health, BPHC, Health 
Resources and Services Administration, (301) 594-4303, 4350 East-West 
Highway, 7th Floor, Bethesda, MD 20814.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Background

    There are 106 MHCs which provide comprehensive primary health care 
to migrant and seasonal farmworkers and their families in their home 
base or as they work along one of the three migrant streams. The 
technical and nonfinancial assistance will be arranged for or provided 
within available resources by four separate grantees in response to MHC 
requests for: (1) vision screening and treatment services, (2) 
bilingual seasonal outreach staff, (3) peer counselor training and 
outreach, and (4) outreach staff specializing in identifying children 
and youth who fall through the ``cracks'' of health care services.
    Legislation governing these activities can be found at section 329 
of the PHS Act. Paragraph (1)(B) of section 329(a) requires that a 
migrant health center provide ``as may be appropriate for particular 
centers, supplemental health services necessary for the adequate 
support of primary health services,'' and paragraph (1)(G) requires 
that a migrant health center provide ``information on the availability 
and proper use of health services and services which promote and 
facilitate optimal use of health services, including if a substantial 
number of the individuals in the population served by a center are of 
limited English-speaking ability, the services of appropriate personnel 
fluent in the language spoken by a predominant number of such 
individuals''.

Number and Amount of Awards

    Each individual and/or organization is limited to submitting a 
maximum of one grant proposal for any one of the four activities 
mentioned. A maximum of 4 separate grants will be awarded for: 
optometric technical assistance for MHCs nationwide (approximately 
$45,000); the recruitment, training and placement of outreach allied 
health and health professionals with MHCs on the East Coast 
(approximately $800,000); the development, implementation and promotion 
of farmworker peer counselor programs at MHCs nationwide (approximately 
$225,000); and the enhancement of farmworker outreach health care 
services targeting infants, children and youth at MHCs in Florida, in 
addition, to State and local strategic planning (approximately 
$320,000).

Eligible Applicants

    Eligible applicants are public and private nonprofit entities with 
culturally competent and diverse staff which have demonstrated 
experience, as appropriate to the requested grant, in optometric 
technical assistance for MHCs; farmworker outreach; the recruitment, 
training and placement of health and allied health professionals at 
MHCs; or in farmworker peer counselor recruitment, training and 
placement.

Criteria for Evaluation

    Regulations governing these awards provide that the Secretary will 
award funds to applicants which, in her judgment, will best promote the 
purposes of the statute, taking into consideration (a) the cost 
effectiveness of the application, and (b) the number of centers and 
entities to be served by the applicant. 42 CFR 56.704. In addition to 
these two criteria, the Secretary, in considering what will best 
promote the purposes of the statue, will consider:
    (1) The extent to which the applicant's program activity 
demonstrates and addresses the particular needs of the migrant and 
seasonal farmworkers and migrant health centers;
    (2) The degree to which the applicant addresses the overall goals 
and objectives of one of the aforementioned activities;
    (3) The appropriateness and adequacy of the methodology which 
describes how the activity will be evaluated, along with relevant 
timeliness;
    (4) The information contained in annual progress reports (for 
existing grantees only);
    (5) The extent to which the project plan describes activities in 
measurable terms;
    (6) The extent of the organization's prior related and applicable 
experience (to be documented by a short synopsis of work completed for 
each Federal and non-Federal grant received, contact person(s) and 
phone number(s)); and
    (7) The degree to which the fiscal and administrative management 
systems, and the budget are well organized, detailed, justified and 
consistent with the project plan.
    All applications for the technical and nonfinancial assistance to 
MHCs will be reviewed competitively by a PHS Objective Review 
Committee.

Other Award Information

    The grants awarded under this notice are not subject to the 
provisions of Executive Order 12372 or the Public Health System 
Reporting Requirements.
    In the OMB Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance, the Migrant 
Health Center program is Number 93.129.

    Dated: April 14, 1995.
Ciro V. Sumaya,
Administrator.
[FR Doc. 95-10019 Filed 4-21-95; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4160-15-P