This 2-day clinical conference offers an overview and update to providers on a variety of topics including STD syndromes, sexual addition, syphilis case studies, 2014 STD treatment guidelines, and motivational interviewing. Registration fee covers breakfast, lunch, 6.0 (Overview) and 6.5 (Update) of CME/CNE credit hours.

Who Should Attend

MDs, PAs, NPs, RNs and other healthcare professionals

Event Brochure

Check back at a later date for complete brochure information

Registration Note:

If you are a student registering after August 22nd, call Alex Landis (303-602-3608) for the early registration rate.
Refunds will not be provided after Setempber 1st

  

For more information click here

 

The HHS Office of Minority Health has released a funding opportunity announcement (FOA) that $2.7 million is available for its FY 2014 Partnerships to Increase Coverage in Communities Initiative Competing Grant. The purpose of the Partnerships to Increase Coverage in Communities Initiative is to support organizations, partnerships and coalitions in their efforts to identify and provide education and enrollment assistance to minority populations on health insurance options available through the Health Insurance Marketplace (Marketplace).

 

For this initiative, approximately 10 - 13 projects will be funded at an estimated range of $200,000 to $250,000 per project. Successful grantees will assist individuals from underserved and/or hard to reach populations in applying for health insurance coverage through the Marketplace, providing guidance on financial assistance and coverage options. These funds may not be used to support individuals funded as Navigators for the 2014 Open Enrollment period in Federally-facilitated and State Partnership Marketplaces.

 

A technical assistance webinar for potential applicants will be held on Wednesday, May 28, 2014. Applications must be submitted electronically via www.grants.gov by June 16, 2014 at 5:00 p.m. Eastern.

is now covered on Montana Medicaid!

Supporting Organizational Sustainability to Address Violence Against Women  Institute

SOS INSTITUTE

        

The SOS Institute is an interactive 2.5 days training with six months follow up support on action plans to enhance organizational infrastructure and provide institutional sustainability support for community based organizations working with underrepresented and underserved populations.

 

Date:                               August 20-22, 2014

Location:                          San Francisco, CA

Application deadline:           May 30, 2014

Pending OVW approval, we are accepting applications.

   

Who may attend?

•        Community-based organizations (CBOs) that work with specific underrepresented and underserved populations.  The communities may include, but not limited to:  tribal communities, LGBT communities, newly arrived communities, rural communities, and other underrepresented communities.
•        OVW grantees and their partners must receive prior approval from their OVW Program Specialist if they will be requesting to use their OVW travel funds to participate in this training.
•        Participants must attend in teams of 2-3 individuals. Team members may include, but are not limited to: executive director, board member, and program staff, to obtain the maximum benefit of the institute.

How to apply: Organizations interested in participating will need to submit an application for this training.  Please apply ASAP if you are interested.  Link to the Online Application, https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/HN2SBGP.  

 

For more information, please see the attached brochure and visit Futures Without Violence SOS Institute

 

NFPRHA is looking for an organization to highlight in a new Life After 40: The Family Planning Network and the ACA case study snapshot on successful use of a patient experience assessment to improve quality.

Patient experience refers to the quality of both clinical and non-clinical interactions that influence patient satisfaction, or how a patient perceives their experience. As many Americans gain access to insurance coverage that offers more provider options, family planning providers with high patient experience measures will have a competitive edge.

We are seeking an organization that meets the following criteria: 

• enacted a quality assurance strategy that measures and improves patient experience; and
• the process for collecting and analyzing data has been in place for six months or longer.

Criteria for selecting organizations will include varying types of data collection methods and strategies used to implement quality improvements.

 

If your organization is interested in participating in the case study snapshot or if you have an organization to recommend, please contact Melissa Kleder at mkleder@nfprha.org. Submissions deadline is June 4, 2014. Questions about the project can also be directed to Melissa via email or at 202-293-3114 ext. 209.

by Elizabeth Dawes Gay

 

Have you seen people you know post on social media about super cheap Plan B One-Step? Seem too good to be true? It might be.

 

Recently, social media lit up with the news that Amazon.com vendors are selling Plan B One-Step emergency contraception (EC) for on average $24.99-as low as $16.90 plus shipping, and as high as $1,000. On store shelves, this product goes for around $50 a pop, so the apparent price drop is exciting news for those who want to ensure people across the country have access to this form of emergency contraception. But we have to ask: How is that possible?

 

In 2013, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved Plan B One-Step, manufactured by Teva Women's Health, for sale to people of all ages without a prescription and without any point-of-sale restrictions. This means that consumers do not have to go through a pharmacist or physician to obtain the product, but can purchase it directly from store shelves. While the FDA ruled in February of this year that generic emergency contraceptives could be sold on store shelves, only Teva Women's Health's authorized generic, Take Action, has appeared on the market. Without competition from other products, the price of Plan B One-Step has remained around $50-though when a prescription is obtained for this otherwise over-the-counter method, it is covered at no cost by health insurance under the Affordable Care Act (ACA).

 

It is normal for prices to vary from store to store, but such a steep drop in price raises red flags, especially since the wholesale acquisition cost (the cost for wholesalers to purchase the product from the manufacturer, Teva Women's Health) is estimated to be $32.50 for Plan B One-Step. Wholesalers then sell the product for an estimated $39.00. Therefore, it is highly unlikely that any Amazon.com vendor would be able to acquire Plan B One-Step wholesale and sell it for $16 without taking a substantial financial hit.

 

After looking into the products on Amazon.com, Reproductive Health Technologies Project(RHTP) found several vendors selling the product. One vendor, Simply Positive Supplements, sells Plan B One-Step under different descriptive names, prices, and manufacturers. In one instance, the manufacturer was listed as Women's Capital Corporation, which is the trademark holder of Plan B One-Step that was acquired by Barr Pharmaceuticals in 2004. In other instances, it lists the manufacturer as "kwanja shop," "Neugaugh," and "superkrit." Clearly, something is amiss.

Emails and phone calls to Simply Positive Supplements inquiring about its products, supplier, and the discrepancies have gone unreturned.

 

When RHTP inquired with the seller tarzon about how it was able to sell the product at such a low price and whether it was safe, the seller replied:

I get this at a very discounted rate and the markup in your local pharmacy is a small fortune but due to pricing on amazon we sell it at a lower price.

The seller SuNNy Side UP replied with similar comments, but stated that its product came from "a clinic." When asked follow-up questions about its suppliers or the clinic it works with, the seller did not respond to RHTP's emails.

 

Some clinics may receive Plan B One-Step at a lower cost through the federal government's340B Drug Pricing Program to ensure low-income patients have access to various pharmaceutical drugs, but entities that receive drugs under this program "must not resell or otherwise transfer 340B drugs to ineligible patients." To do so would be considered fraud and a federal crime, and would also limit access to those who need it at low or no cost.

 

Another vendor, who operates under the name Pharmacy Consultants and sells Plan B One-Step for $16.90, replied to RHTP's requests stating that he was a licensed pharmacist and was able to sell the product at a deep discount because of a wholesale supplier, although this information is not available on the seller page. When asked about his credentials, the vendor replied that he was a licensed pharmacist in Ohio. He was clear to note that his product "is not from [a] family planning clinic or shop lifted medication." One review noted that the product's box arrived opened, the foil encasing the pill was ripped, and the pill was cut in half. After the reviewer notified the seller, he sent her a new package immediately. Another reviewer noted that the product they received was close to being expired.

 

While we would like to celebrate the arrival of a lower-cost EC, this information gives us some cause for concern.

 

Plan B One-Step is a single pill taken orally with active contraceptive ingredient levonorgestrel, which works to prevent pregnancy when taken within 72 hours of unprotected sexual intercourse. If what is being sold as Plan B One-Step is actually a placebo or medically inactive pill-or if someone takes half of a pill that arrived split in half, for that matter-then consumers are still at risk of experiencing an unintended pregnancy.

 

As reproductive health advocates and activists, we first and foremost want to make sure everyone has access to the health care they need and that they obtain what they are actually seeking. Any issue that arises related to EC-a product that serves as the last chance to prevent pregnancy-is too important to go unquestioned. Unfortunately, it appears that some caution is warranted when seeking Plan B from Amazon.com.

 

It is important to share the information that people seeking EC can obtain Plan B at no cost thanks to the ACA, since all FDA-approved contraceptive methods must be covered without cost sharing (such as a copay or deductible) when prescribed. If insured, someone seeking EC can call their health-care provider and ask them to call in a prescription for ella or another EC product to a local pharmacy. They may also be able to obtain EC directly from a health clinic.

 

Still, consumers who do not have health insurance and for whom $50 may be unaffordable might be tempted to purchase products that are offered for $16-but they should be wary. Through our research, we could not ascertain how Amazon.com vendors are able to sell Plan B One-Step at a steep discount, or if this product is indeed what the vendors say it is. It behooves us to spread the word about the possibility that what you see might not be what you get. We must do what we can to ensure that people seeking EC obtain what is promised to them-a safe, effective product to prevent pregnancy.

 

While we certainly hope that market forces lower the price of EC and support expanded access and improved availability, we hope consumers will exercise some caution when seeking this important product.

 

The use of LARC methods (intrauterine devices and contraceptive implants) for teens was a "hot topic" when I recently attended the North American Society for Pediatric and Adolescent Gynecology's Annual Meeting. Why? The American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology, the Society for Adolescent Health and Medicine, and other international organizations now recommend that LARC methods be offered as "first line" contraceptive options for adolescents. Needless to say, my interest in the LARC methods took one giant step forward.

 

http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/healthy_kids/What-is-the-long-acting-reversible-contraceptive-LARC-method.html

By Maggie Fox

 

More than two-thirds of healthy Americans are teeming with HPV, a new survey finds.

 

But don't worry - most are benign types of virus, the survey indicates. In fact, having harmless wart virus infections may help control the types that cause warts and cancer, the researchers told a meeting of the American Society for Microbiology.

 

http://www.nbcnews.com/#/health/health-news/hpv-found-two-thirds-americans-survey-finds-n109846

By Amy Orciari Herman

 

The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force now recommends screening for hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection in high-risk groups, given the accuracy of serologic testing and the effectiveness of antiviral therapy.

High-risk groups include:

 

*         people born in areas with an HBV prevalence of 2% or more, including Africa, Asia, the Middle East, Eastern Europe, and parts of South America;

*         HIV-positive patients;

*         injection-drug users;

*         men who have sex with men;

*         household contacts of HBV-infected patients.

 

The grade B recommendation, published in the Annals of Internal Medicine, updates the task force's 2004 statement, which recommended against HBV screening in the general population. (Of note, the new statement applies only to nonpregnant individuals; the USPSTF already recommends HBV screening in pregnancy.)

 

Editorialists praise the updated guidance but call it long overdue, noting that it trails recommendations from the CDC and others.

 

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) today approved the cobas HPV Test (Roche Molecular Systems, Inc) for primary cervical cancer screening in women aged 25 years or older.

 

This is the first human papilloma virus (HPV) DNA test approved in the United States that can be used alone to detect high-risk HPV. The test is recommended for first-line screening, and can specifically identify HPV genotypes 16 and 18, which are responsible for about 70% of all cervical cancers. It also concurrently detects 12 other high-risk genotypes (31, 33, 35, 39, 45, 51, 52, 56, 58, 59, 66, and 68).

 

http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/824114?src=wnl_edit_specol

 

The US Food and Drug Administration recently approved the use of a human papillomavirus (HPV) test as a primary cervical cancer screening test in women as young as 25 years, yet physicians are unlikely to ditch the Papanicolaou (Pap) test soon, experts say.

 

Roche's cobas test is 1 of 4 HPV tests on the market, but thus far it is the only one approved for primary screening, rather than for use in conjunction with Pap tests.

 

The cobas test was initially approved in April 2011 for women aged 21 to 29 years who had an abnormal Pap test and as a "co-test" with the Pap test for women aged 30 to 65 years. The test detects DNA from HPV 16 and HPV 18, the 2 types of HPV that cause 70% of cervical cancer cases worldwide, as well as for DNA from 12 other high-risk types of HPV.

 

http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/825263?src=wnl_edit_specol