Special Projects Fund

Project Title

An Innovative Approach to Providing Treatment for Hepatitis C in High-Risk Rural Populations

Grant Amount

$120,370

Priority Area

Special Projects Fund

Date Awarded

10/10/2018

Region

Capital Region

North Country

Status

Closed

Website

https://www.hhhn.org/

Recent estimates show that more than 280,000 New Yorkers are currently infected with Hepatitis C virus (HCV), with more than 50% unaware of their status. If left untreated, HCV can lead to chronic liver disease, cirrhosis, liver cancer, and, eventually, liver transplantation—all of which result in more than $30 billion in health care costs annually. HCV is preventable and curable, yet it is estimated that less than 10% of patients with HCV have received treatment. Patients with HCV in isolated rural communities especially face barriers to accessing care. As the largest federally qualified health center in New York State, Hudson Headwaters Health Network (HHHN) is the sole provider of comprehensive primary care in the rural North Country and Adirondack regions. In 2018, NYHealth awarded HHHN a grant to increase testing and improve care for patients with HCV in the upper rural regions of New York State.

Under this grant, HHHN helped train providers to identify, evaluate, and treat patients with HCV. HHHN partnered with local community outreach programs and county public health departments to increase the number of high-risk patients who are tested and treated. It expanded this testing in underserved locations in the community, including food pantries, college campuses, substance use recovery centers, senior centers, jails, and halfway houses. HHHN partnered with the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai to train its rural providers on Mount Sinai’s online toolkit to build primary care providers’ capacity to treat HCV. HHHN also trained primary care providers across wide geographically rural areas on how to provide care using teleconferencing technology. Monthly conference calls were held for the providers, and an open forum was created where they discussed clinical issues and received updates on HCV treatment and support. Through this integrated strategy of outreach, screening, and provider training, HHHN aimed to get as many patients as possible, especially high-risk individuals, the treatment they needed.