SYRACUSE — The Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) has approved a contract award of $25,000 for F.O.C.U.S. Greater Syracuse and its partners to continue work on a project focused on aging in Central New York.

F.O.C.U.S. announced its initial PCORI contract award of $15,000 in May 2015 at Upstate Medical University.

The organization is working on the Central New York Citizens Aging Research and Action Network (CNY-CAN) in partnership with HealtheConnections, Southwest Community Center, and SUNY Upstate Medical University, the organization said in a news release issued May 13.

PCORI had to approve what F.O.C.U.S. Greater Syracuse and its partners had worked on in the first year, says Charlotte (Chuckie) Holstein, executive director of F.O.C.U.S.

“They had a team of researchers from all over the country that looked at all of the Northeastern Tier I applicants and they liked what we did and we got a unanimous approval from all of the examiners of what we had done,” says Holstein. She spoke with CNYBJ on May 16.

F.O.C.U.S. Greater Syracuse is a nonprofit, “citizen-driven” organization serving Central New York that says it “taps citizen creativity and citizen engagement to impact change in Central New York by enabling citizens, organizations, and government to work together to enhance the quality of our lives and our economic future.” F.O.C.U.S. stands for “forging our community’s united strength.

HealtheConnections is a nonprofit that supports “the meaningful use of health information exchange and technology adoption, and the use of community health data and best practices, to enable Central New York stakeholders to transform and improve patient care, improve the health of populations and lower health-care costs,” according to its website.

PCORI is an independent, nonprofit organization that Congress authorized in 2010 to fund comparative-effectiveness research that provides patients, their caregivers, and clinicians with evidence needed to make better-informed health and healthcare decisions.

The project
CNY-CAN’s focus is on developing research projects that enable older adults to “age well” in their own homes for “as long as they wish,” even as health issues arise.

PCORI awarded CNY-CAN a Tier I contract in 2015 and “unanimously” selected the project for a Tier II contract award earlier this month on May 1.

Using the Tier I award, CNY-CAN went directly to the citizens, caregivers, providers, researchers, and other stakeholders to find out what research ideas are important to them, according to Holstein.

CNY-CAN identified six research ideas that compare two or more approaches to: 

1. empowering older adults to make their own health decisions; 
2. increasing early detection of health and social support needs; 
3. improving communication between providers and older adults and their caregivers; 
4. improving frail elder access to primary care in the home; 
5. reducing stress among patients and informal caregivers; and 
6. improving care provided by formal caregivers.

Under Tier II, CNY-CAN will continue to engage stakeholders in identifying one or two of those research topics to develop as a “competitive” research proposal.

“In the second phase, we’ll probably narrow down what we really think is critical for research for the older adult to be able to stay at home,” says Holstein.

To accomplish that, F.O.C.U.S. and its partners will seek input from older adults, physicians, caretakers, nonprofit organizations, and for-profit organizations.

Those involved in the CNY-CAN project are finding that older adults need an “advocate,” says Holstein.

“…somebody who’s there to go with you and do things with you to make sure you’re getting the proper health care,” she adds.

The advocate would go with an older adult to a doctor’s appointment or the pharmacist to make sure the individual understands what the physician or pharmacist has told them.

CNY-CAN wants to help “guide” aging-related research; participate in research and project teams; be “champions” for patient-centered research; help translate research into practice; and help sustain CNY-CAN as a community resource.

PCORI funds three tiers of awards that help build community partnerships, develop research capacity, and identify a research question to develop as a competitive research proposal to submit to PCORI or other funders.

Its “pipeline to proposal” awards enable individuals and groups not typically involved in clinical research to help identify priority issues for research and participate as members of research teams, according to the F.O.C.U.S. news release.

Contact Reinhardt at ereinhardt@cnybj.com

The National Science Foundation has awarded Upstate Medical University a grant of nearly $200,000 to “treat, prevent and understand” the Zika virus.

Researchers plan to share final data and conclusions as “rapidly and widely” as possible, U.S. Senators Charles Schumer (D–N.Y.) and Kirsten Gillibrand (D–N.Y.) said in a May 11 news release that Schumer’s office issued to announce the grant funding.

Upstate Medical wants to provide results that will be “relevant to the Zika public-health emergency,” according to the news release.

Schumer had earlier visited the medical school on May 4 to call for $1.9 billion in emergency federal funding to fight the epidemic nationally and internationally.

The Democrat’s May 4 call represents his support of President Barack Obama’s emergency funding request of $1.9 billion, which would help prevent and treat the spread of the Zika epidemic.

Upstate’s researchers will use the NSF funding as they work on a project called “RAPID: In-situ Zika-vector-climate dynamics in a high burden region in Ecuador,” according to the lawmakers’ news release.

The effort will enable researchers to determine the prevalence of the Zika virus co-infections in humans and mosquitoes, in addition to any climatic factors that could be affecting disease transmission.

It will also look at ways in which other species of mosquitoes might be able to transmit Zika.

The study will look at the spread of Zika through a “naïve” population and ways to control the spread of Zika in other locales, including the continental U.S.

“With so many women and families across Central New York looking for action, it is critical we find ways to treat, prevent and better understand Zika virus — and fast. This is an emerging global health crisis and, when it comes to fighting this epidemic, a stitch in time will save nine. This desperately needed federal funding will allow the global health leaders at SUNY Upstate, who are ready to assist, to look at ways we can stymie the spread of this tragic disease,” Schumer said in the release.

Zika and mosquitoes
Zika virus is spread to people through mosquito bites, according to the news release.

Mosquitoes become infected when they feed on a person who has already been infected by the virus.

The Aedes aegypti mosquito species, which have been found in Florida and Hawaii, have spread most of the cases, the lawmakers said.

The Asian Tiger mosquito is also known to transmit the virus; these types of mosquitoes have been found in New York and Chicago.

Thousands of infants in Brazil have already been born with microcephaly — a medical condition where the brain doesn’t develop properly and the child’s head is smaller than normal — since last spring.

More than 1,000 Americans have been infected with the Zika Virus, including about 100 pregnant women, in 44 states, Washington, D.C., and three U.S. territories.

New York state has had at least 89 confirmed travel-related cases.

“The imminent threat of Zika to the [U.S.] is deeply troubling; this funding through the National Science Foundation would facilitate much needed resources to help advance SUNY Upstate Medical University’s research into how to prevent the spread of the Zika Virus,” Gillibrand said in the news release. “I am an original co-sponsor of legislation to provide an additional $1.9 billion federal investment in combating the Zika virus. I will continue to push for this emergency funding to support efforts in accelerating the development of screening, treatment, and prevention methods in order to combat the future spread of the virus.”

Contact Reinhardt at ereinhardt@cnybj.com

SYRACUSE — A Syracuse–based firm will continue providing Medicaid-transportation services to the Hudson Valley region.

The New York State Department of Health has extended its contract with Medical Answering Services, LLC (MAS) for an additional five years, Russ Maxwell, CEO of MAS, announced in a press conference May 12.

“That saves 350 jobs right here in Syracuse,” Maxwell said in his remarks during the event.

With the new contract, MAS will also create an additional 50 positions over the next five years, he added.

In speaking with CNYBJ afterward, Maxwell called the Hudson Valley contract renewal “vital” as it represents about half of MAS’ service volume.

“Our ability to service the rest of the state would’ve been somewhat weakened without this anchor,” he said.

The Hudson Valley contract is worth between $7 million and $9 million annually, Maxwell said in the CNYBJ interview.

The firm’s most recent contract to serve the Hudson Valley was scheduled to expire at the end of May.

The state Health Department near the end of 2015 solicited bids for the next contract. MAS reapplied, along with other New York and out-of-state organizations, Maxwell added.

About MAS
Launched in 2004, MAS is headquartered at 375 W. Onondaga St. in Syracuse. It also has a Buffalo office, where it employs 50 people.

MAS serves Medicaid recipients who can’t afford to travel to their doctor’s appointments, said Maxwell.

Their health plans, he noted, include a benefit that helps them travel to those appointments.

MAS employs customer-service representatives who work directly with Medicaid enrollees who need transportation to their health-care appointments.

The MAS employees determine if the individual is eligible for the transportation benefit, if the transportation needed for a covered Medicaid service, and what type of transportation the Medicaid enrollees need.

The MAS worker has to determine if the individual has access to a public-transit system or if the person would need a ride in a taxi or an ambulette (a specially equipped van).

“Most of the work we do is in public transit and taxis,” says Maxwell.

Front-line employees earn between $25,000 and $40,000 per year, depending on their experience, says Maxwell. Senior and supervisory staff earn between $35,000 and $60,000 per year, he added.

MAS manages Medicaid transportation for a total of 55 counties, having won contracts in four consecutive bid solicitations with the state Health Department dating back to 2011, the company said.

“In the Hudson Valley contract over the last five years, we’ve saved the state over $100 million. Statewide, over $200 million from 2011 to today,” Maxwell contended in his remarks during the news conference.

The company has developed a web-based application that allows it to manage close to 15 million trips a year, he added.

Contract history
As part of Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s Medicaid redesign initiative, officials in 2011 decided that the state Health Department should administer the Medicaid transportation benefit, Maxwell explained.

New York decided to start hiring companies to manage the benefit for those recipients.

As his press-conference remarks continued, Maxwell said the department then decided to divide New York into six regions and solicit proposals in each of the regions for the management contract.

The Hudson Valley region, which includes 24 counties, was the first region, Maxwell told CNYBJ after the press event. The region extends from Westchester County to areas north of Albany.

What started in 2011 as a nine-county effort in the Hudson Valley grew into 24 counties by March 2012, Maxwell added.

“In early 2013, they put out [a request for proposal] for the Adirondacks and for the Finger Lakes area, simultaneously. We won both of those in 2013. And in 2014, they put out a bid for the Western New York area and we won that, so we have these three contracts,” Maxwell told CNYBJ.

Before the state assumed control, county governments administered this benefit, according to Maxwell.

Contact Reinhardt at ereinhardt@cnybj.com