Michigan title x family planning telehealth project - for more than 50 years, the michigan department of health & human services (mdhhs) has served as the sole title x family planning services grantee…

Michigan title x family planning telehealth project - for more than 50 years, the michigan department of health & human services (mdhhs) has served as the sole title x family planning services grantee for the state. Clinical services are delivered through a statewide network of 33 sub-recipients and 92 clinical service sites, including local health departments (30), a statewide planned parenthood affiliate (1), a hospital-based teen health clinic (1), and a federally qualified health center (fqhc) (1). Michigan's family planning program assists individuals and couples in planning and spacing births, preventing pregnancy, and seeking preventive health screenings. Michigan's family planning program prioritizes serving low-income and UN/underinsured individuals, and adolescents. Michigan's family planning program serves as a safety net with service providers, who are a reliable and trusted source of care, and in many cases the only regular source of health care and health education for michiganders. A recent survey by the guttmacher institute found 34% of respondents wanted to get pregnant later or wanted fewer children because of the covid-19 pandemic. Providing telehealth services can help ensure access to birth control and other reproductive health care services while limiting exposure for health care workers and clients, a strategy used by michigan's family planning clinics throughout the pandemic. In calendar year 2020, michigan's title x clinics had 2,950 virtual encounters, meaning telehealth encounters were 8% of all encounters, with telephone being the predominant mode for service delivery. Offering telehealth services was able to reduce several access to care barriers like transportation, taking unpaid leave time, and arranging childcare, which are only exacerbated during a public health emergency. While telehealth has its advantages, reliance on technology has a potential to widen the equity GAP between those are who able to receive telehealth services and those who are not. This c an become compounded when regional infrastructure does not support broadband/internet access across communities, and residents may not have access to smartphone or tablets/computers. Mdhhs and eight of its sub-recipients (i.e., six local health departments, 1 fqhc, and 1 planned parenthood affiliate) propose to use this funding opportunity to build upon telehealth lessons learned from the pandemic by expanding and enhancing telehealth infrastructure to streamline workflow processes, increase clinician time for telehealth service delivery, offer more flexible scheduling to clients, ensuring all title x clinic staff participating in telehealth service delivery are competently trained, and removing significant technology barriers (e.g., wifi, smart devices) clients experience to accessing family planning services via telehealth. Over the 12-month budget period, mdhhs expects to provide high-quality, client-centered telehealth services to 7,500 total users in michigan's family planning program, reach at least 50,000 residents underserved by telehealth, increase family planning provider capacity for telehealth, and strengthen information technology supports across participating sub-recipients.