Explanation
BACKGROUND:
The City of Columbus, Columbus Public Health, receives funding for the Ending the HIV Epidemic grant program from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA). The purpose of the grant program is to focus resources in jurisdictions with substantial HIV burden to implement strategies, interventions, approaches, and core medical and support services to reduce new HIV infections in the United States. The overarching goal for this initiative is to reduce new HIV infections in the United States to less than 3,000 per year by 2030.
HRSA has tasked CPH to improve the efficiency of the reallocation of federal funds as necessary in order to minimize unused funds to the greatest extent possible and to maximize the available services and avoid potential penalties as future carryover funds may not be permitted by HRSA. For this reason, it is necessary to authorize the Board of Health to accept any additional awards for the Ending the HIV Epidemic grant program; to authorize the appropriation of any additional awards for the Ending the HIV Epidemic grant program; and to authorize the City Auditor to transfer appropriations between object classes for the Ending the HIV Epidemic grant program.
This ordinance authorizes the Board of Health to enter into and, if needed, modify contracts with The Research Institute at Nationwide Children’s Hospital to provide delivery of Ending the HIV Epidemic services including, but not limited to Health Education/Risk Reduction (Peer Navigation) and EHE (Health Insurance Navigation), to achieve viral suppression for individuals living with HIV. The term of the contract with each qualified vendor is March 1, 2022, through February 28, 2023, with funding based on vendor estimates of annual funding requirements for allowable services.
Under the terms of the grant, funds must be used during the grant period or they are forfeited and CPH may be subject to pe...
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