DHH Seeking Nonprofit and Community Partners in Medicaid Applications

The Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals / Medicaid is actively recruiting new Medicaid Application Centers. The purpose of these centers is to assist individuals and families with the Medicaid application process. This includes submission of applications to the local Medicaid office via fax, mail or electronically through a web-based online application.

Centers are compensated $14.00 for each complete application that is submitted on behalf of a potential Medicaid client. This opportunity is open to community-based organizations, medical clinics, non-profit organizations, faith-based organizations and other community groups.

For more information on the process for becoming a Medicaid Application Center, please contact Shakeysha Johnson at (225) 342-0462 or via e-mail at Shakeysha.johnson@la.gov.

Member Offers Patient Centered Medical Workshop

LANO member the Louisiana Primary Care Association, and the Louisiana Health Care Quality Forum present the NCQA Workshop: "HOW DO WE ACHIEVE PATIENT CENTERED MEDICAL HOME(PCMH) RECOGNITION?"

Dates: March 9th and 10th— 8:00am-5:00pm

Location: Hilton Baton Rouge Capitol Center, 201 Lafayette Street, Baton Rouge, LA (limited space available)

Participants can expect the following training:

• Standards on how to achieve Patient Centered Medical Home (PCMH) recognition
• 1/2 Day training on crosswalk between PCMH AND Meaningful Use
• Provide a roadmap to improve outcomes and the experience of care for patients and Clinicians
• How to better plan, manage and coordinate care for patients
• Last opportunity to be trained under 2008 standards, which are good for 3 years

Price: $200.00

For More Information or to register please contact:

Tonya Hollins
225-927-7662 Ext. 205
thollins@lpca.net

Nonprofit Lobbying: File the 501(h) Election!

Have you ever heard, "We can’t do that -- nonprofits can’t lobby!"
That is incorrect - and a myth that we hear all too frequently at state and national level. The National Council of Nonprofits has written an easy-to-read guide that provides nonprofits, board members, and the public with the legal basis for why charitable nonprofits can engage in advocacy. Read more about nonprofit advocacy- it’s legal, it’s needed, and it’s easy.

Most Nonprofit Public Charities that do any amount of lobbying should file IRS form 501(h). Here's why:
By filing one simple form, IRS Form 5768, a charitable nonprofit can protect itself from penalties for engaging in "too much" lobbying. (Charitable nonprofits can lobby; read why lobbying is legal.) A charitable nonprofit can only spend an insubstantial amount of its activities on lobbying. But there is a hazy ill-defined line between what "activities" are considered "substantial" and which are "insubstantial."

By filing IRS Form 5768 (also referred to as "taking the 501(h) election") instead of being judged by the uncertain “substantial part” test that evaluates undefined "activities" -- your nonprofit will have the added protection of being evaluated with a more specific test called the “expenditure” test that offers a bright line based on how much money the nonprofit spends on its lobbying activities. Read all about the advantages of taking the 501(h) election on the National Council’s website.

**Note: Private foundations, churches, and integrated auxiliaries of churches are not permitted to file the 501(h) election.

TOPS a Struggle for Those At Bottom

Report finds the popular state scholarship program benefits most those who need it least; recommends policy changes to TOPS and full funding for needs-based Go Grant scholarships

A new report by the Louisiana Budget Project takes a close look at the Taylor Opportunity Program for Students, or TOPS, which provides tuition assistance to Louisiana residents seeking higher education at state schools.

The report [download full report here] concludes the popular scholarship fund, having nearly tripled in size since 1998, has outgrown its intended purpose as an aid for economically disadvantaged scholars and become a de-facto entitlement for middle and upper-income students.

An evolution of the former Louisiana Honors Scholarship, TOPS is named for Louisiana businessman Patrick F. Taylor, whose guiding inspiration in 1988 was that access to college education be “based on the ability to learn, not the ability to pay.” In its original form, the Tuition Assistance Plan, or TAP, was restricted to low- and moderate-income students who met academic requirements including a GPA of 2.5.

Legislative changes in 1997 removed the mandated family income cap of $35,000, thus opening the scholarship fund to all academically qualifying students regardless of financial status. Since then, the taxpayer-funded program ballooned in cost from $54 million to $139 million and shifted its recipient base into the upper income brackets: Today 72 percent of all TOPS recipients come from families that make over $50,000 annually, and nearly 40 percent of TOPS scholars come from those with income over $100,000 a year.

According to analyst Tim Mathis of the Budget Project, which monitors state spending on behalf of Louisiana’s low- and moderate-income families: “This is a questionable allocation of scarce [public] resources in a state in which 56 percent of households make less than $50,000, while only 16 percent make more than $100,000.”

“It’s very discouraging,” said Budget Project Director Edward Ashworth. “What began as a helping hand to bright scholars of modest means has become more like a helping hand-out to kids who could probably pay their own way to school.”

To reduce the overall cost of TOPS and allow for greater needs-based scholarship support, the Budget Project report makes several recommendations, including a phased-in increase of academic requirements for TOPS, with a plan to funnel resulting cost savings into the under-funded Go Grant scholarship program.

For a complete list of Budget Project recommendations and more on the TOPS program in Louisiana, go to: www.labudget.org.

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IRS to Hold Workshops for Small and Mid-Sized Tax Exempt Organizations

The Internal Revenue Service will hold three one-day workshops in New Orleans, Louisiana on March 1, 2, and 3 to help small and mid-sized tax-exempt organizations along the Louisiana and Mississippi Gulf Coast comply with their tax obligations and maintain their tax-exempt status. The workshops are designed for board members, officers, volunteers and staff of these organizations and for the tax preparers and stakeholders who work with them.

IRS revenue agents and tax law specialists, experienced with tax-exempt organizations, will lead the workshops which will cover the “nuts and bolts” of tax compliance for exempt organizations. Workshop topics include an in-depth discussion of activities that can jeopardize 501(c)(3) status, unrelated business income, gaming and employment issues. Particular emphasis will be given to explaining the revised Form 990 and 990-EZ annual information returns that tax-exempt organizations submit to the IRS.

The workshops will be held at the Doubletree Hotel New Orleans Airport, 2150 Veterans Memorial Blvd. in Kenner, LA. The workshop cost is $45 per person and includes a handbook and relevant IRS forms and publications. Pre-registration is required. For more information or to register, go to the Charities and Nonprofits page on the IRS Web site at www.irs.gov/eo and click the “Calendar of Events” link. Information and registration is also available by calling Events by Design, Inc, IRS’s registration services provider, at 800-521-3980 or 703-579-1496.