Public Health Solutions

“The 990 is prepared jointly by public health solutions' independent auditor based on the information gathered as a result of the year-end audit and information provided by the fiscal department with the assistance of senior managers from relevant departments, where necessary. A complete draft is then reviewed by public health solutions' executive management. The draft is then provided to the audit & compliance committee for their review and approval for presentation to the governing board of directors. It is then distributed to the entire board.”

“Members of the board of directors are required to sign the conflict of interest statement and management maintains a record of all board affiliations. Conflict of interest situations are precluded by the administrative processes in place at public health solutions for entering into contracts and purchasing non-contracted goods and services. All contracting and purchasing is handled by appropriate public health solutions' staff in accordance with corporate policies and procedures that require competition and internal approvals at various levels within the organization. Board approval is not required to enter into a contract or make a purchase.”

“Annually the executive officers' salaries are reviewed by the compensation committee along with the internal and external comparability data. A compensation consultant periodically provides independent expertise to the committee. Based on the compensation committee's recommendations, the board then makes a salary recommendation for its officers. Public health solutions serves a predominantly low-income, immigrant and at-risk population in the new york city area, with programs that address some of the most serious and urgent public health challenges facing the city and the nation: children at risk of developmental disabilities and chronic health problems, such as childhood obesity; women with little or no access to health care, prenatal services, and family planning; families in need of food and nutritional guidance; and people with hiv/aids, as well as those at high risk of becoming infected who need preventive education. In addition to its many service programs, public health solutions advocates for healthcare system change to benefit its clients; provides training and technical assistance to community-based organizations; conducts research on emerging and existing public health challenges; and assists government agencies to allocate public funding through contracts with other nonprofits. To accomplish these goals and challenges, public health solutions requires a workforce consisting of diversified educational and technical backgrounds in the areas of concern addressed by public health solutions. To facilitate the engagement of a large and diversified workforce in its focus areas, public health solutions employs a compensation philosophy that encourages internal fairness of its pay program and external competitiveness in the various market places for which it hires employees. The overall goal of the public health solutions compensation philosophy is to attract high-quality employees at various levels in the organization and to retain these employees with a comprehensive salary and benefits plan that is competitive in the market places for which it competes for employees. An additional goal is to create career longevity by adhering to the philosophy of internal equity, external competitiveness, and performance management. Periodically, public health solutions seeks counsel and advice from a compensation consultant to keep the organization aligned with the goal of internal and external equity. They re-examine job descriptions and perform market job analysis, which informs the pay grade structure of public health solutions. We aim to pay all our employees, including officers and highly compensated employees, within the median of the market(s) in which we compete for talent. Public health solutions plans to continue its pay philosophy for the future and will monitor the marketplace for talent on a regular basis.”

“Public health solutions' financial statements are made available to the public on guidestar. They are also available from the nys attorney general's office. Public health solutions makes its financial statements and 990 available on its website www.healthsolutions.org”

“Description of the organization's mission or most significant activities: public health solutions implements innovative, cost-effective population-based health programs; conducts research providing insight on effective public health interventions; and provides services to government and other nonprofits to address public health issues. Highlights of our work include: * providing direct services to over 80,000 new yorkers a year, primarily families with children. These services address critical needs in low-income communities, including food security; nutrition and obesity; women's reproductive health; early childhood development; hiv prevention and access to care; quality healthcare access; and tobacco control. * promoting the imminent eradication of aids in nyc through research, service delivery and funding administration. We engage 230+ community-based organizations around the city in hiv-related outreach. Our network serves 96,000 people living with or at risk of hiv/aids. * developing technology-based interventions and social marketing public health campaigns using video, social media, and interactive internet-based applications, specifically in the areas of reproductive health, hiv prevention and childhood obesity prevention. Phs' hiv big deal interactive video project has 350,000+ viewers to date. * working to protect the health of all new yorkers through tobacco control policy, advocacy and education. Phs' most recent efforts have led to the conversion of thousands of units in new york city from smoking to non-smoking. * providing contracting and management expertise to the nycdohmh programs throughout the five boroughs, and serving as a third-party administrator for the nyc health + hospitals performing provider system, one of new york state's largest medicaid delivery system reform incentive payment (dsrip) providers, and providing administrative, financial, and technical support, along with capacity-building services for organizations focused on violence prevention. * serving as a leading independent, investigator-initiated public health research program. Phs' research is targeted towards the main areas in which it provides or administers key services: hiv/aids prevention, reproductive health (including unintended pregnancy), and nutrition and obesity.”

“Pension liability adjustment -2,273,715.”

“Committee that assumes oversight of the independent accountant and audit: public health solutions' audit & compliance committee assumes the responsibility of the oversight of the independent accountant and the audit, and the review of the 990.”

“Culture and hiv risk in a diverse population (nimhd/columbia university subcontract) a critical aspect of sexual behavior among young men who have sex with men (ymsm) is the process of sexual socialization - the process by which individuals gain knowledge, attitudes, and norms about sexuality, sexual behavior, and sexual risk. Sexual scripts theory provides a framework to understand the sexual socialization process, specifically how individuals receive cultural scenarios from external sources (cultural scripts), interpret them (intrapsychic scripts), and enact them with sexual partners (interpersonal scripts). To understand this phenomenon and inform the development of, and improve, existing interventions for ymsm, this research study will conduct mixed-methods interviews with an ethnically diverse sample of 160 urban ymsm. The study team will examine sources of sexual information retrospectively (lifetime and six months prior to study enrollment) and prospectively (6, 12, and 18 months following study enrollment). Facilitated enrollment for the aged, blind and disabled phs launched facilitated enrollment for the aged, blind, disabled (fe-abd), a five-year initiative funded by the new york state department of health. The fe-abd program provides education and public health insurance application assistance to individuals aged 65 years or older, certified blind individuals and certified disabled individuals in new york city. Phs' enrollment facilitators screen individuals for medicaid and medicaid-related programs, submit applications to the nyc human resources administration (hra), and follow up to ensure the applications are processed successfully. Fe-abd sites are handicap-accessible and spread out across nyc's five boroughs. Phs is the lead agency for the fe-abd program, providing training, oversight, and technical assistance to a network of subcontractors that provide services for the abd population. In addition, all phs' navigators and enrollment facilitators are cross-trained to both assist clients with applications through the ny state of health marketplace and assist the abd population as they apply for public health insurance through hra. Improving the nutritional health of young children and families in east harlem the nyc department of health and mental health (nycdohmh) and grownyc will merge their expertise and approaches to improve healthy food consumption over a three-year period, in a research trial aimed at caregivers and their children attending pre-k - first grade in east harlem public elementary schools. The intervention will have two components, one.in the schools, and one in the community. A caregiver and pre-k - 1st grade nutrition curriculum will be offered concurrently in five schools: classes will receive nutrition information with common core integration and caregivers will be offered a weekly free hot breakfast with a short health curriculum and distribution of health bucks to buy fresh food boxes. In the community, fresh food box distribution sites and youthmarket farm stands will be set up to make fresh, local foods available to the entire community and specifically promoted in the cohort schools. Teen-led education will reach hundreds of community members, covering topics ranging from high blood pressure to better choices at fast food restaurants, and cooking demos and incentives will increase likelihood that shoppers will prepare food at home. Phs is subcontracted to evaluate this program. Jamaica southeast queens healthy start phs launched the jamaica southeast queens healthy start (j/sqhs) program, a four-year, nine- month initiative funded by a u.s. Health resources and service administration healthy start level 1 grant. J/sqhs works to eliminate disparities in perinatal health in neighborhoods of southeast queens. J/sqhs accepts referrals of all pregnant and newly parenting women and, through a centralized screening process, matches them to the home-visiting program that best meets their needs”

“Viewer attitudes about prep use in sexually explicit media (preview) technological innovations in the production and distribution of sexually explicit media (sem) have resulted in widespread availability and consumption on the internet. Advances in hiv treatment and biomedical prevention (i.e., prep) have made it increasingly possible for sem producers to meet consumer demands for videos featuring condomless sex. Indeed, much of the sem produced and distributed today features condomless vaginal or anal sex. Widespread uptake of prep in the sem industry is an important step to preventing hiv acquisition and transmission among performers. However, research is needed to better understand viewer perceptions about the current state of sem (e.g., potential normalization of viewing high-risk behavior), awareness of prep, and attitudes toward prep uptake in the sem industry. Online, the project will recruit and survey approximately 1,500 men and women in the u.s., stratified by sexual orientation, about these issues. This one-year study is supported with funding from the foundation for the scientific study of sexuality (awarded november 2014). Virtual venues: examining hiv risk perception and management on- and off-line among men who have sex with men in abidjan, cote d'ivoire despite the internet's increasing importance as a venue for men who have sex with men (msm) seeking sex partners, little is known about the impact of online venues on hiv risk behavior outside the us and european context. This project examines the risk behavior and country-context embedded in the online experiences of ivoirian msm and transvestite, whose use of the internet is understudied, and asks how a sex-seeking venue impacts the ways in which men manage and perceive their risk for hiv. Using an anonymous online survey, and semi-structured interviews, this project will aim to understand the on- and off-line experiences of msm and travestis in abidjan.”

“Description of other program services: access to health and food benefits: public health solutions' access to health and food benefits program helps individuals and families obtain health insurance coverage, including medicaid and child health plus, as well as private coverage through the health insurance marketplace. It also assists those in need of adequate food to apply for supplemental nutrition assistance program (snap) benefits, formerly known as food stamps. From 2001 to 2015, as a new york state-funded facilitated enrollment agency, phs enrolled or renewed over 120,000 individuals in public health insurance. In 2015, phs participated as a health insurance navigator program in the new york state of health's affordable care act health insurance exchange. Phs' 30 navigators and snap benefits counselors are ethnically diverse, can assist clients in more than 10 languages, and help clients to navigate through what for many is a complicated and confusing application process. In 2015, phs enrolled or renewed close to 15,500 new york city and long island individuals and families into health insurance on the new york state of health exchange. As of 2015, phs' access to health and food benefits program also operates the facilitated enrollment program for the aged, blind and disabled described in part iii, line 2 -- new program services. Early intervention service coordination (eisc): public health solutions' early intervention service coordination program provides initial and ongoing service coordination to nyc families with infants and toddlers with known or suspected developmental delays or disabilities. Service coordinators help families obtain comprehensive evaluations, develop individual family service plans (ifsp), and access early intervention services and other services identified in their ifsp. Each year, the program serves over 6,000 families by assisting them with obtaining comprehensive evaluations, identifying appropriate treatment providers and monitoring the timely delivery of approved services. The program's 75 multilingual service coordinators work with families in their homes, or at any other location convenient to them, to support them to understand this complex program, and to appropriately access early intervention and other community services. Healthy food initiatives: in 2015, phs was a subcontractor on a federal healthy food financing initiative in partnership with the greater jamaica development corporation, with the goal of supporting improved healthy food availability in jamaica, queens. Activities included mapping the community to understand the retail food environment, as well as supporting several retail establishments to improve their marketing of healthy, nutritious foods, particularly those which are available on the wic food package. In addition, phs is the co-sponsor of two coalitions convened to support healthy retail food, the healthy food retail networking group and the nyc farmers market alliance. Maternal and child health programs: public health solutions' nurse-family partnership program, based in the high-need community of corona, queens, is a nationally recognized, evidence-based nurse home-visiting program for low-income, first-time mothers, which has been serving women and families since 2008. To date, the program has reached over 1000 families. Phs' bushwick bright start (bbs) program, a healthy families new york home-visiting program, has been serving women and families in the bushwick community in brooklyn for 14 years, offering intensive, evidence-based home-visiting services to pregnant and parenting women and babies through weekly home visits. Since its inception in 2001, bbs has served over 800 families. Both programs have been shown to measurably improve health outcomes for mothers and their children. Phs also operates the queens maternal infant community health collaborative, a five-year, nys department of health-funded project in northern queens to convene and lead a diverse”

“Sudden infant and child death resource center (sicd): sicd seeks to eliminate sudden unexpected deaths in infants and children. This program is one of five regional offices funded by the new york state center for sudden infant death. Sicd works with a wide range of health and social service professionals and community leaders to increase public awareness through educational programs about sudden unexpected infant/child death, safe sleep practices, and infant mortality risk reduction, and to provide bereavement support to families that have experienced the loss of an infant/child, through individual consultations and support groups. Wic vendor management program: public health solutions is one of two wic vendor management agencies (vma) in new york city. Since 1974, on behalf of the nys health department, vma has ensured that grocery stores, corner stores, supermarkets and pharmacies that accept wic checks are appropriately stocked and products are fairly priced. The program works with over 1,500 stores in queens, brooklyn and staten island, as well as in nassau and suffolk counties, facilitating the processing of wic vendor applications, providing training to wic vendors, conducting periodic site inspections and monitoring visits, and resolving disputes between participants and vendors. In 2015, phs was awarded $2.8 million annually for three years (2016-2019) -- beginning march 2016 -- in response to its competitive renewal application submitted to new york state's vendor management agency for the special supplemental nutrition program for women, infants and children (wic) program rfp. Phs was awarded funds to expand the program to additional counties including manhattan, orange and rockland counties, and to continue to oversee queens, brooklyn, staten island, nassau and suffolk counties. Research & evaluation activities: public health solutions uses its own research to help illuminate critical public health issues and to design, implement and assess effective methods for preventing disease and improving health. Phs' innovative research programs include: obesity research first steps to healthy living: evaluation of new york state early childhood obesity prevention programs is a 4.5 year project funded by the robert wood johnson foundation and the nys health foundation with sally findley, columbia university pi mary ann chiasson, co-pi, and jackson sekhobo, phd, new york state department of health, co-i. The primary goal of the project is to assess the impact of the new wic food package implemented on january 5, 2009 on fruit, vegetable, whole grain, and low-fat milk consumption, initiation and duration of breastfeeding, and child weight/height among wic participants. This project is in the final phase of data analysis. Profiles of participation in wic and other healthy living programs for pre-schoolers in new york is a one-year renewal grant funded by the robert wood johnson foundation. This grant will fund: 1) a study of lifetime participation and experiences in wic, factors associated with variations in wic participation, and reasons for non-participation by those eligible; and 2) how mothers combine wic participation with other resources to support healthy diets and activities for their pre-schoolers and other young children. Field work was completed in november 2015. This project is also in its final analysis stage. Starting early childhood obesity prevention initiative: this five-year study is a randomized controlled trial (rct) to test the effectiveness of a primary care, child obesity prevention program beginning in pregnancy and continuing through the first three years of life. The study aims to reduce the prevalence of obesity at age three, improve child diet composition and healthy lifestyle behaviors. Pregnant women are enrolled in their third trimester from two large urban medical centers, nyu-bellevue and gouverneur hospitals. These women are low-income latinas who speak either english or spanish and who plan to”

“Using technology to match young black msm to hiv testing options: this nih grant, submitted by the new york blood center, was funded in 2013. Phs has a subcontract on this grant. The aims of the grant are: 1) to develop a brief internet-based intervention for young, hiv-negative or never-tested black msm and transgender women optimized for mobile devices (e.g., smart phones, tablets) to increase hiv testing. The intervention will use an assessment and algorithm to provide men with a tailored recommendation of their optimal hiv testing approach; and 2) to pilot test the intervention using a three-arm randomized study design to estimate its potential efficacy compared to control conditions in increasing the proportion of young black msm or transgender women who test over six months. Phase 1a (in-person interviews) has been completed by collaborators from the new york blood center and suny binghamton. Special projects of national significance program: hrsa funded the community healthcare network (chn) to implement the transgender women engagement and entry to care project (tweet care project) at the family health center in jamaica, queens. The tweet care project is a peer-based model of outreach and engagement designed to increase access to and retention in quality hiv primary care for new york city transgender women of color who are newly diagnosed or lost to care. Members of the transgender community often encounter a variety of challenges, stigmas, and prejudices when attempting to access health care services, and research highlights the complexities and challenges that can occur within the provider and transgender client relationship that can contribute to a reluctance to engage in or the disengagement in care. By empowering transgender individuals to become advocates and educators for their peers that are not currently receiving care, the tweet care project aims to reduce or eliminate the individual- and system-level barriers that transgender women of color often encounter in accessing healthcare and hiv treatment. Over the five-year contract period, chn aims to receive 792 program referrals to the tweet care project and enroll 198 hiv+ transgender women of color clients into hiv care. Public health solutions is conducting the evaluation for this project in order to define best practices for the engagement, training, and support of patients to become peer leaders and to sustain improved health. Staphylococcal skin and soft tissue infections in msm: an internet-based quantitative and qualitative investigation and us-wide study of molecular epidemiology: phs recently collaborated with columbia university medical center on an internet health-related survey for msm. Community-associated methicillin resistant staphylococcus aureus (ca-mrsa) or "staph" is a major cause of skin and soft tissue infections (sstis) and is a serious public health issue. These infections disproportionately affect msm; however, this phenomenon is not well understood and is understudied. This study was performed to inform the design of an effective online prevention strategy. From november 2013 to july 2014, msm were recruited online (for a survey, with sub-studies including online focus groups, phone interviews, and self-swabbing) to: 1) identify risk factors for staph infections; 2) learn what msm know about these infections, where they obtain their health information and determine which interventions would be acceptable; 3) explore men's attitudes towards and experiences with staph; and 4) describe the strains of staph and their resistance to antibiotics that colonize the nose, groin, and perianal areas of our participants. This study launched in november 2013. Evaluation of rapid hiv self-testing among msm in high prevalence cities (estamp): given the unrelenting hiv crisis among msm and the imminent release into the market of rapid oral hiv self-test kits, it is necessary to evaluate the impact of providing rapid oral hiv self-test kits on repeat hiv”

“Special projects of national significance program (spns): community healthcare network (chn) was funded to implement the transgender women engagement and entry to care project (tweet care project) at the family health center in jamaica, queens. The tweet care project is a peer-based model of outreach and engagement designed to increase access to and retention in quality hiv primary care for nyc transgender women of color who are newly diagnosed or lost to care. Members of the transgender community often encounter a variety of challenges, stigmas, and prejudices when attempting to access health care services, and research highlights the complexities and challenges that can occur within the provider and transgender client relationship that can contribute to a reluctance to engage in or the disengagement in care. By empowering transgender individuals to become advocates and educators for their peers that are not currently receiving care, the tweet care project aims to reduce or eliminate the individual- and system-level barriers that transgender women of color often encounter in accessing healthcare and hiv treatment. Public health solutions is conducting the evaluation of this project in order to define best practices for the engagement, training, and support of peers. Using technology to match young black msm to hiv testing options: this is a four-year nih grant led by the new york blood center with phs as a subcontractor. The aims of the grant are: 1) to develop a brief internet-based intervention for young, hiv-negative or never-tested black msm and transgender women, optimized for mobile devices (e.g., smart phones, tablets) to increase hiv testing (the intervention will use an assessment and algorithm to provide men with a tailored recommendation of their optimal hiv testing approach); and 2) to pilot test the intervention using a three-arm randomized study design to estimate its potential efficacy compared to control conditions in increasing the proportion of young black msm or transgender women who test over six months. Staphylococcal and soft tissue infections in msm: an internet-based quantitative and qualitative investigation and us-wide study of molecular epidemiology: phs recently collaborated with columbia university medical center on an internet health-related survey for msm. Community-associated methicillin resistant staphylococcus aureus (ca-mrsa) or "staph" is a major cause of skin and soft tissue infections (sstis) and is a serious public health issue. These infections disproportionately affect msm; however, this phenomenon is not well understood and is understudied. This study was performed to inform the design of an effective online prevention strategy. From november 2013 to july 2014, msm were recruited online (for a survey, with sub-studies including online focus groups, phone interviews, and self-swabbing) to: 1) identify risk factors for staph infections; 2) learn what msm know about these infections, where they obtain their health information and determine which interventions would be acceptable; 3) explore men's attitudes towards and experiences with staph; and 4) describe the strains of staph and their resistance to antibiotics that colonize the nose, groin, and perianal areas of our participants. Reproductive health: reducing the burden of teen & unintended pregnancy in the southwest bronx: improving access and decision-making: this one-year project, funded by the new york community trust in july 2014, is expanding the research unit's previous work with its interactive, online, bilingual contraceptive decision-making app from the clinical setting to the community setting. The community-based intervention will be implemented in the south bronx, which includes neighborhoods with the highest proportion of teen pregnancies in new york city. This project will establish community partnerships and clinical linkages in the south bronx to reach teens and young women, and disseminate information about the contr”