Study Design This includes a discussion of the evaluation design employed including research questions and hypotheses; type of study design; impacted populations and stakeholders; data sources; and data collection; analysis techniques, including controls or adjustments for differences in comparison groups, controls for other interventions in the State and any sensitivity analyses, and limitations of the study.
Program Design The County Human Resources Department will operate a Catastrophic Leave Bank which is designed to assist any County employee who has exhausted all paid accruals due to a serious or catastrophic illness, injury, or condition of the employee or family member. The program establishes and maintains a Countywide bank wherein any employee who wishes to contribute may authorize that a portion of his/her accrued vacation, compensatory time, holiday compensatory time or floating holiday be deducted from those account(s) and credited to the Catastrophic Leave Bank. Employees may donate hours either to a specific eligible employee or to the bank. Upon approval, credits from the Catastrophic Leave Bank may be transferred to a requesting employee's sick leave account so that employee may remain in paid status for a longer period of time, thus partially ameliorating the financial impact of the illness, injury, or condition. Catastrophic illness or injury is defined as a critical medical condition, a long-term major physical impairment or disability which manifests itself during employment.
Unbundled Copper Loop – Non-Designed (UCL-ND 2.4.3.1 The UCL–ND is provisioned as a dedicated 2-wire metallic transmission facility from BellSouth’s Main Distribution Frame (MDF) to a customer’s premises (including the NID). The UCL-ND will be a “dry copper” facility in that it will not have any intervening equipment such as load coils, repeaters, or digital access main lines (DAMLs), and may have up to 6,000 feet of bridged tap between the End User’s premises and the serving wire center. The UCL-ND typically will be 1300 Ohms resistance and in most cases will not exceed 18,000 feet in length, although the UCL-ND will not have a specific length limitation. For Loops less than 18,000 feet and with less than 1300 Ohms resistance, the Loop will provide a voice grade transmission channel suitable for Loop start signaling and the transport of analog voice grade signals. The UCL-ND will not be designed and will not be provisioned with either a DLR or a test point.
2.4.3.2 The UCL-ND facilities may be mechanically assigned using BellSouth’s assignment systems. Therefore, the Loop Makeup (LMU) process is not required to order and provision the UCL-ND. However, CBX One-Stop can request LMU for which additional charges would apply.
2.4.3.3 For an additional charge, BellSouth also will make available Loop Testing so that CBX One-Stop may request further testing on the UCL-ND. Rates for Loop Testing are as set forth in Exhibit A of this Attachment.
2.4.3.4 UCL-ND Loops are not intended to support any particular service and may be utilized by CBX One-Stop to provide a wide-range of telecommunications services as long as those services do not adversely affect BellSouth’s network. The UCL- ND will include a NID at the customer’s location for the purpose of connecting the Loop to the customer’s inside wire.
2.4.3.5 OC will be provided as a chargeable option and may be utilized when the UCL-ND provisioning is associated with the reuse of BellSouth facilities. OC-TS does not apply to this product.
2.4.3.6 CBX One-Stop may use BellSouth’s Unbundled Loop Modification (ULM) offering to remove excessive bridged taps and/or load coils from any copper Loop within the BellSouth network. Therefore, some Loops that would not qualify as UCL-ND could be transformed into Loops that do qualify, using the ULM process.
Unbundled Copper Loop – Designed (UCL-D) 2.4.2.1 The UCL-D will be provisioned as a dry copper twisted pair loop that is unencumbered by any intervening equipment (e.g., filters, load coils, range extenders, digital loop carrier, or repeaters). The UCL-D will be offered in two versions - Short and Long.
2.4.2.2 A short UCL-D (18,000 feet or less) is provisioned according to Resistance Design parameters, may have up to 6,000 feet of bridged tap and will have up to 1300 ohms of resistance.
2.4.2.3 The long UCL-D (beyond 18,000 feet) is provisioned as a dry copper twisted pair longer than 18,000 feet and may have up to 12,000 feet of bridged tap and up to 2800 ohms of resistance.
2.4.2.4 The UCL-D is a designed circuit, is provisioned with a test point, and comes standard with a DLR. OC is a chargeable option for a UCL-D; however, OC is always required on UCLs where a reuse of existing facilities has been requested by Granite.
2.4.2.5 These loops are not intended to support any particular services and may be utilized by Granite to provide a wide-range of telecommunications services so long as those services do not adversely affect BellSouth’s network. This facility will include a Network Interface Device (NID) at the customer’s location for the purpose of connecting the loop to the customer’s inside wire.
2.4.2.6 BellSouth will make available the following UCL-Ds:
Project Design Applicants must design a project that provides access to health services to enable eligible women and men experiencing health needs to secure and maintain safe and accessible quality screening and diagnostic services, comprehensive family planning, and/ or other women’s health services.
A. Applicants are encouraged to emphasize the following components in the design of their projects. Projects must:
1. Use a collaborative approach to maximize existing community resources and avoid duplication of effort;
2. Enhance systems and local processes to make it easier for people to transition to, from, and between services;
3. Address barriers to ensure services are accessible to people regardless of setting or location; and
4. Promote improvement and positively impact health and well-being through coordinated service delivery.
B. To be effective, services and activities provided or made available as part of the Proposed Project should have policies and procedures in place and include with the application as an attachment that:
1. Delineate the timely provision of services;
2. Deem Client eligibility and service provision as soon as possible and no later than 30 calendar days from initial request;
3. Require staff to assess and prioritize Client needs;
4. Implement with model fidelity to an evidence-based program or based upon best available research;
5. Plan in partnership with the person and are inclusive;
6. Provide in an environment that is most appropriate and based on a person’s preference including reasonable clinic/reception wait times that are not a barrier to care;
7. Provide referral sources for Clients that cannot be served or receive a specific service;
8. Are culturally and linguistically sensitive;
9. Tailor services to a person’s unique strengths and needs;
10. Manage funds to ensure established Clients continuity of care throughout budget year;
11. Continue to provide services to established Clients after allocated funds are expended;
12. Have processes to identify and eliminate possible barriers to care;
13. Do not deny services due to inability to pay;
14. Have appropriate key personnel and required staff to meet the medical and health needs of Clients;
15. Bill services appropriately and timely through TMHP;
16. Effectively communicate and document information related to health care needs with next steps available to Client;
17. Establish outreach and education plan for the community; and
18. Outline successful delivery of direct clinical services to Clients By submitting an Application under this RFA, the Applicant certifies that Applicant has or will have at time of grant award services, policies, or procedures that conform with the requirements in this section as applicable. HHSC, in its sole discretion, may request to review relevant documentation during the project period as necessary to ensure program fidelity.