Title X in Mississippi

Title X (ten) is a federal grant program that helps people access essential sexual and reproductive health care. For more than 50 years, the Title X family planning program has played a critical role in ensuring access to family planning and related preventive health services for millions of people with lower incomes or without insurance.

Converge serves as the sole Title X grantee for Mississippi.

Learn more about Title X Service Grants here.

Converge is a Mississippi-based nonprofit working to ensure that everyone can access high-quality, person-centered sexual and reproductive health care—when, how, and where they need it. Rooted in the South and built for it, Converge partners with health care providers, insurers, and community organizations to reimagine a health care system that meets people where they are and reflects their real lives. 
 
Through its clinical network spanning Mississippi and Tennessee, Converge strengthens local providers and ensures that sexual and reproductive health care in the South is not only affordable, but sustainable and deeply responsive to the people it serves.

Learn more about Converge here.

The major benefits of receiving Title X funding include:

• Equitable Access. Title X funding is designed to reduce barriers to care for all clients, especially people from low-income families, people of color, and others who have been historically underserved, marginalized, and adversely affected by persistent poverty and inequality.

• Quality. Title X is considered the gold standard for family planning care, guided in part by the Quality Family Planning (QFP) Recommendations.
• Confidentiality. The Title X family planning program guarantees access to confidential services for all clients, including adolescents.
• Education and Training Support. Title X providers are supported by the Reproductive Healthcare National Training Center and the Clinical Training Center for Sexual and Reproductive Health and receive access to free high-quality training, including continuing education opportunities.
• Funding Flexibility. In addition to supporting clinical service delivery, Title X funding can be used to support family planning program operations and infrastructure—from staff and operations costs to support for community education and outreach activities.
• Discount Drug Pricing. Agencies that receive Title X funding are eligible to enroll as a covered entity in the 340B Drug Pricing Program, allowing them to offer Title X clients with covered outpatient drugs and devices at a significant discount—and supporting the availability of the full range of contraceptive methods.

Agencies can use Title X funds to pay for a variety of expenses. In addition to clinical services for uninsured and underinsured clients, Title X funds can cover staff training, quality assurance and quality improvement activities, program promotion and outreach, IT support, salaries and benefits, and other costs that support the delivery of Title X services.

All funds granted for Title X family planning service projects must be expended only for the purpose for which the funds were awarded and in accordance with the approved application and budget. Title X funds cannot be used:

• In a project where abortion is a method of family planning.
• For lobbying activities or advocacy.
• To purchase equipment.

Converge’s Title X project includes the following services:

• Contraceptive Counseling
• Contraception
• Wellness exams
• Breast and cervical cancer screenings
• Pregnancy testing and counseling
• STI screening and treatment
• HIV screening
• Fertility counseling and referral
• Preconception health and education

The following services are not covered by Converge’s Title X project:

• Primary care
• Abortion
• Colposcopy, LEEP of biopsies
• Extensive genetic counseling and evaluation
• Advanced infertility services
• Laboratory services alone

For additional information on required clinical services, see Family Planning and Related Preventive Health Services Checklists for Women and Men.

A family planning encounter is a documented contact between an individual and a family planning provider that is either face-to-face in a Title X service site or virtual using telehealth technology. The purpose of a family planning encounter is to provide family planning and related preventive health services to female and male clients who want to avoid unintended pregnancies or achieve intended pregnancies. In order to count as a family planning encounter, a written record of the services provided during the visit must be documented in the client record.

For additional information on how to determine which visits and clients qualify for the purposes of Title X reporting, see Understanding FPAR Definitions: What is a Family Planning Encounter and Who is a Family Planning User?

Title X services are guided by the requirements of the Title X statute, regulations, and legislative mandates and Title X program expectations.

Title X sub-recipient clinics are required to use a sliding fee scale for patients who are under 250% of the federal poverty level (FPL); patients who are at/under 100% of the FPL must be charged $0.

To ensure compliance with clinical and administrative mandates and expectations, Converge staff will conduct yearly site visits of each sub-recipient clinic. Additionally, because all family planning clients benefit from Title X support, when an agency receives Title X funds, it agrees to report data on all of its family planning clients, services, revenue, and expenses—regardless of payer or funding source.

Each year, Converge must report the following data to OPA via the Family Planning Annual Report (FPAR): number of family planning clients and encounters, select demographic characteristics, and services provided. When an agency receives Title X funds, it agrees to report this data for all family planning clients, regardless of payer source (e.g., Medicaid, private insurance, self pay).

For agencies that provide multiple types of services, clients may have visits in which they receive family planning services as well as other services—such as primary care—that are covered under different grant-funded programs. These visits are often referred to as “dual visits” or “integrated visits,” and they frequently occur in Title X-funded federally qualified health centers (FQHCs). Title X-funded agencies must report dual visits in both the Uniform Data System (UDS)—or other relevant grant-funded system—and FPAR.

Converge provides individualized training and technical assistance to all network providers in support of required data collection and reporting. Converge also utilizes a web-based data dashboard that integrates with an agency’s electronic medical record, making it much easier for clinic staff to collect and report data.

For additional information on these administrative reporting requirements, see Understanding the Total Program Concept and Integrating Title X with Primary Care: Developing and Implementing Compliant Sliding Fee Discount Schedules Job Aid.