Current through Reg. 49, No. 38; September 20, 2024
(a) Selection of a local agency to provide
WIC Program services will be based on the local agency priority system as
follows:
(1) A public or private nonprofit
health agency which can provide ongoing routine pediatric and obstetric care or
administrative services shall receive first priority consideration.
(2) A public or private nonprofit health or
human service agency which will enter into a written agreement with another
agency for either ongoing pediatric and obstetric care or administrative
services shall receive second priority consideration.
(3) A public or private nonprofit health
agency which will enter into a written agreement with private physicians
licensed by the state to provide ongoing pediatric and obstetric care to a
specific category of participants (women, infants, or children) shall receive
third priority consideration.
(4) A
public or private nonprofit human service agency which will enter into a
written agreement with private physicians licensed by the state to provide
ongoing routine pediatric and obstetric care shall receive fourth priority
consideration.
(5) A public or
private nonprofit human service agency which will provide ongoing routine
pediatric and obstetric care through referral to a health provider shall
receive fifth priority consideration.
(6) No WIC Program funds shall be expended to
reimburse private physicians for the health services performed.
(b) The state agency shall
establish an affirmative action plan each year to rank order each county's
relative need for WIC Program services based on the total number of potentially
eligible persons in each county.
(c) All WIC Program initiation and expansion
shall be executed utilizing a request for proposal (RFP) in accordance with
state agency policy, state law, USDA Food and Nutrition Service Instruction
802-1, and the state agency's approved affirmative action plan under one of the
following conditions:
(1) the state agency
determines it is in the best interests of the state to initiate an open
competitive statewide RFP;
(2) an
existing WIC Program local agency is either disqualified as a provider of WIC
Program services or does not wish to continue as a local agency;
(3) a state agency health services region
wishes to transfer direct WIC Program services to a local agency; or
(4) a prospective agency satisfactorily
documents to the state agency that a specific geographical area is underserved
and the current WIC local agency providing services in that area is unable to
provide services to that geographical area and declines to develop a
collaborative effort to deliver services to meet the documented unmet
need.
(d) The state
agency shall evaluate proposals to serve as a WIC Program local agency
submitted in response to an RFP.
(e) The state agency shall advise respondent
agencies of the status of their applications to provide WIC Program services in
accordance with the schedule of events in the public notice and the
RFP.
(f) In the event of an
emergency or unexpected interruption of WIC Program services, the state agency
WIC Director may waive any or all parts of the application process if necessary
to ensure uninterrupted delivery of WIC services in a geographic area or
areas.
