To understand more about the value of nonprofit health care, go to:

www.nonprofithealthcare.org/reports/5_value.pdf

to read "The Value of Nonprofit Health Care"

To understand why nonprofits matter in medicine in the United States, go to:

http://content.healthaffairs.org/content/25/4/W287 full to read "How Nonprofits Matter in American Medicine and What to Do About It". You can click on pdf under FULL TEXT in the "This Article" block on the right hand side of the screen for a free download of the article.

Community Education

In addition to providing primary care medical services, HeartSong offers a variety of community health education programs. Most are offered free of charge to the public.

• From 2008-9, HeartSong offered a free community natural health education program entitled Naturally Yours which explored different topics and provided information and techniques for promoting health.

• In 2010 and 2011, a free community education stress management program, Relaxed Living, was launched with support from the Fanny Holt Ames and Edna Louise Holt Fund, Bank of America, Trustee. It was taught at different nonprofit hospital sites throughout Southern Vermont through 2010 and 2011.

• For 2011-12, the Integral Health: Tools for Holistic Living program began. In this program different health care practitioners from the local community offer tools for reducing stress that can be utilized at home with ease.

• In 2012, another program Yoga Heart: The Journey Home, designed to help people develop their personal capacity to experience equanimity and peace in their daily lives regardless of external circumstances, became available. It is offered several times a year.

Community Resources

• In 2011, HeartSong renovated a new building to provide a large community meeting room that is available free of charge to anyone who offers free health education programs for the community.

•In 2012, HeartSong launched this website to provide information about natural medicine and local community resources for natural healing and healthy living.

Uncompensated Care

Personal Self-Care and Lifestyle Counseling

• Because HeartSong is committed to helping people learn to live health-promoting lifestyles, lifestyle counseling and self-care education form an integral part of every appointment at HeartSong. While health insurers pay for a certain amount of time for counseling and education, HeartSong practitioners often spend longer with patients than the estimated time limits for various types of office visits. This is all time that is donated for the purpose of promoting community wellness.

• HeartSong makes sure that people who do not have the ability to pay for care receive the care that they need, either by providing services at no cost or by educating people about Vermont's health care programs and helping them get health care coverage.

VISION

We are a tax-exempt 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization committed to helping create self-sustaining, inclusive communities where all members enjoy perfect integral health – a dynamic state of physiological, psychological and spiritual resilience that empowers people to adapt and grow, to heal themselves and others, to protect the environment, and to achieve their highest potential. 2008

MISSION

Our mission is to promote integral community health in multiple ways by providing physical, mental, emotional, ecological, social, cultural, and spiritual education and medical care, and by creating systems to ensure equal health care access to people of all ages, professions and abilities, all lifestyles, faiths, and cultural traditions. 2008

MEET THE PEOPLE WHO HELP MAKE HEARTSONG POSSIBLE

Board of Directors

President: Julie Van der Horst Jansen, educator & massage therapist, Guilford, VT

Secretary/Treasurer: Omer Van der Horst Jansen, software engineer, IT consultant, Guilford, VT

Directors:<.p>

Ruby McAdoo, Pastry Chef, Burdock's, Walpole, NH

Carmen Berelson,Consultant, Brattleboro, Vermont

Dr. Sheila Frodermann, Naturopath, Attleboro, MA

Hosts

Dr. Ani Hawkinson, educator and naturopath, HeartSong's Founder, Executive Director, and In-House Physician
Dr. Diane Larsen-Freeman, Faculty, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI and Dummerston, VT
Dr. Beth Pimentel, Dean of Academic Affairs, University of Bridgeport College of Naturopathic Medicine, Bridgeport, CT
Holly Hammond, Vermont Student Association Corporation and Vermont School Counselor Association, Brattleboro, VT
Wendy Redlinger, Senior Arts Representative, GEMS Live!
Laurie Schur, psychotherapist and film maker, Santa Monica, CA
Catherine Audette, Physical Therapist, Putney, VT
Steve Mindel, builder, West Dummerson, VT

Advisory Board

Rupa Cousins, Alexander Technique & Rubenfield Synergy practitioner, Putney, VT
Martha D'Adamo, President, North American Pharmacal, Wilton, CT
Dr. Peter D'Adamo, D'Adamo Clinic & The Institute for Human Individuality, Wilton, CT.
Dr. D'Adamo has been kind enough to donate his SWAMI software for personalized nutrition to HeartSong.
Hilary Garivaltis, Director, Kripalu School of Ayurveda, Lenox, MA
Dr. Paul Herscu, New England School of Homeopathy, Amherst, MA
Evangelina Holvino, Chaos Management, Ltd, Brattleboro, VT
Rosy Mann, Faculty, Kripalu School of Ayurveda, Lenox MA
Curtiss Reed, Executive Director, Vermont Partnership for Fairness & Diversity
Dr. Amy Rothenberg, New England School of Homeopathy, Amherst, MA
Dr. Virender Sodhi, Ayurvedic and Naturopathic Clinic, Bellevue, WA
Dr. Shailinder Sodhi, Ayurvedic and Naturopathic Clinic, Bellevue, WA
Dr. Claire Stanley, Buddhist teacher, Vermont Insight Meditation Center, Brattleboro, VT
Dr. Otto Trinkl, Gastroenterology, Cheshire Medical Center, Keene, NH

Accountability is accomplished by providing documentation of adherence to the stated policies. HeartSong began to document organizational performance according to guidelines set forth by the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA).

NCQA-compliance is required by the Vermont Blueprint For Health for all primary care practices that anticipate joining Vermont's new single payer system, slated to begin implementation in 2014.

Types of Policies

Policies are created at different levels by different entities and individuals depending upon their purpose. In general, there are three types of policies:

1. Governance policies describe how the organization organizes itself and monitors its performance internally.

HeartSong has two sets of governance policies. Host governance policies describe policies for Host governance processes and Board of Director oversight. They also prepare Ends policies for the organization -- policies that define organizational goals. Board of Director governance policies describe policies for Board of Directors governance processes and organizational performance oversight and evaluation. All policies are adapted from the Policy Governance® Model to accommodate HeartSong's unique situation. http://www.carvergovernance.com/model.htm

2. Operational (means) policies describe how rules and procedures for the various activities of the organization.

In Vermont, operational policies for hospitals must reflect guidelines set by the National Committee for Quality Assurance the body responsible for certifying advanced primary care practices (APCP) on behalf of the Vermont Blueprint for Health

(http://hcr.vermont.gov/blueprint), the organization responsible for oversight of Vermont's single payer health care system.

Certain policies for medical organizations, such as privacy, must follow federal guidelines. Other policies are based on ends policies, internal organizational values, and resource availability. HeartSong's operational policies are described on our Policies page.

HeartSong continues to look for more ways to reduce its environmental impact as new information, innovations and resources become available. We currently engage in the following green practices in our day-to-day business operations.

Preventive Medicine

• Lifestyle and self-care counseling is provided at every appointment to encourage people to live in ways that promote health, therein reducing the need for advanced diagnostic techniques, prescription medications, and surgical interventions, all of which consume energy and pollute the environment.
• Individual and group preventive medicine counseling and education appointments and classes specifically address particular aspect of lifestyle that promote health and prevent disease.

Pollution Prevention

• Full-time employees live at the Putney facility, while part-time employees work at home, connecting with us virtually through telecommunication systems. This reduces gas emissions generated from daily commuting to and from work.
• Our publications and banners are printed on recycled, chlorine-free paper using non-toxic inks from green printers.
• We travel to distant sites to offer community education to groups, thus reducing emissions due to long-distance travel to HeartSong by multiple vehicles.
• We provide care-at-a-distance using telecommunication systems for people who live out-of-town.
• We spend more time with people while they are here to reduce the frequency of return office visits, and the associated pollution from gas emissions.

Resource Conservation

• We recycle paper, cardboard, plastic, glass, ink cartridges, and batteries.
• We use electronic medical records (EMR) instead of paper charts for medical records instead of paper.
• Most of our corporate business records are electronic instead of paper.
• We send referrals and appointment reminders electronically and invite medical specialists to join our EMR system in order to access patient charts directly, eliminating the need to mail paper copies to them, reducing paper consumption, and saving transportation record storage costs.
• We use energy efficient electronics and appliances, compact florescent light bulbs and natural light whenever possible.
• We use toilet paper, paper towels made from 100% post-consumer recycled content.
• We use biodegradable biodegradable packaging for our in-house products.