Will Humble Community Health Workers, Early Childhood, Opioids, Professional Development, State Legislature, Wills Blog

CHW Rulemaking, Opioid Epidemic Ends and Various CEU Opportunities

Community Health Worker Certification Rulemaking

The new law that authorizes the voluntary certification of community health workers will officially take effect on August 3 (HB 2324 Voluntary Certification for Community Health Workers). Voluntary certification can’t begin until the ADHS completes their Administrative Rulemaking (regulations) that’ll flesh out the details of the certification program including defining the core competencies, the criteria for establishing those competencies, continuing education requirements, the fee and other certification details. 

The first step in the Rulemaking process is for the ADHS to populate the 9 member advisory council to help inform the Rulemaking (the ADHS Director makes those appointments based on the criteria in the Session Law – the language at the end of the bill here).  After that, the agency needs to open the docket for the rulemaking and put draft rules out for public comment in what’s called the Arizona Administrative Register.

The public will then have a chance to comment on those initial draft regulations.  The ADHS will then consider those comments and file the final proposed rules with the AZ Secretary of State (here’s a summary of the rulemaking process on the SOS website).

Before the rules become effective- the agency needs to get final approval of the regulations by the Governor’s Regulatory Review Council (GRRC).  If GRRC approves the rules- they’d become effective and voluntary certification could begin.

Realistically- even if the ADHS starts right away and appoints the advisory council and they begin meeting this Summer and began writing the initial draft rules later this year, it could easily take a couple of years before they’d become effective- so it’s important to begin the process soon with initial advisory council meetings. 

You might be familiar with other agency rulemaking that have gone a lot faster than this.  That’s likely because those were probably “exempt” rulemakings, which provides several rulemaking short cuts including an exemption from the GRRC requirements.  Sadly, the CHW Rulemaking isn’t “exempt”.

The Rulemaking will be among the topics we’ll all be talking about at the AZCHOW Conference on June 21st and 22nd in Tucson.  Hopefully many of you will be able to make it.  AzPHA will be exhibiting at the conference.

 

Opioid Public Health Emergency Executive Order Ends

This week the Governor officially ended the emergency public health declaration that was signed via an Executive Order about a year ago.  Much has been accomplished over the last year including implementing legislation that improves prescribing practices and enhances emergency responses and increases access to treatment.  Of course- the work will go on.  The epidemic didn’t start overnight, and it surely won’t end overnight.  You can read the official end of the emergency declaration here.

Rep. McSally (R) is hosting a House of Representatives Border and Maritime Subcommittee hearing today (May 30) at 9:30 am at the UA College of Medicine Phoenix (Building 2) entitled: “An Unsecure Border and the Opioid Crisis: The Urgent Need for Action to Save Lives” featuring the Governor, various federal officials from the DEA, CBP, and DHS as well as Dr. Christ, Debbie Moak, and some people from faith-based organizations. You can see the panel line up here.  It looks like it’s an open meeting.

 

Aligning Health and Early Childhood Learning

Evidence shows how important early childhood education is in protecting people from disease and disability as an adult–  and that a child’s health impacts his or her ability to learn and succeed in school and later in life. Even with these known positive connections between early learning and wellness- health and education systems sometimes fail to align and provide opportunities to maximize health and early learning outcomes for children.

To address the disconnect between health and education, the HHS & US Department of Education outlined a set of recommendations for states and communities to align health and early learning systems. The recommendations emphasize the need for a comprehensive, seamless, and coordinated set of systems to support children, parents, and families.

 

Legislative Session Webinar Posted

The UA has posted my webinar from a couple of weeks ago that summarizes the legislative session from a public health perspective.  The whole thing is about an hour long.  You can check out the webinar on the UA Telemedicine Website.  Here’s the PowerPoint that I used.

 

CDC’s Learning Connection

The CDC has what they call a “Learning Connection” which connects public health professionals, including healthcare workers, to training opportunities and educational tools developed by CDC. Their Learning Connection also engages public health professionals around the world via social media messaging and a monthly e-newsletter.

The CDC Learning Connection: 1) features quality learning opportunities from CDC, other federal agencies, and federally funded partners; 2) keeps you up-to-date on the latest training through a free monthly e-newsletter; 3) offers access to thousands of training opportunities through CDC TRAIN — CDC’s online learning system; 4) connects you to information about CDC internships and fellowships; and 5) makes it easy to locate courses that offer continuing education. There are literally hundreds of courses one can take- mostly on-line and self-paced.

 

Free Continuing Education from MMWR and Medscape:

CDC MMWR and Medscape introduced a new FREE continuing education (CE) activity that describe trends and demographic differences in health outcomes and healthcare use for childhood asthma, based on a CDC analysis of asthma data from the 2001-2016 National Health Interview Survey for children 17 years and younger.

This activity is intended for pediatricians, pulmonologists, public health officials, nurses, and other clinicians caring for patients with childhood asthma. To access this FREE MMWR / Medscape CE activity visit https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/cme/medscape_cme.html. If you’re not a registered user on Medscape, you may register for free or login without a password and get unlimited access to all continuing education activities and other Medscape features.

 

Free Continuing Education Training for Opioid Prescribers offered by UA

With the requirement of Arizona prescribers to complete 3 hours of opioid, substance use disorder, or addiction-related CME, the University if Arizona’s Center for Rural Health we offer Arizona based materials and continuing education opportunities including:

Free online CME vouchers worth $150: order vouchers by responding to this email. We can mail them to you in batches of 100 to 500. Please feel free to forward the listserv blast below and attached documents for your attendees.

Free Arizona Opioid Prescribing Guidelines printed copies: order at http://www.azdhs.gov/audiences/clinicians/index.php#clinical-guidelines-and-rx-guidelines-order

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I’m doing my best to populate the “upcoming events” part of our AzPHA website.  If you have an upcoming public health related event- please let me know and I’ll get it up on our website at: https://azpha.org/upcoming-events/

 

Dr. Bob’s Travelogue

I’ve gotten a couple more Travelogues from Dr. Bob in the last couple of weeks.  He’s been living for the last couple of months just outside of London. He’s writing some entertaining travelogues- with a splash of public health of course. Take a few minutes when you’re on a comfortable couch and enjoy Travelogue 1 & 2: Getting Settled and Travelogue 3: Nutrition. Here’s Interlude from last week and this new one Hoof Beats.

Will Humble Family Planning, Medicaid, Wills Blog

Ebola, Family Planning, Public Charge, & Medicaid Network Standards

Ebola Outbreak in Democratic Republic of the Congo

WHO Policy Body Concludes it’s Not a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (yet)

The Democratic Republic of the Congo’s (DRC) Ministry of Health has confirmed 45 cases of Ebola Virus Disease in the last few weeks. Most of them have been in the remote Bikoro health zone, but 1 case is in Mbandaka, a city of 1.2 million, which is bad because of the city’s size and because it’s next to the Congo river- a major transportation corridor for people and trade. Large cities that are also transportation hubs can serve as a distribution channel for the virus.

The WHO’s Emergency Committee met last week and heard about the DRC’s surveillance & interventions. The Committee concluded that “… the interventions underway provide strong reason to believe that the outbreak can be brought under control, including: enhanced surveillance, establishment of case management facilities, deployment of mobile laboratories, expanded engagement of community leaders, establishment of an airbridge, and other planned interventions.  In addition, the advanced preparations for use of the investigational vaccine provide further cause for optimism.”

The Committee concluded that “… the conditions for a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC) have not currently been met.” They advised against travel or trade restrictions as interventions.  Despite not being classified as a PHEIC, resources are still available to the DRC from the WHO consistent with the WHO’s Emergency Response Framework. 

Activities include distribution of vaccine to Congo (4,000 doses so far and 3,000 more coming), cold chain resources, prepositioning of additional vaccine in Mali and support and treatment and surveillance staff from WHO & Medecins Sans Frontieres. They are using a ring vaccination strategy around cases and contacts.  Surprisingly I don’t see anything on the CDC’s website about the outbreak right now, but hopefully they’re engaged.

Let’s hope that the WHO Emergency Committee is right and the Ministry has the resources, expertise and logistical support they need to quickly identify cases and conduct the needed interventions to stop the spread before this becomes a regional or international epidemic like it did in 2014.  

 

HHS to Restrict Title X Family Planning Program

Last week the President announced that the US Department of Health and Human Services will be changing federal family planning programs (Title X) to “ensure that taxpayers do not indirectly fund abortions”.  The statement suggested that HHS would be shortly proposing regulations that would ban Title X family planning providers from referring patients to abortion clinics.

Title X was enacted almost 50 years ago to provide quality family planning care to those who may not be able to afford it on their own.  Federal funds through Title X already can’t be used for abortion services. The funds are dedicated to access to medically accurate comprehensive healthcare for low-income individuals and families. The reproductive healthcare and family planning services include contraception, cancer and STD testing as well as counseling and education and more.  Title X funding has contributed to the recent and significant decline in unintended and teen pregnancies as well as unplanned births and has reduced abortions.

I searched all over the HHS website and I can’t find the proposed rule change anywhere, so the proposed changes haven’t been released yet. We don’t know if they’ll propose an emergency rule (hitting Title X networks immediately) or go through a normal rulemaking process.  The normal process (including posting the proposed rule in the Administrative Register and a comment period) would be slower because the public would have the chance to comment, and comments would need to be reviewed before the rule could be finalized.

This has already been a chaotic year for Title X applicants for family planning service providers. It’s normally a 3-year funding cycle for Title X providers, but the Administration has changed that to a 1-year cycle- and applications for the coming year are due this Thursday (5/24).

If the proposed rule is the same one that was proposed by the Reagan Administration (and later rescinded by Clinton), it would prevent any provider from referring or providing information on abortion services.  We don’t know the fine points of the rule yet, and cannot speculate about its structure, but we will keep you updated as we learn more. 

 

AzPHA Comments on AHCCCS’ Network & Appointment Standards

AHCCCS is rolling out new integrated care contracts on October 1, and most members will be receiving services for both acute and behavioral care from these managed care organizations.  One of the keys to making sure that members have access to a health care provider when they need it is for AHCCCS to make sure each managed care organization has an adequate network of contracted providers. 

AHCCCS sets their network adequacy standards in what’s called their “AHCCCS Contractors Operations Manuals”, or ACOMs for short.  From now through May 28, 2018 AHCCCS is accepting public comment on their proposed manuals for network expectations for the integrated care contracts that start on October 1.

Our Public Health Policy Committee reviewed the proposals and submitted comments (available on my blog at https://azpha.org/). In short- we commented that we liked the fact that the new proposed network standards are more easily measured and therefore easier to ensure compliance.  We also encouraged them to ask the plans to contract with the county health departments for services like vaccinations, sexual transmitted disease testing and treatment, reproductive health, and tuberculosis prevention and control. 

We also asked that when Plans ask for and receive exemptions from the standards that the information be posted on enrollment websites so members have that info as they make enrollment decisions.  Anybody can comment on the proposed standards at this website before May 28.

 

Kaiser Family Foundation “Public Charge” Issue Brief

A few weeks ago I wrote about a change that the US Department of Homeland Security is mulling to allow the federal government to take into account the use of federal health, nutrition, and other non-cash public programs like Medicaid, the Children’s Health Insurance Program, and WIC when making a determination about whether someone is likely to be a “public charge.”  Under these changes, use of these programs by an individual or a family member, including a citizen child, could result in a person being denied lawful permanent resident status or entry into the U.S.

Such changes would apply to coverage provided to legal immigrants and their citizen children, leading to decreased participation in Medicaid, CHIP, Affordable Care Act marketplace coverage and other programs, even though they would remain eligible for them.

The Kaiser Family Foundation published a new issue brief this week that provides an overview of the 10.4 million kids in the U.S. that have a non-citizen parent (the parent is the person that would be affected by the changes).  Then issue brief presents different scenarios of disenrollment from Medicaid and CHIP to illustrate the potential effects on their health coverage and discusses the implications for their health.

How do Lava & Seawater Make Acid Mist?

I heard on the radio that when lava coming from the Kilauea volcano hits the ocean it’s forming an acid mist that’s dangerous to the lungs.  I got curious how the acid forms.  It turns out that the acid comes from 2 different sources.  About 30% of the acid is trapped in the molten lava as a gas and escapes when the lava cools fast in the ocean water. 

The bigger source (70%) is a chemical reaction in which the salt dissolved in the ocean (NaCl and H2O) – in the presence of super-hot lava- forms NaOH (sodium hydroxide) and HCl (hydrochloric acid).  Of course- it’s more complicated than that (a lot more complicated).  If you’re interested in the particulars you can check out this journal article.

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I’m doing my best to populate our “Upcoming Events” section of our AzPHA website.  If you have an upcoming public health related event- let me know and I’ll get it up on our website at: https://azpha.org/upcoming-events/

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Grand Canyon University is developing a Bachelor of Science in Public Health and they would like to gather input from the public health professional community to help inform the curriculum. Please take a few minutes to provide them some feedback on this Grand Canyon University Bachelor of Public Health Policy Survey

 

ADHS EMS Regulatory Services Section Chief Post Open

The ADHS Bureau of Emergency Medical Services and Trauma Systems is recruiting for a senior management position in the Bureau of EMS and Trauma System to lead a team of professionals in several functional areas including, statutory committee support, EMS and trauma data collection, system of care performance improvement analysis and reporting, EMS and trauma system initiatives, community paramedicine, and strategic planning and communication

Responsibilities include:

  • Supporting a diverse multi-cultural workforce that reflects the community, promotes equal opportunity at all levels of ADHS, and creates an inclusive work environment that enables all individuals to perform to their fullest potential free from discrimination

  • Assisting in policy and rule development with Bureau and Department leadership

  • Leading a highly motivated, professional team

  • Guiding, monitoring and ensuring success of numerous projects and deliverables

  • Creating and editing EMS and trauma-related reports and plan

  • Ensuring successful meetings of Governor and Director-appointed advisory meetings

  • Seeking out and sharing resources to enhance the Arizona EMS and trauma system

  • Traveling to a limited number of national, state or local meetings

Salary: up to $60,354   Apply Here

 

AzPHA Member Kelli Donley on Horizon Thursday RE Her Latest Book

AzPHA member Kelli Donley will be on Horizon this Thursday at 5:30pm (May 24) to talk about her newest book called COUNTING COUP. The book is about the Phoenix Indian School, and like her other novels, has a strong public health theme. Here’s a short description of her book, which you can order from Amazon:

Happily consumed with her academic career, Professor Avery Wainwright never planned on becoming sole guardian of her octogenarian Aunt Birdie. Forced to move Birdie—and her failing memory—into her tiny apartment, Avery’s precariously balanced life loses its footing. 

Unearthed in the chaos is a stack of sixty-year-old letters. Written in 1951, the letters tell of a year Avery’s grandmother, Alma Jean, spent teaching in the Indian school system, in the high desert town of Winslow, Arizona. The letters are addressed to Birdie, who was teaching at the Phoenix Indian School. The ghostly yet familiar voices in the letters tell of a dark time in her grandmother’s life, a time no one has ever spoken of. 

Torn between caring for the old woman who cannot remember, and her very different memories of a grandmother no longer alive to explain, Avery searches for answers. But the scandal and loss she finds, the revelations about abuses, atrocities, and cover-ups at the Indian schools, threaten far more than she’s bargained for. 

 

Most of you know Dr. Bob England, who’s been on the AZ public health scene for the last 30 years including 12 years as the Director of the Maricopa County Public Health Department.  Bob’s been living for the last couple of months just outside of London. 

He’s writing some entertaining travelogues- with a splash of public health of course. Take a few minutes when you’re on a comfortable couch and enjoy Travelogue 1 & 2: Getting Settled and Travelogue 3: Nutrition. Here’s the 5th installment: Interlude.  Back to the 4th Travelogue next week.

Will Humble Medicaid, Wills Blog

AzPHA Comments on AHCCCS’ Proposed Network Sufficiency and Appointment Standards

May 11, 2018

 

Thomas J. Betlach

Administrator,

Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System

801 E Jefferson Street

Phoenix, AZ 85034

 

Dear Administrator Betlach:

I write on behalf of the Arizona Public Health Association (AzPHA) – one of Arizona’s oldest and largest membership organizations dedicated to improving the health of Arizona citizens and communities. An affiliate of the American Public Health Association, our members include health care professionals, state and county health employees, health educators, community advocates, doctors, nurses and students.

Thank you for the opportunity to comment on your AHCCCS Contractors Operations Manuals for the upcoming October 1 Integrated Care Contracts.  We have reviewed the proposed 400 Series Manuals and have comments on ACOM 436 (Minimum Network Requirements) and 417 (Appointment Availability, Monitoring and Reporting).

ACOM 436 Minimum Network Requirements

We applaud the Administration for applying measurable and verifiable standards for geographic network adequacy.  We like the way the Administration is using a standard which includes a percentage of the members within both a discrete distance and time from a provider in the various categories. The percentages and distances for rural and urban areas seem reasonable.  We encourage you to keep these types of easily measurable and verifiable standards in the final ACOM 436.

County public health departments support medical homes especially in under-served areas.  Their core services include vaccinations, sexual transmitted disease testing and treatment, reproductive health, and tuberculosis prevention and control.  These are services that patients are not always able or willing to access in their medical home. When county health departments are not a network provider, this critical health care infrastructure component is unavailable to members which can gave a substantial negative impact on community and member health. Please require your new integrated managed care plans to include Public Health departments in their health care provider networks. 

This will ensure fairness in providing services to your members, provide revenue that enables county health departments to continue to serve their communities, and prevent taxpayers from paying twice for access to critical health services.

A key to making member choice meaningful requires contractors to be transparent about whether they are meeting Minimum Network Requirements.  When contractors are out of compliance with the ACOM 436 Standard(s), we encourage the Administration to require contractors to disclose on their websites, newsletters and other member communication materials which standards they have not complied with and/or have requested exceptions from so that Members can take that information into consideration as they choose plans. This disclosure standard may need included in ACOM 404 for compliance purposes. The information should also be added to the AHCCCS enrollment websites

ACOM 417 Appointment Availability, Monitoring, and Reporting

We applaud the Administration for applying statistical methods and measurable and verifiable standards for regulating appointment availability, monitoring and reporting. We like the way the Administration is using a standard which includes an explanation of how sample sizes meet a 95% statistically significant confidence level including the calculations used to confirm the confidence level.  We encourage the Administration to keep these criteria and the reporting template.

As with ACOM 436, we encourage the Administration to require contractors to disclose on their websites, newsletters, and other member materials which standards they have not complied with and/or have requested exceptions from so that Members can take that information into consideration as they choose plans. This disclosure standard may need included in ACOM 404 for compliance purposes. The information should also be added to the AHCCCS enrollment websites.

Sincerely,

 

Will Humble, MPH

Executive Director,

Arizona Public Health Association

Will Humble Disease Control, Nutrition, Wills Blog

Legislative Session Wrap-up & Farm Bill Stuff

Arizona’s Legislative Session in the Books

Well, the 2018 Legislative Session is in the books.  All in all, it was a good year for public health at the state level.  Several more good public health-related bills were signed today including:

HB 2324 Voluntary Certification for Community Health Workers

HB 2088 Public Health Guidelines in Schools

HB 2235 Dental Therapy Licensure

SB 1245 SNAP- Fruits and Vegetables

HB2371 Statewide Food Truck Licensing 

I’ll be doing a free Webinar about the legislative session Thursday May 17 at noon with the UA Center for Rural Health & the UA Telemedicine Program. Visit the AZ Telemedicine Program’s Website to register. 

Here’s a link to a PowerPoint that summarizes the Victories, Missed Opportunities, Disappointments, and things that were in the final budget that link to public health. It’s the ppt that I’ll be using during the webinar on Thursday.

 

US Farm Bill: An Opportunity to Leverage Policy to Reduce Obesity

You’ve probably heard about the “Farm Bill” at one point or another.  While it’s called the Farm Bill- it’s not just about farms. It’s the bill that sets the food and agricultural budget and policy for the US. The bill impacts farming livelihood, and also determines how food is grown and which foods are grown.  It was last reauthorized by Congress in 2014 and Congress is now working on a new reauthorization.
 
The 2014 Farm Bill  (the  Agricultural Act of 2014) included some changes and reforms to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP or food stamps) and the Commodity Supplemental Food Program.  In Arizona, SNAP benefits help put food on the table for more than one million people each month, with more than half of the benefits going to kids and teens.

The 2014 Farm Bill did a few things that promoted healthier options by requiring SNAP retailers to provide healthy choices. The ’14 law also provided grant programs to encourage people that receive SNAP benefits to buy more fruits and vegetables, provide funding for loan programs for healthy food retailers, and create opportunities for schools to add different kinds of vegetables as part of school menus.

We’re hoping that Stakeholders like us can better leverage the Farm Bill to improve healthy eating this time around now that we have a member of our delegation on the Agriculture Committee.  Arizona District 1 Congressman Tom O’Halleran is on the House committee. 

Back when I was at the ADHS we worked with ASU on a report to provide information to Congress about how SNAP could be leveraged to improve healthy eating.  The full report has the details but here are a few of the concepts in the evidence review:

  • Improving access to healthy food by establishing guidelines requiring SNAP vendors to carry more healthier options

  • Establishing nutrition standards for foods that qualify for purchase using SNAP benefits.  Right now, SNAP benefits can be used for basically any retail food no matter how unhealthy it is (alcohol can’t be purchased with SNAP benefits). 

  •  Making changes to the SNAP education program to incorporate evidence based public health practices to bring about sustained changes in participant behavior.

Rather than strengthen the food quality requirements, the bill currently being debated by the House Agriculture Committee would expand the existing SNAP work requirements.  Right now, SNAP requires childless adults between 18 and 49 who don’t have disabilities to work or be in work training to qualify. The draft legislation would expand the work requirement to include adults up to 59 and people who care for children older than 6. The draft bill also would set tighter time frames for recipients to find work and stiffen the penalties if they don’t.

SNAP recipients covered under the work requirement would have to document that they are working or getting job training for 20 hours a week. The first time an individual doesn’t comply with that requirement would trigger a loss of benefits for a year. Failing to comply again would result in being locked out of SNAP for three years.

The proposed changes would increase state costs by requiring states to collect monthly information from most SNAP users about their hours worked, their hours of participation in work programs, and the reasons they may not be working in a work program. 

The APHA has set up a way that you can Contact your representative today and urge them to include nutrition standards for foods to qualify for purchase under SNAP and also to comment about the new proposed work/work training requirements.

 

Sonoran Prevention Works Scores Syringe Access Grant

Sonoran Prevention Works received a $125,000 grant from the Vitalyst Health Foundation  to support advocacy and education for syringe access programs – a proven harm reduction strategy in response to the opioid crisis and rising hepatitis-C and HIV infection rates. They’ll be partnering with the University of Arizona College of Medicine Tucson and Creosote Partners to destigmatize syringe access programs and understand the comprehensive needs of people who inject drugs.

The Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office will also work with Sonoran Prevention Works to implement a needle stick prevention program and to educate law enforcement on injection drug use. These partnerships will work to support policy change that treats substance use as a public health issue.

Will Humble Federal Budget, Medicaid, Nutrition, State Legislature, Wills Blog

Arizona’s 2018 Legislative Session in the Books

Well, Arizona’s legislative session ended last week, so you’re spared my impossibly long policy updates.  You can visit this PowerPoint to dive into the good things, bad things, and the missed opportunities this year.  It’s still a draft summary of the Session because the Governor hasn’t taken action on several bills (voluntary certification of community health workers, public health measures in schools, dental therapy, food truck licensing, and fresh produce in SNAP). BTW- Let me know if you see anything I’ve left out of the draft powerpoint so I can update it before my Webinar next week

I’ll be doing a Webinar about the legislative session on Thursday May 17 at noon in conjunction with the UA Center for Rural Health & the UA Telemedicine Program.  Visit the AZ Telemedicine Program’s Website to register.

 

FDA Finally Implementing ACA’s Menu Labeling Requirement

You might have noticed that more and more restaurants and fast food places are starting to put calorie and other nutrition information on their menus.  That’s not a coincidence or accident- they’re implementing the menu nutrition labeling requirements in the Affordable Care Act.  Section 4205 of the ACA requires restaurants with 20 or more locations to post calorie content information for standard menu items directly on the menu and menu boards.  Vending machine operators with 20 or more machines are also required to disclose calorie content for certain items. 

Nutrition clarity is a real opportunity for public health change.  Not only will the new labels give the public key information to help them make better decisions about what they buy for themselves and their families- it’ll give pause to restaurants before they label their menus- giving them an opportunity to change ingredients to lower calorie counts.  It may even spur a trend away from super-sizes and toward more appropriate and reasonable serving sizes.  With 32% of the calories consumed in the US tied to eating outside the home- this is an important opportunity. 

Anyway, the FDA announced this week that they’re finally implementing the requirements that were established by the ACA.  Another evidence-based policy intervention brought to you by the Affordable Care Act.

 

CMS Denies Kansas’ Request for 3-year Lifetime Medicaid Eligibility

This week the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator denied Kansas’ request to impose a 3-year lifetime limits on Medicaid eligibility. 

Her decision bodes well for us in Arizona- at least when it comes to lifetime coverage limits (although CMS is poised to almost certainly approve AZ’s work/work training request).  Arizona law requires AHCCCS to annually ask CMS for permission to require work (or work training) and income reporting for “able bodied adults” and a 5-year lifetime limit on AHCCCS eligibility (with some exceptions).

A few months ago AHCCCS turned in their official waiver request asking permission to implement those requirements.  The AHCCCS Director recently postponed the negotiation process of the lifetime limit request to expedite approval of the work requirements.  See his letter here.  Word on the street is that AHCCCS expects approval of the work requirements in June.

 

Mid-year Federal Budget Cut Request

This week the White House submitted a special message to Congress requesting they rescind $15B bill in budget authority from the current fiscal year. The proposal includes unobligated balances from prior-year appropriations and reductions to budget authority for mandatory programs.

Below are selected programs proposed for rescission by the Administration that may impact public health programs. For more information, view the entire rescission proposal here.

  • Children’s Health Insurance Fund: The proposal would rescind $5B in amounts made available by the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015 to supplement the 2017 national allotments to states, including $3B in unobligated balances available on October 1, 2017. 

  • Child Enrollment Contingency Fund: The proposal would rescind $2B in amounts available for the CHIP Contingency Fund, of which there were $2.4B available. The Contingency Fund provides payments to states that experience funding shortfalls due to higher than expected enrollment. 

  • Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation (Innovation Center): The proposal would rescind $800M in amounts made available for FY11-19 for the Innovation Center, of which there were $3.5B available on October 2017. The Innovation Center was created to test innovative payment and service delivery models to reduce program expenditures under Medicare, Medicaid, and CHIP while preserving or enhancing quality care.

 

Speak for Health: Fund Public Health in 2019

As Congress begins its work on the FY 2019 appropriations process, Speak for Health and tell our members of Congress  to reject the proposed cuts to important public health programs in the president’s budget proposal and instead to prioritize public health by building upon the important increased investments in public health provided by Congress in FY 2018.

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Most of you know Dr. Bob England, who’s been on the AZ public health scene for the last 30 years including 12 years as the Director of the Maricopa County Public Health Department.  You know that he’s a terrific cartoonist.  But did you know he’s an engaging travel writer?

Bob’s been living for the last couple of months just outside of London.  He’s been writing some terrifically entertaining travelogues- with a splash of public health of course. Take a few minutes when you’re on a comfortable couch and enjoy Travelogue 1 & 2: Getting Settled.  Here’s Travelogue 3: Nutrition. Enjoy.

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If you haven’t yet become a member of AzPHA please consider joining our team!

Here’s information about our Individual & Organizational Memberships