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.
