Save the date
90th annual azpha fall conference and annual meeting
Integrating Care to Improve Public Health Outcomes:
Primary Care | Behavioral Health | Public Health
October 3, 2018
Desert Willow Conference Center
There’s widespread support for the goals of the Triple Aim: To deliver the highest quality care with an optimal care experience at the lowest appropriate cost. The key is developing systems of care that best achieve these goals.
Our 90th Annual Fall Conference and Annual Meeting Integrating Care to Improve Public Health Outcomes: Primary Care | Behavioral Health | Public Health will explore efforts currently underway to integrate care and improve outcomes in Arizona as well as initiatives on the horizon to develop systems of care that best achieve the goals of the Triple Aim.
We’ll kick off our Conference with a presentation of the latest academic research that evaluates the outcomes of co-located and integrated models of behavioral care as part of primary care as well as evidence-based toolkits to assist practices including ways to measure progress. We’ll also be exploring how providers are implementing new strategies to integrate care via AHCCCS’ “Targeted Investment” program which provides financial incentives to eligible providers to develop systems for integrated care.
We’ll conduct a short AzPHA Annual Meeting over a delicious buffet lunch followed by our keynote address from the American Public Health Association President Joseph Telfair, DRPH, MSW, MPH. In our afternoon sessions, we’ll learn about new initiatives to work with managed care in two key areas that impact health outcomes: tobacco use and housing and homelessness.
We’ll close with a panel discussion of key leaders among Arizona’s Managed Care Organizations as they discuss priorities and strategies for improving outcomes under the new integrated Medicaid contracts which will begin October 1, 2018. The new contracts will require better coordination between providers which can mean better health outcomes for members.
After the conference we’ll have a hosted reception as we celebrate AzPHA’s 90th Anniversary!
I’m still working on the agenda, but I expect to have it fleshed out in a couple of weeks and have our registration site up and sponsorship packets out by the 3rd week in June. A summary of the conference is up on our homepage at www.azpha.org.
American Cancer Society Changes Colon Cancer Screening Recommendation
The American Cancer Society changed their recommendation for colon cancer screening by moving down the standard recommendation 5 years- suggesting that most people get screened at age 45. There are a couple of ways people can get screened, either using a sensitive test that looks for signs of cancer in a person’s stool or with an exam that looks at the colon and rectum (a colonoscopy). The reason they changed the recommendation is because new data shows that cases of colorectal cancer for people under age 55 increased 50% between in the last 20 years (1994-2014).
However, just because the recommendation from the ACS changed doesn’t necessarily mean that insurers will begin paying for it between 45 and 49 years old. For that to happen, the United States Preventive Services Task Force would need to recommend the change and list it as a Category A or B preventive health service.
In recent years, a prevention model of health has woven its way into the fabric of traditional models of care. With the passage of the Affordable Care Act the role preventive services has expanded significantly in the US health care delivery system. Preventive health care services prevent diseases and illnesses from happening in the first place rather than treating them after they happen.
“Category A & B” preventive services recommended by the United States Preventive Services Task Force are now included (at no cost to consumers) in all Qualified Health Plans offered on the Marketplace. In addition, many employer-based and government-sponsored health plans have included Category A & B preventive services in the health insurance plans they offer to their respective members.
Currently, the United States Preventive Services Task Force recommends 49 Category A & B Preventive Health Services that include screening tests, counseling, immunizations, and preventive medications for adults, adolescents, and children. The Task Force consists of a panel of experts representing public health, primary care, family medicine, and academia. They update the list of recommended services by reviewing best practices research conducted across a wide range of disciplines.
You can also browse the USPHS website and check out the preventive services that they have evaluated but don’t recommend. Most of the services are broken down by age, gender and other risk factors.
Medicaid Program Scorecard Released by Feds
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services released a new Medicaid program scorecard this week. It includes some quality metrics along with federally reported measures in a Scorecard format.
The data that’s built into the state by state scorecard only uses information that states voluntarily submit. There are 3 main categories (state health system performance; state administrative accountability; and federal administrative accountability) and lots of subcategories.
The most interesting part of the Scorecard I think are the State Health System Performance Measures portion. Some of the subcategories that are reported in that category on a state by state basis are things like well child visits, mental health conditions, children’s preventive dental services and vaccination rates, and other chronic health conditions.
It looks like a good and valuable tool that will (if they continue to populate the scorecard) provide more transparency into the effectiveness of state Medicaid programs over time. The data that are submitted are voluntary – not compulsory – so that hurts the number of measures that states turn in. It might be something that you’ll want to bookmark for reference in the future.
Federal “Right to Try” Law Passed and Signed
Congress passed and the President signed a new law this week that gives people with a terminal illness new options for treatment by allowing those folks a way to independently seek drugs that are still experimental and not fully approved by the US Food and Drug Administration.
The new law basically gives terminally ill patients the right to seek drug treatments that remain in clinical trials and “have passed Phase 1 of the FDA’s but haven’t been fully approved by the FDA.
Arizona voters have already approved a similar law (by a wide margin). In 2014 AZ voters approved Proposition 303 (referred to the ballot by the Legislature) that makes investigational drugs, biological products or devices available to eligible terminally ill patients. The AZ law has uses the same definition of an “investigational” drug that the new federal law uses.
Western Region Public Health Training Center Grant Renewed
The Western Region Public Health Training Center was awarded a renewed grant as a center for the Regional Public Health Training Centers Program. They’ll continue to be housed in the University of Arizona Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health and we will continue to assess the training needs and strengthen the skills of the public health workforce with their partners in Arizona, California, Hawaii, Nevada, and the Pacific Islands.
The training center has literally hundreds of trainings that focus on all sorts of health professionals and the public health workforce. So no matter what your public health workforce training needs are – the thing to do first is to check the centers website to see if they have the course that you need. Most likely they will.
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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/