Will Humble Climate Change, Wills Blog

AZ Corporation Commission Considering whether to Drastically Cut Compensation for APS Rooftop Solar Customers Generators

Some members of the Arizona Corporation Commission want to change how solar owners are compensated for their extra power. Any changes would be bad news for rooftop solar.

The ACC plans to vote on whether or not to consider changes at their upcoming meeting on October 11 and 12. Solar Neighbors United is hosting an action webinar next Wednesday, October 4, to rally solar supporters to make our voices heard at the ACC.

At the webinar, the SUN team and our partners in Arizona will: Explain what’s at stake; Walk you through how to participate in the ACC’s process; and Answer questions.

Webinar: Stop the attack on solar Wednesday, October 4 6 p.m. Register for the webinar

If the ACC moves forward with reevaluating solar export rates at their upcoming meeting, the future of rooftop solar in Arizona will be at risk. The ACC could slash export rates for solar. They could roll back the protections that give homeowners the confidence they need to invest in solar. Arizona’s growing solar industry would suffer.

See AZPHA Blog: Rooftop Solar Barely Survives Drastic Cut to Energy Buyback Rates (for now)

Will Humble State Legislature, Wills Blog

Hobbs Does End Around the Senate

After the shenanigans a couple of weeks ago at the “Director’s Nominations” Committee it became crystal clear that Governor Hobbs nominees to lead state agencies won’t be getting a fair shake from the Committee or the Senate. We posted a blog recently arguing that the Governor should use loopholes in the statute to get her nominees onto more stable ground.

Last week the governor did just that. In fact, she basically implemented Option 3 from our playbook: Time to Play Hardball with Agency Director Nominations? Here’s a Playbook

The statutes about senate confirmation requirements are sufficiently vague and supply loopholes that could give Team Hobbs stability and governance options in the absence of Senate feasance.

The statutes about senate confirmation requirements are sufficiently vague and provide loopholes that gave Team Hobbs options to provide stability and governance options. See: 38-211 – Nominations by governor; consent of senate; appointment 

Governor Hobbs’ letter to Senate President Petersen outlined her arguments for why the move was necessary: Governor Hobbs Letter to Senate President Petersen & Governor Katie Hobbs Pulls Nominees from Partisan Political Circus Created by Extremist Jake Hoffman

Here’s what went down: Hobbs first withdrew the nominations of all the agency directors that she had previously sent to the Senate. She then appointed a guy named Ben Henderson as the Interim Director for each of the agencies. Mr. Henderson proceeded to name the person who had previously been nominated to be director to the title of Executive Deputy Director.

For example, Karen Peters – who had been the ADEQ Director – is now the “Executive Deputy Director”. From what I understand, Ben Henderson is still technically the Director, but everyone knows it’s really Karen Peters.

There’s no change for now for those agencies in which the Director’s choice had not been formally sent to the Senate. For example, Hobbs tweeted that she is naming Jennifer Cunico to be the ADHS Director, however she never actually sent her name to the Senate for confirmation. As such, her title is unchanged – and she is still the “Acting Director” according to the Org Chart: AZDHS Org Chart

Editorial Notes: The next part of this story will likely be told by the Office of Administrative Hearings & Judicial branch. One possible scenario could play out like this: Let’s say ADEQ denies an aquifer protection permit to an applicant in the near future. That applicant may grieve the decision and challenge it in the Office of Administrative Hearings.

The OAH Judge’s Order would then go back to the Agency for a final decision. If still denied, the applicant may appeal the ruling to the court system, arguing that an agency director isn’t in place as required by law. The judge would then need to sort out whether that agency administrative decision was valid or not.

Sen. Jake Hoffman scolds a Hobbs’ nominee for plagiarism. No, really

Arizona Senate panel rejects Gov. Katie Hobbs’ housing director

Senate committee doesn’t ‘vet’ nominees. It sabotages them

Will Humble Professional Development, Wills Blog

Public Health Journalism This Week

How Arnold v. Sam changed Arizona’s mental health system (azcentral.com)

Arizona mobile health teams bring medication, services to patients (azcentral.com)

New tools to battle RSV: What to do this fall to fight the virus (azcentral.com)

Free COVID-19 tests by mail. How to get yours (azcentral.com)

Medicaid in Arizona: Who’s covered in the health insurance program? (azcentral.com)

Will Humble Prevention, Public Health, Wills Blog

NAU’s New Medical School Plan is Right on the Money

Several months ago, the AZ Board of Regents and the three presidents of the state universities got together and committed to put together plans to alleviate the current and future healthcare workforce shortage. The most acute need is and will continue to be the shortage of primary care practitioners.

2022 Arizona Medically Underserved Areas Report

Primary Care Needs Assessment Report

They named the initiative the AZ Heathy Tomorrow plan, and the stated aims are to increase investment by each of our state’s public universities (both through partnerships with the private sector and state & federal government) to meet the longer-term healthcare needs of Arizona.

Arizona is currently short 667 primary care providers. That’s expected to grow to 2000 in the next few years without intervention.

The UArizona announced their part of the plan a few months ago- which focuses on doubling the number of medical school graduates and expanding its partnership with Banner Health to create a fully integrated academic medical center. UArizona’s plan also plans to use telemedicine and its rural health.

A couple of months ago ASU outlined their plan, which envisions a new medical school that will “… integrate clinical medicine, biomedical science and engineering”, growing its partnership with the Mayo Clinic, and expanding the nursing workforce. That plan seemed to focus more on high-end specialty medicine rather than the more acute needs – the shortage of primary care practitioners. Sadly, ASU’s plan didn’t mention anything about increasing the number of residency positions – which is the actual key to getting more workforce in the state.

See: What’s the Solution to AZ’s Doctor Shortage? More Medical Students or More Residencies?

The bottleneck in getting more physicians practicing in the field in AZ isn’t the number of medical school students in the pipeline…  it’s mostly the number of residency slots that are available in AZ & geographic and specialty distribution of those residencies.

NAU’s Plan is Right on the Money

Thankfully, NAU hit the mark this week with exactly the right kind of plan, called NAU Health. It’s the only one of the 3 AZ Healthy Tomorrow plans that aims to improving health outcomes in rural, Indigenous, and underserved communities- and is the only one that squarely focuses on primary care. It’s also the only plan that highlights the need to build new community-based residency programs – which is the actual key to building the workforce.

NAU’s College of Medicine will also be intentionally designed to “… create accelerated pathways and affordable options for Arizona residents seeking an MD that will enable them to practice in-state while accruing minimal debt”.

NAU envisions a tuition coverage program like the Arizona Teachers Academy where graduates who stay to practice in Arizona after graduation will have educational costs fully covered. The also intend to build a curriculum that includes cultural competency and “… integrates behavioral health perspectives to improve outcomes for patients and their communities”.

That’s super important because the more debt a student leaves medical school with the more they are incentivized to go into a specialty (specialists and proceduralists get paid a lot more than primary care practitioners).

They’ll also have a “Pathways to Practice” system – an accelerated by 3-year medical education program.  The NAU College of Medicine will emphasize teaching and practice as opposed to a more highly specialized research model often employed by medical schools.

NAU launches College of Medicine to address Arizona’s critical shortage of primary care physicians

Kudos to NAU for their thoughtful plan. It’s right on the money because it:

  1. focuses on primary care;
  2. is designed to lower the debt load of graduates (so they can afford to practice family medicine);
  3. recognizes that residency and preceptor development is a key to getting graduates to practice in AZ;
  4. is teaching rather than research-based; and
  5. will include cultural competency and will integrate behavioral health perspectives into the curriculum.
Well Done Team NAU!

See NAU’s Plan: NAU Health | Office of the President

NAU plans to build new medical school | 12news.com

Northern Arizona University announces plans to create medical school

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