Arizona’s 2026 Legislative Session: A PublicHealth Perspective Friday, August 28, 2026
View the Webinar AI Webinar Summary Will led a comprehensive review of the 2026 legislative session from a public health perspective, covering both passed bills and vetoed measures that would have harmed public health. The session included several significant public health wins, including improved licensing and oversight of skilled nursing and assisted living facilities through bills 2176, 1162, and 2195, as well as new requirements for county jails to screen
What Does It Take to Run the FDA: Is Overton Up to the Task?
The president has nominated Dr. Heidi Overton to be the next Commissioner of the FDA. She’ll be up for Senate confirmation at some point in the next few months presumably. Is she up to the task? A good place to start is: What is the job, and how prepared to do a good job is she? FDA is basically a regulatory agency. It oversees most foods moving in interstate commerce
Yet Another Giant APS Electricity Rate Hike & Return on Equity Boost? Really?
Arizona Public Service (APS), the state’s largest (monopoly) electric utility, is asking the Arizona Corporation Commission (the five-member body that oversees monopoly utility rates) for a whopping 14% rate increase this year. If you’re one of APS’s more than 1.4 million customers, you deserve to know a few things about their request that aren’t getting enough attention. APS is a monopoly utility. If you live in its service territory, you
Arizona’s First H.R. 1 Medicaid Cuts Arrive October 1 Refugees, Asylees & other legally present people are 1st in line for cuts
Beginning October 1, the first of the healthcare (Medicaid) cuts from H.R. 1 kick in – throwing thousands of legally present refugees and asylees off of Medicaid coverage. Refugees, people granted asylum and several other humanitarian groups who’ve long been eligible will no longer qualify because federal Medicaid funding is being taken from these legally present immigrants. The federal rules also knock off people in several other humanitarian immigration categories that previously counted
AZ Grant Opportunities – Compiled by the Vitalyst Health Foundation
NEW Due August 20th: Rural AZ Navigator Program Due August 21st: Technical Assistance: Operational & Fiscal Performance Due August 21st: Rural Health Innovative Care Pilot Program Due August 21st: Arizona Department of Health Services Lung Health Screening Due August 26th: Continuum of Care Competition and Youth Homeless Demonstration Program grants NOFO Due August 28th: Behavioral Health & SUD Expansion Due August 28th: Adopt Shared Services Consortiums Due August 29th: National Science Foundation Grants for Undergraduates NEW Due August
Just What the Doctor Ordered: UA Training Physicians Where We Need Them
The UA College of Medicine along with Phoenix and Gila River Health Care are creating the nation’s first MD medical-school branch located within a sovereign Tribal Nation. The first DO-degree-granting medical school on tribal land is the “Oklahoma State University College of Osteopathic Medicine on the Cherokee Nation” in Tahlequah, OK. Its first class graduated in 2024. Next summer (July 2027) 10 students will be admitted to the UA- Phoenix