PA’RRIBA Blog & Briefs
The Perfect Storm: Putting America’s Health Care in Peril The American Health Care Act & the President’s Proposed Budget
The AHCA cuts $1.5 trillion dollars[1] in federal funding over 10 years by slashing state Medicaid (-$830B), eliminating Marketplace subsidies (-$665B) to individuals and families, and causing 23 million Americans to become uninsured over 10 years. The President’s budget cuts $2 trillion dollars[2] in health spending over 10 years, disproportionately affecting low-income, elderly and rural Americans.
Health Coverage and Access to Care in the United States-Mexico Border Region: Implications of the Affordable Care Act (ACA)
A multifactorial approach is necessary to improve health outcomes and reduce health disparities for populations living in the US-Mexico border region. Key factors include building on health insurance coverage gains, enhancing the rural health workforce and infrastructure, and assuring accessible, cost effective, culturally and linguistically appropriate health services for a growing border population.
University of Arizona Teams up with Produce Growers in Northern Mexico to Help Migrant Farmworkers
- The Los Angeles Times released a large expose on the conditions of farm workers on large corporate farms in Northern Mexico. The travesties named included: inadequate living conditions, company stores that create indentured servitude to pay off debts and accusations of child labor. Overall, the article calls on changes made by the corporate farms exposed but also, the American corporations that contract with those growers.
- Recent strikes during spring harvest amongst produce farms in Baja California has drawn even more attention on the alleged abuses of agribusiness farm workers.
- These workers are only marginally protected by national labor and housing laws; this collaboration creates a unique opportunity for mixed scientific methods to improve the health of this population.
Arizona Trauma Program Managers’ Efforts Underway
Photo Credit: Matt Eckhoff, Program Director of Community Integrated Paramedicine for the Rio Rico Medical & Fire District
The Arizona Trauma Program Managers Workgroup continues to meet face-to-face quarterly focused on enhancing performance improvement strategies. Scheduled for August 19, 2016 is the next scheduled workshop being hosted by Flagstaff Medical Center. Also, a statewide Trauma Program Manager Listserve continues to be very active with over 100 members.
AZ Center for Rural Health, Preparing for Round 3 ACA Open Enrollment
“Of those eligible for a tax credit to help individuals buy a health plan on Arizona’s Marketplace in the last cycle, 38% participated – and lower in Arizona’s rural, Latino, American Indian, disabled and special populations,” said Dr. Daniel Derksen, the Director of the Center for Rural Health at the University of Arizona, and the project’s principal investigator.
Lean Forward: Easing the ICD-10 October Implementation for Rural Arizona Health Providers
By Jill Bullock, Alyssa Padilla and Dan Derksen
What is ICD-10? In October of 2015, all physicians, hospitals, and health plans will begin using ICD-10 (International Classification of Diseases), an upgrade from ICD-9 used in the U.S. for 30 years. The World Health Organization (WHO) adopted ICD-10 in 1990, used by other countries for many years. ICD-10 will be used to classify disease, report illnesses, monitor morbidity and mortality, and importantly - to provide better individual and population health data to continuously improve and inform clinical treatment.
The Supremes vs. Obamacare Round II: Will 8 million Americans, and 150,000 Arizonans lose health insurance coverage?
The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) refereed round II (King vs. Burwell) of legal challenges to the Affordable Care Act (ACA) on March 4, this time on the issue of subsidies for federally facilitated marketplaces (FFMs). The challengers (plaintiffs) argue subsidies in the form of tax credits apply only to exchanges “established by the state” as per ACA Sec. 1311. If the plaintiffs prevail when the decision is announced in June, 8 million Americans and 150,000 Arizonans could lose health insurance coverage.
Seeing the Background ‘Patient Story’ Empowers Family Care Coordinator
Being able to view a background ‘Patient Story’ - comprised of clinical data, psycho-social data and lifestyle data - has enabled Family Care Coordinators to contribute to improving the care plan and the health outcomes of their patients at the Regional Center for Border Health in the small rural community of Somerton, Arizona, only a few miles from the U.S./Mexico border.
On the Rural Road Again
I completed a rural health research internship at the Center for Rural Health, Mel & Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health as part of my post-graduate PharmD degree in April 2013 as a visiting scholar. Upon completion of my studies, I planned on practicing in an urban setting in Canada. Instead, I am On the Rural Road Again. I have been volunteering as a clinical pharmacist in rural Ghana since August 2013 & would like to share some of my experiences.
Community Success Stories: Rural residents find grass roots solutions to life in a food desert
For rural residents living in food deserts, increasing the availability of fresh fruits and vegetables takes initiative and creative thinking. In Florence, AZ, local residents and a variety of groups and non-profits have formed a community coalition to improve the food environment. They recently completed an assessment of their community’s food environment with the help of a doctoral student from the University of Arizona Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health. While they found that stores and restaurants were lacking in their offering of healthy foods, their assessment revealed many grass-roots efforts that were providing healthy foods to Florence residents.
