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Application Due Date: Tuesday, April 2, 2019

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) is accepting applications for 2019 Building Communities of Recovery (BCOR) grants.

The purpose of this program is to mobilize resources within and outside of the recovery community to increase the prevalence and quality of long-term recovery support from substance abuse and addiction. These grants are intended to support the development, enhancement, expansion, and delivery of recovery support services as well as promotion of and education about recovery. Programs will be principally governed by people in recovery from substance abuse and addiction who reflect the community served.

SAMHSA plans to issue 3 grants of up to $200,000 per year for up to 3 years.

LEARN MORE ABOUT THE GRANT

By Mikayla Mace Arizona Daily Star | Jan 22, 2019 Updated Jan 25, 2019

On Jan. 1, a new federal rule went into effect requiring hospitals to post prices for all services they provide in a searchable format on their websites.

The rule was intended to make hospital pricing more transparent and comparable across hospitals. The downloadable lists show all hospital charges by the item and can be thousands, or tens-of-thousands, of lines long.

All the hospitals in Tucson have the cost spreadsheets — called chargemasters — available on their websites, but they can be hard to find.

“The federal guidance was easy to comply with,” said Tucson Medical Center officials, but the long list of posted prices might not be easy for patients to use.

“In the same way I’ll drive extra miles to get cheaper gas, I like the idea of transparency in price ... but it’s very hard for people to make decisions based on just this information,” said Daniel Derksen, associate vice president for health equity, outreach and interprofessional activities for University of Arizona Health Sciences.

Each item is named using abbreviations or medical terminology, and inconsistencies in naming make price comparison between hospitals difficult, if not impossible. “It’s hard to make heads of tails of it,” Derksen said.

There’s another problem. To get a clear picture of what the costs will be, a person would have to know all the individual charges involved in the procedure.

“You might come in and have an IV, but there is a solution and drug that goes with that and tubing and a needle and someone to give it to you, and these are all listed separately,” said Maria Persons, TMC’s director of revenue cycle.

Arizona Daily Star reporters attempted to price compare common procedures, such as a colonoscopy, but were unable to do so, as charges for a single procedure are broken down by individual components.

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Center for Health Journalism | By Giles Bruce | January 14, 2019

The U.S. has some of the best perinatal care on earth, but kids die before the age of 1 here at a higher rate than the most of the developed world. 

A big part of the problem is that high-risk pregnant women and newborns aren't getting the right care during their time of need. 

That's a problem lawmakers across the country are increasingly trying to address. Indiana, for instance, recently passed a law establishing a system that rates hospitals on the complexity of neonatal and maternal care each can provide. At least 22 states have rating systems for neonatal care, while 17 have them for maternal care, according to the March of Dimes. 

State health officials say these measures help ensure expectant mothers and infants are cared for in the appropriate facilities. 

"The purpose of it really is to make sure that, if at all possible, we identify any risk factors a pregnant women has or a baby has ... and we make sure that the woman or child not only has the level of personnel but also the level of technology and the level of equipment that's required to address whatever those risk factors are,” said Indiana State Health Commissioner Dr. Kristina Box. 

Those risk factors might include a baby with congenital birth defects or a mom with a previous preterm birth, heart condition or bout of preeclampsia, Box said. 

Will these laws save the lives of infants? The data suggests that making sure babies are delivered at the right kind of hospital can be a matter of life and death. 

In 2010, researchers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reviewed more than 30 years of mortality data on both babies with very low birth weights (less than 3.3 pounds) and who were also born very premature (less than 32 weeks). The scientists found that those infants were more likely to die if they weren't born at highly specialized (or “Level III”) hospitals. 

One of the earliest systems of this kind started in Arizona in 1975, with a grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The state also funds medical transport for high-risk pregnant women and newborns to ensure they’re taken to a facility equipped to care for them.

But has this reduced infant mortality in the state? 

"We know it has," said Deb Christian, executive director of the Arizona Perinatal Trust. "We transport approximately 700-plus mothers and 700-plus babies a year. Previously a significant number of patients would have been delivered or taken care of at the wrong levels of care." 

Arizona’s infant mortality rate fall from 14.8 deaths per 1,000 live births in 1975 to 5.4 today, though that decline roughly mirrors that of the country overall. 

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RHI Hub | Dec 18, 2018

Description

Arizona's rural Santa Cruz County is a Health Professional Shortage Area in primary care. This lack of primary care providers can lead some people to utilize emergency medical services for non-emergencies, which is expensive and might take emergency medical technicians (EMTs) away from other calls.

In addition, many older adults in this county live by themselves and don't have family nearby. Some of these adults have Alzheimer's or other forms of dementia but can't afford memory care or assisted living. Others aren't able to leave the house to buy food or see the doctor.

To reduce 911 use for non-emergencies and improve older adults' health, the Rio Rico Medical & Fire District created the Community Healthcare Integrated Paramedicine Program (CHIPP), in which firefighters and EMTs receive community paramedicine training and provide in-home care to older patients.

» Read full article continued at link below:

Stephanie Innes, Arizona Republic | Published 6:00 a.m. MT Dec. 11, 2018

With just days left to sign up, Arizona enrollment in Affordable Care Act health insurance plans is lagging.

Arizona enrollment as of Dec. 1 was at 55,090, which is 18 percent lower than it was as of Dec. 2 last year, according to federal data. Enrollment is down nationwide, too.

Saturday is the deadline for individuals and families to purchase health insurance on the federal marketplace created by the Affordable Care Act. Such insurance is often referred to as "Obamacare."

The marketplace sells private insurance, and those who qualify are eligible for federal subsidies to help pay for it. Most Arizonans who bought marketplace insurance for 2018 qualified for subsidies.

ACA insurance is purchased by a minority of Americans — working-age people who are not covered by employer-sponsored coverage or by government insurance such as Medicaid.

Health-policy experts say the ACA marketplace is nonetheless an important factor in overall health costs. If too many people in this population go without insurance, there's a higher risk that hospital costs for uncompensated care will rise.

That can cause cost-shifting, saddling the entire health system with more expenses, said Dr. Daniel Derksen, a health policy expert at the University of Arizona who helped draft a portion of the ACA.

» Read compete article at link below:

In 2018, Arizona passed legislation requiring data reporting for some licensed health professionals in the state. This webinar features the perspectives of two individuals who were key in the effort to pass the legislation. The topics covered include: the content of the new law; key supporters of the bill; major challenges faced in securing passage of the bill; and what advice they would give to other states contemplating similar legislation.

Presenters:

Daniel Derksen, MD
Associate Vice President for Health Equity, Outreach & Interprofessional Activities
University of Arizona Health Sciences
Walter H. Pearce Endowed Chair & Director, Arizona Center for Rural Health
Professor of Public Health, Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health

Heather Carter, EdD
Assistant Professor of Practice, Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health
Associate Director, Arizona Center for Rural Health
Health Committee Chairman, Arizona House of Representatives
Senator-elect, Arizona State Legislature District 15
Vice-chair, Senate-elect Health and Human Services Committee

Arizonans who don't get health insurance through their employers or qualify for Medicaid don't appear to be rushing to buy individual plans for 2019 despite a looming Dec. 15 open enrollment deadline.

Nov. 29, 2018, at 6:36 p.m. 

BY BOB CHRISTIE, Associated Press

PHOENIX (AP) — Arizonans who don't get health insurance through their employers or qualify for Medicaid don't appear to be rushing to buy individual plans for 2019 despite a looming Dec. 15 open enrollment deadline.

Experts say the reasons for the nearly 20 percent drop in the first four weeks of the annual open enrollment period for Affordable Care Act plans aren't completely clear. But a major cut in outreach efforts and the elimination of a tax penalty for those who don't buy insurance next year probably are factors. And a growing economy likely means more people are getting employer-sponsored insurance.

"Those are all legit questions, unfortunately there's no answer, it's just total speculation as to why," Allen Gjersvig, who oversees enrollment outreach for the Arizona Alliance for Community Health Centers, said Thursday.

Enrollment surged last year just before the deadline. Many people who are covered and choose to automatically re-enroll won't get counted until open enrollment closes.

Enrollment figures released Wednesday by the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services show that since Nov. 1, only about 41,000 Arizonans have chosen a plan on the healthcare.gov website, compared with nearly 52,000 at that time last year.

That means more than 100,000 people who currently have plans haven't signed up for coverage that takes effect Jan. 1. Nationally, enrollment is down 13 percent compared to this point last year.

As of June 30, about 145,000 Arizonans had active individual marketplace plans, and 10.2 million people had them nationally. The vast majority of Arizonans with coverage get it either through their jobs or the state's Medicaid plan for low-income residents.

More insurers are selling individual plans in Pima and Maricopa counties for next year, and premiums are stable across the state. Maricopa County saw a big drop, with 21 percent lower premiums being offered for next year as three new insurers enter the market. Two new players begin selling in Pima County.

That's a big change from two years ago, when prices skyrocketed in Arizona. Premiums went up by an average of 116 percent in 2017 as insurers realized they were losing big money and many fled the federal marketplace in the state.

"For all intents and purposes, rates remain stable compared to last year and last year the rates were stable as well," Gjersvig said. "So essentially we've had now going on three years of relative stability."

Blue Cross Blue Shield of Arizona remains the only insurer in the 13 smaller counties. This year, only Ambetter offered plans in Maricopa and Pima counties. Next year, Cigna, Oscar and Bright Health join Ambetter in Maricopa. Ambetter, Blue Cross and Bright Health also will offer plans in Pima.

That increased competition is probably one of the reasons premiums for the average mid-coverage plan in Maricopa will drop by 21 percent next year, said Dr. Daniel Derksen, a University of Arizona health care policy expert who examined rates in all 15 counties. Other counties also saw drops or just small increases.

Nationally, the Congressional Budget Office predicted that 4 million people with coverage could drop it next year because of the tax penalty elimination and other changes enacted by the Trump administration, including big cuts to advertising and "navigator" programs that help people choose insurance plans.

National advertising was cut from about $100 million in 2016 to $10 million last year and this year. Grants to nonprofit groups that hire navigators in Arizona have gone from $1.1 million to $300,000 this year. Gjersvig's group was the only grant recipient this year.

Derksen said those services are important to consumers, because insurance is a complicated purchase that requires comparisons of premiums, co-pays, deductibles and other factors like premium tax credits, which nearly 90 percent of people buying on the marketplace receive.