Beginning October 1, Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System will automatically enroll all Acute Care members into their local Regional Behavioral Health Authority (RBHA) or Tribal RBHA (T/RBHA). The plan eliminates the need for a separate administrative enrollment with the T/RBHA (and the associated paperwork) and streamlines the delivery of services, better integrate physical & behavioral health care. [...]
Folks that receive publicly-funded behavioral health services in Cochise, Santa Cruz, Greenlee and Graham Counties will soon transition to a new Regional Behavioral Health Authority (RBHA). In March, ADHS awarded contracts for all of the areas outside of Maricopa County. We awarded the contract for Cochise, Santa Cruz, Greenlee and Graham Counties to Cenpatico Behavioral [...]
A new report from the CDC this week showed that the smoking rate across the US has stayed flat at about 20% over the last 5 years. Not so in Arizona, where we’ve decreased from 20% in 2005 to 16% in 2009, according to our latest BRFS report. As is the case across the country, [...]
As you recall, the ADHS budget reduction last fiscal year required us to scale back the services we provide to folks who were receiving behavioral health services but don’t qualify for AHCCCS (called Non-Title XIX). We also needed to switch to a “generic formulary” for Non-Title XIX folks on July 1 (which saves about $7M/year). [...]
One of the ways ADHS can help eliminate Arizona’s food deserts is to try to get our vendors (the businesses that accept WIC coupons) to broaden their food inventories with healthier foods. The ADHS Program Integrity Team works to get this done. The Team actively reaches out to the vendor communities (grocery stores and other [...]
Our Bureau of EMS received 1st Place in this year’s 2010 Association of State and Territorial Health Officials “Vision Award” for our creative (and really inexpensive) Arizona Cardiac Receiving Center Program. The annual ASTHO Vision Awards recognize outstanding state health department programs and initiatives that use a creative approach to address public health needs or [...]
By working closely with our behavioral health contractors over the last couple of years we’ve been able to make some significant improvements in the quality of care that we’re providing. Examples of our accomplishments are available in newly created outcome dashboards developed by CPSA, NARBHA, Cenpatico and Magellan. The dashboards provide monthly reports using web-based [...]
The annual State Employee Charitable Campaign starts this month and will run for 6 weeks. Employees will get some additional information about this year’s campaign shortly, but I wanted to let you know about a special part of the campaign for ADHS this year. I know that the furloughs and the unemployment situation (for your [...]
I thought I’d do a piece on school environmental health now that school’s back in session. About 1 million Arizona kids and 100,000 adults spend a big chunk of their day in Arizona’s public, private and charter schools. Because schools can often be crowded environments, it’s important operate them in a way that maximizes a [...]
In early September the Council of State Governments (CSG) will be awarding their highly competitive CSG Awards for innovative practices. Magellan Health Services of Arizona is a regional finalist for the award because of their innovative online provider outcomes dashboard. The dashboard has been a partnership between our Division of Behavioral Services, Magellan and 4 [...]
