Today was Opening Day for the Arizona Medical Marijuana Act. We rolled out our brand-new website at 8 a.m. today and began processing applications for Qualifying Patient and Designated Caregiver Registry Identification Cards. The system went live at 8:00 a.m. and we completed our first qualified patient card at about 8:30. Our first applicant was a [...]
I’ve written often over the last few weeks about our priority over the next couple of years to better integrate primary healthcare and psychiatric care in AZ, and that last week HHS approved the Health Homes Planning Grant which will focus on improving coordination of care and increasing access to primary care and prevention services, [...]
This month AHCCCS told us that they’ve picked our Bureau of Tobacco & Chronic Disease as the state applicant for HHS’ Medicaid Incentives for Prevention of Chronic Diseases Grant. The grant proposal (which will be developed with AHCCCS) must be turned in to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services early next month. The grant [...]
The US Health Resources and Services Administration designated Maricopa County as a Mental Health Professional Shortage Area. This federal designation lets mental health facilities and providers participate in the National Health Service Corps Program, which recruits fully-trained health professionals to provide interdisciplinary primary health care services to underserved populations, assists clinicians in repayment of qualifying educational [...]
As you have probably already heard, Legislature has passed and the Governor has signed a series of budget bills. One thing I know everyone will be glad to hear is that the remaining scheduled mandatory furlough days for this fiscal year and next are canceled. However, individual agencies have the option of using furloughs if necessary (I [...]
Michael Allison has set up a Tribal Consultation meeting regarding Medical Marijuana to get input and advice from our tribal partners on the new medical marijuana law. There are a whole host of questions to consider, everything from whether any tribes intend to adopt the new law and whether they would ever be interested in [...]
For some reason human nature drives us to fear unknown, strange, and seemingly unpredictable hazards more than the commonplace hazards that we face day to day, even though the everyday hazards are a far more important public health risk. Accidents and injuries are a good example. Accidents and injuries are hands-down the number 1 killer [...]
Last week I wrote about how we and AHCCCS applied for a Health Homes Planning Grant from the US Dept. of Health & Human Services to improve the health status of folks with serious mental illnesses by improving case management, care coordination, health promotion, transitional care, individual and family support, referral to necessary services, and the [...]
Laura Nelson, M.D.. Chief Medical Officer, Arizona Department of Health Services Will Humble, Director, Arizona Department of Health ServicesThank you for your interest in the effective implementation of the AZ Medical Marijuana Act. We realize that many Arizona physicians may not yet feel comfortable with or fully informed about medicinal marijuana. It is likely that [...]
Last week I wrote about how Arizona Radiation Regulatory Agency (ARRA) instruments detected trace levels of Iodine-131 in AZ air from the troubled nuclear power plant in Japan. This week testing by ARRA and the AZ Dept. of Agriculture found trace levels of I-131 in the milk samples that they routinely monitor. The levels are of no [...]
