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 [...]
I’m glad to announce that Rodgers Wilson, MD is our permanent Behavioral Health Medical Director. Dr. Wilson oversees the clinical/prevention and quality management/medical management areas of our behavioral health system. He has spearheaded Quarterly Health Initiatives that address common physical health needs among individuals with behavioral health illnesses and is currently developing collaborative training programs [...]
An Arizona team from ADHS and ADES put together a great application for the new USDA pilot program called the Healthy Incentives Pilot, which provides incentives to encourage low-income folks to eat more fruits and vegetables. Massachusetts came in first and got the grant, but our applications came in second. The pilot program would have [...]
The scorching summer of 2005 motivated us to get our act together and do a better job preventing heat related illnesses in Arizona. That summer, we completed a needs assessment and developed a Heat Emergency Response Plan and Heat Brochure that identifies interventions using triggers from the National Weather Service. These days, we identify risk [...]
