Behavioral Health Contract Protest Hearing Set
In May the Arizona Department of Administration (ADOA) issued a “Stay Order” for the planned transfer of our Maricopa County Behavioral Health Authority from Magellan to Mercy Maricopa Integrated Care. In June the ADOA decided to ask the Arizona Office of Administrative Hearings to conduct an official hearing regarding the October 1 contract award. This week, the Administrative Law Judge (Hon. [...]
ADHS’ Immunications Newsletter
For the last few years our Immunizations team has been sending out revised and updated Immunications newsletters. The newsletters are geared to keep our stakeholders and partners current on the state and local immunization issues. You can sign up to receive Immunications via email or get a hard copy in the actual mail. The current issue of Immunications has: an assessment of AZ immunization [...]
Setback for Polio Eradication
As I’ve mentioned in past updates, global efforts to eradicate polio through widespread immunization campaigns have been incredibly successful. Back in May of this year, only three countries still had endemic polio cases – Afghanistan, Nigeria, and Pakistan. Unfortunately, for the first time since 2007, wild poliovirus cases are again being reported in Somalia. Currently, 65 cases have been reported [...]
Dispensary Ruling
The Superior Court judge ruled this morning that our requirement for Registration Certificate holders (dispensaries) to get an approval to operate within one year in order to renew their certificates is unreasonable. Because of today’s ruling, we’re going to accept renewal requests for all the current dispensaries in the state, whether they’re open or not. The initial year for dispensaries is [...]
Limit the Sun, Not the Fun- Be SunWise!
A recent report by the American Cancer Society, suggests what many Arizonans may have suspected, that skin cancer is on the rise. An estimated 82,770 Americans will be diagnosed with skin cancer in 2013. In Arizona, one in five of us is likely to develop some form of skin cancer. The most common cause is overexposure to UV Rays, those invisible [...]
Trisomy Breakthrough?
Most people have 46 chromosomes in 23 pairs. One set from the mom and one from the dad. Sometimes something doesn’t go quite right, and one of the chromosome pairs doesn’t divide evenly at the right time, and a person ends up with 3 of one of the chromosomes. Trisomy means three chromosomes instead of the normal 2. There are actually several kinds of trisomy [...]