Behavioral Health Performance Improvements
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 tools, are accessible to anyone [...]
SECC Campaign
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 family members) are a hardship [...]
Healthy Schools
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 healthy environment. A few years [...]
Council of State Government’s Award Nomination
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 adult provider network organizations (CHOICES [...]
Acting Shmackting
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 for identifying individuals with traumatic [...]
AZ a National Runner-up for Nutrition Pilot
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 researched whether incentives for participants [...]