September 27, 2019 Edition
This week,
California Secretary of State Alex Padilla cleared for circulation two
referenda challenging California statute related to state oversight of medical
exemptions for school immunization requirements enacted through Senator Richard
Pan’s SB 276 and SB 714. Recall, the two measures were passed and signed into law earlier this month after a flurry of
activities, including bill negotiations, numerous protests, and last-minute
amendments from the Newsom Administration.
Proponents of the referenda must collect 623,212 signatures on both referenda by December 9, 2019, to qualify for the 2020 statewide ballot. Recall, a recent poll from the Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC) found that nearly three-fourths of Californians support requiring vaccinations. Additional information on the status of the referenda can be found on the California Secretary of State’s website here.
On Tuesday, the
California Department of Public Health (CDPH) issued a statewide health
advisory urging Californians to refrain from vaping, regardless of the
substance or source. The health advisory follows the executive order issued by
Governor Gavin Newsom, setting forth a series of actions related to health
risks associated with vaping and increasing youth utilization.
CDPH, in
coordination with other states, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention (CDC), the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), local health
departments, and healthcare providers continue to investigate the matter. As of
September 24, 2019, CDPH has received reports that 90 Californians with a
history of vaping have been hospitalized for severe breathing problems and lung
damage and two people have died.
CDPH’s full
health advisory and related information are available here.
Earlier this week, the Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development (GO-Biz) announced the first round of awardees for the California Community Reinvestment Grants (CalCRG). Recall these grants are for the first cycle of funding (FY 18/19) awarded from the Proposition 64 (Adult Use of Marijuana) grants program intended to support activities for communities disproportionately impacted by the war on drugs. Both community based organizations and local health departments are eligible for this funding and eligible activities include job placement, mental health and substance use disorder treatment, system navigation services, legal services to address barriers to reentry, and linkages to medical care.
A total of $9.6 million has been awarded to 69 entities representing 23 counties or portions of counties statewide. Four local health departments in collaboration with other entities received funding awards as well as one solo local health department awardee. GO-Biz anticipates applications for the second round of CalCRG funding (~$20 million available) to be released in the spring of 2020.
This week, the
National Association of County & City Health Officials (NACCHO) released a
sign-on opportunity for local health departments and officials to support the
recently announced U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) plan to remove
non-tobacco flavored electronic cigarettes, including mint and menthol, from
the market in an attempt to curb utilization of the products among youth.
Recall, a recent flurry of activities at the federal level, including several
states such as California, has occurred targeting such electronic cigarettes
and vaping.
The most recent
data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) indicates a
steady rise in use of flavored electronic cigarettes among youth, with 27.5
percent of high schoolers reporting that they recently vaped and that fruity
and minty flavors were a popular reason to vape. NACCHO’s sign-on opportunity
to indicate support of the impending ban and to encourage swift implementation
by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is available here.
Recently, the Suicide
Prevention Resource Center (SPRC) released the first-ever national
recommendations for State Suicide Prevention Infrastructure, a collaborative
effort among an advisory panel of experts and stakeholders. The guidelines
detail essential infrastructure elements for advancing state suicide prevention
efforts, including elements to assist policy leaders and officials assess the
status of their current infrastructure and guide policymaking, funding, and
administrative decisions accordingly.
The
recommendations are organized into six essential elements with specific
guidance in each area: 1) Authorize; 2) Lead; 3) Partner; 4) Examine; 5) Build;
and 6) Guide. An overview of the report and its development is available
here. SPRC’s full recommendations are available
here.
In a new report
released by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM),
finds five overarching goals and associated recommendations for health systems,
government agencies, and related entities should implement to better integrate
patients’ social needs into health care delivery. The report, Integrating
Social Care into the Delivery of Health Care: Moving Upstream to Improve the
Nation’s Health,examines the need to integrate social care with
health care, largely finding that the move toward paying care providers based
on health outcomes (rather than visits or services) and an increasing recognition
that the social determinants of health have a profound impact on an individual’s
physical and mental health have fueled the need to broaden the focus of health
services.
The challenge
in the U.S. is determining how social services – including home help for the elderly,
rent subsidies, child allowances and credits, childcare support, job training,
and disability benefits – are uniformly defined and financed in the health care
space, according to the report. The report details a series of recommendations:
- Better
integrate social care into health care delivery. Health care organizations are
recommended to, among other actions, make an organizational commitment to addressing
health-related social needs, identify the most effective ways to assess and
document social needs, and include social care providers as an integral part of
health care teams.
- Support
and train an engaged, integrated care workforce. Currently, certain federal, state, and
institutional barriers limit adequate payment of social care workers and their
ability to work to the full extent of their education and training. Workforce
development efforts should aim to create standards for the reimbursement of
social care by public and private payers, test for knowledge of social
determinants of health in licensure exams, and adopt curricula that prepare
students of social work to use technology, data collection, and payment
methods.
- Develop
an infrastructure for data sharing between health and social care. The report calls for a national vision and
defined technology standards for integrating health care and social care data,
similar to the standards underpinning the adoption of electronic health records.
- Finance
the integration of health care and social care. Specifically, the report calls on the
U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to define which aspects
of social care Medicaid can cover, incentivize health organizations and managed
care programs to collaborate with community-based health and social services,
and coordinate the coverage benefits of dually eligible and high-need Medicare
and Medicaid populations.
The report calls
for more formalized and robust evaluations of the effectiveness of integrating
social care needs into health care delivery to provide health officials and
stakeholders with concrete examples of effective integration of social care and
health care. The full report is available here.