CALPHO E-News: December 17, 2019

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--  E-News   December 17, 2019  --  Federal Legislative News            Excerpted from NACCHO's News from Washington  Appropriators Find a Path Forward on FY2020 Funding On Thursday, December 12, leaders of the House and Senate Appropriations Committees announced a "deal in principle" to pass all 12 of the FY2020 Appropriations bills - a total of $1.37 trillion in federal spending - before the holidays. For those keeping track at home, fiscal year 2020 funds were supposed to be approved at the end of September, and Congress has had to pass two short-term spending patches (known as continuing resolutions) in the interim to keep the government funding since. With the most recent patch set to expire a week from today, Congress needs to move quickly to put this "deal in principle" on paper, voted on, and to the President's desk, who as of press time is planning to sign it into law. The House expects to take up the first package of thee bills early next week. NACCHO will share full details on Health and Human Services funding once it is released. Lower Health Care Costs Act Announced This week, a deal was announced between Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee Chairman Lamar Alexander (R-TN), Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Frank Pallone Jr (D-NJ) and ranking member Rep. Greg Walden (R-OR) on legislation to limit so-called "surprise medical bills" to patients that are inadvertently treated out-of-network, as part of a broader piece of legislation that includes numerous public health provisions.   The legislation funds critical public health programs, including Community Health Centers for five years, and increases the purchasing age of tobacco to 21. It also includes language supported by NACCHO that would increase support for data modernization at CDC and at state and local health departments and provisions that would strengthen access to science-based information about vaccines. NACCHO collaborated with HELP Committee staff on an earlier draft of the bill.      Upcoming Events  Click HERE for full event calendar 2019 Air Quality and Climate Change Panel January 16 8:30am - 11:30am Denver, CO Featuring the Union of Concerned Scientists’ science director, Brenda Ekwurzel, this panel will be held at the History Colorado Center and will connect the dots between local and national climate and air quality data with public health impacts. --REGISTER--> 2020 Colorado Emergency Management Conference February 25 - 27 Loveland, CO CEMA is a professional association representing the emergency management community in Colorado. CEMA's role is to provide representation on many state-wide committees, working groups and emergency management program teams.  --REGISTER--> 2020 Assoc. of Public Health Nurses Annual April 20-23 Denver, CO Save the date for APHN’s Annual. Moving From Data to Action: Evidence-Based 21st Century Public Health Nursing. --REGISTER--> Click HERE for full event calendar  Public Health Transformation                                 Colorado Governmental PH System Assessment Analysis Completed We now have a full draft report detailing current funding levels, funding gaps, and structural opportunities for Colorado’s Core Public Health Service. The 442 page report features assessment results by each capability and service, as well as by each agency. Due to the sensitivity and complexity of the information, the report is being released to the public health transformation steering committee and CALPHO directors first. They will decide to whom and how to share relevant results, so please ask your director for more information. The entire report will not be shared outside public health or with the general public.  Upcoming Transformation Meetings & Events Here are the upcoming meetings for November and December. Please email Tracy for attendance information: Transformation office hours – Advocacy: December 17 10:00am to 11:00am CALPHO Transformation Meeting: December 19, 1:00pm – 4:00pm Zoom only! Steering Committee Meeting: January 7, 12:30pm – 3:00pm CALPHO Transformation Meeting: January 21, 1:00pm – 4:00pm  Health Equity                                       New Learning Paper: Evolution of Health Equity Cohort’s Policy Efforts CALPHO has been deeply involved in the development of collective policy-advocacy efforts for the Colorado Trust’s Health Equity Advocacy Cohort. That program’s evaluator, Social Policy Research Associates, has produced a thorough learning report on the initiation, operations, and outcome of this effort to align and amplify each members' policy work. They identified areas where we made the most significant progress towards that goal, including Strengthened and strategic relationships with each other and a broader set of advocacy partners, and the strong foundation of trust and understanding they built with one another, was consistently shared as the Cohort’s strongest outcome, as well as a key facilitator of its successful collective advocacy efforts. Shared language and replicable tools to promote and advocate for health equity policies were named as important results of the Cohort’s capacity-building investments, enabling Cohort members to be more adept in their policy analysis and communications, and share information with partners and community members. Inclusive approaches to collective advocacy enable Cohort members to fully leverage the unique strengths that each organization can bring to advocacy efforts. In contrast to the Cohort’s early years, when Cohort organizations were unclear about each other’s strengths and how they could work effectively together, the Cohort was recently described by at least one member as a “well-oiled machine” that can engage in advocacy on a number of health equity issue areas.  News & Current Events                                       As EPA Proposes Emissions Rollbacks, Methane Measurement Under Scrutiny In late August, Trump’s EPA announced a proposal to rescind regulations to limit methane emissions. The announcement comes amid growing evidence on the climate changing power of this potent greenhouse gas, and the North American oil & gas industry’s major contributions. A study published in August concluded that “shale-gas production in North America over the past decade may have contributed more than half of all of the increased emissions from fossil fuels globally and approximately one-third of the total increased emissions from all sources globally over the past decade.”  Much of this comes from preventable leaks that regulations are designed to reduce. As we reported in the last newsletter, Colorado is moving forward with its own methane regulations and enforcement plans, and it is not yet clear how the federal rollback will complicate those efforts. Measurement remains a huge challenge, as detailed by a recent Colorado Public Radio story and this visually striking investigation report by the New York Times of massive leaks in Texas fields and refineries (here’s a pdf of that article). We will continue to monitor the state and federal regulatory developments, as well as any opportunities to give input into the state’s evolving regulatory structures, so stay tuned.   Public Health Works                                           LPHA Stories in Local Media: Some of the Best of 2019 Colorado’s public health communications pros tirelessly promote the work of their agencies and partners to local media, in addition to informing the public on specific risks or threats. CALPHO staff track some of these efforts using google news alerts. But we can’t catch everything, so please email us your favorite stories (including op-eds) and let us know when new ones are published. These stories are crucial to demonstrating the value of public health to your community, and they will also help us with promoting transformation. Here are some of our favorites from 2019. El Paso County Reduces Teen Suicide Rate in Colorado Springs Gazette on 9/20: great example of El Paso County Public Health as trusted chief health strategist and effective coalition convener. Child Care 8000 Initiative on Grand Junction NBC affiliate KKCO on 9/30: features one of the many systems change efforts that Mesa County Public Health is driving. Bullying Prevention in the Sterling Journal-Advocate on 10/9: this story effectively connects a core public health capability (assessment) for Northeast Colorado Health Department to an issue of high local concern.  News from NACCHO                                     2020 NACCHO Annual in Denver: Abstract Submissions Open Through January 16 NACCHO will be hosting a co-occuring conference in addition to its regular annual. The whole event, taking place July 7-9, is called NACCHO 360, and both conferences will be taking place in Denver. We know you have great work to share, so we encourage you to submit an abstract (deadline is January 16) and promote the event to your boards and commissioners. Learn more here.  Help make NACCHO in Denver memorable, join the Local Arrangements Committee – Contact Tracy Anselmo for more information  Highlights from our Partners                                   Reminder: HCPF Conducting Substance Use Treatment Capacity Regional Meetings  Starting in January, HCPF will be holding regional meetings to discuss capacity for inpatient and outpatient substance use disorder treatment capacity needs in those areas. Here's a list of upcoming meetings (click here for more details on times and locations):  Fairplay, January 7 Golden, January 9 Denver, January 17 Alamosa, January 22 Pueblo, January 23 additional locations in February New Report Launches HCPF Effort to Address High Cost of Prescription Drugs At an event held Thursday, 12/12, HCPF released their research into the main drivers of drug costs for Colorado. The biggest drivers identified are opaque pricing methodologies, anti-competitive practices, and outsize marketing and lobbying activities. Specialty drugs account for the greatest increase in prices over the past six years, at 28.5%. HCPF will be hosting stakeholder events to explore policy options, though a schedule has not yet been determined. Read the press release here and the download the full report here. National Academies Releases Proceedings on Wide Impacts of CA Wildfires While not specifically about Colorado, this report should prove useful for any wildfire-prone western state. Experts considered “the population health, environmental health, emergency preparedness, and health equity consequences of increasingly strong and numerous wildfires.” They also extensively discussed mitigation and prevention approaches (section 7, page 69). Download the report here. Opportunities Economic Impact Initiative Grants (Deadline: on-going through local Rural Development office) The Colorado Health Foundation Funding Opportunities (Deadlines in February, June, and October) Community Facilities Direct Loan & Grant Program (Deadline: on-going) Thank you for reading. If you have any comments or ideas for future CALPHO e-newsletters, please email us at info@calpho.org.  The purpose of this e-newsletter is to provide news updates, events and informational resources on hot topics in local public health and CALPHO. Any staff person of a CALPHO member agency is welcome to join our email list to receive this e-newsletter. If you have a colleague interested in receiving this e-newsletter, please forward this message to them. Copyright © Colorado Association of Local Public Health Officials 2019, All rights reserved.   Our mailing address is: 1385 S. Colorado Blvd., Bldg. A, Suite 622 Denver, Colorado 80222

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