Orange County NC Website
MINUTES-Draft <br />ORANGE COUNTY BOARD OF HEALTH <br />February 24, 2016 <br />S:\Managers Working Files\BOH\Agenda & Abstracts\2016 Agenda & Abstracts/ February Page 4 <br />Susan G. Komen and Health Disparities projects and $705,000 (level funding) for school nurses <br />in both Orange County school systems. <br /> <br />In relation to new staff requests, the Health Department requests a total of 1.4 FTE; a new 1.0 <br />FTE Public Health Educator to serve as a community liaison and a 0.4 FTE for the Healthy <br />Homes Asthma program, which will be added to the existing 0.6 FTE Public Health <br />Preparedness position to total 1.0 FTE. The Health Department requires no additional funding to <br />support these positions as they will be absorbed within the existing budget. <br /> <br />In relation to state funding, the state has provided us with the FY 16-17 Consolidated <br />Agreement Addenda. Even though we will no longer receive funding for Ebola, the Maternal and <br />Child Health Planning grant, or the Oral Health grant we received in FY 15-16, we will receive <br />additional funding for Prescription Drug Overdoses. Changes in funding for all other, ongoing <br />Health Department programs equals out to the prior fiscal year. <br /> <br />With regards to fee changes, the FY 2016-2017 requested budget includes fee changes for the <br />Personal Health and Environmental Health divisions. Staff recommends multiple fee changes <br />for Personal Health to cover the increased cost of vaccines, add a minimum lab fee for self-pay <br />clients, and adjust the fee for 340B drugs according to changes in the state and federal policies <br />around 340B drugs. Also, during the FY 15-16 budget cycle, the Board of Health voted to enact <br />Phase I of a three year phased Environmental Health fee increase in order to reach full cost <br />recovery for Environmental Health. Staff recommends enacting Phase II of the three year fee <br />increase by raising fees an additional 11% over last year’s increases. <br /> <br />Motion to approve to approve the total budget requested in the amount of $10,032,417 for <br />2016-2017 as presented which includes $103,536 in grant funding for the Susan G. <br />Komen and Health Disparities projects, and forward to the County Manager or Board of <br />County Commissioners for action without edits was made by Paul Chelminski, seconded <br />by Susan Elmore and carried without dissent. <br /> <br /> <br />Dr. Bridger facilitated a discussion about the proposed fee changes which touched briefly on the <br />fee changes in Personal Health and to continue with Phase II of the planned fee increases in <br />the Environmental Health division. The proposed changes are: <br /> <br />Personal Health proposes the implementation of a minimum charge for laboratory procedures to <br />recoup a small portion of labs performed for primary care patients. The average primary care <br />patient requires multiple labs per visit, equating to between $24 and $185, or an average of <br />$102 in charges. Patients pay for these labs according to where they fall on the sliding fee <br />scale; however 0% pay patients do not pay anything for labs. The proposed minimum fee of $20 <br />would be equal to other minimum fees within the Health Department for MNT and DSME <br />services, which have both proven to not be cost prohibitive for clients. <br /> <br />Personal Health also requests fee increases for multiple vaccines that are rising in cost and <br />adjustments to our fees for 340B drugs (Family Planning drugs not including birth control pills) <br />to make them match the county’s cost to purchase them, as required by the state and federal <br />government. This will have very little impact on both the department and patients as only 10% of <br />self-pay patients pay more than $0 for Family Planning drugs or procedures and of that 10% we <br />had no patients in prior years that have had to pay 100% of the cost. <br />