Approved Minutes of March 26, 2025

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MINUTES ORANGE COUNTY BOARD OF HEALTH March 26, 2025 • Commissioner Fowler asked if providers can refer patients directly to the NC Navigator Consortium, to which Mr. Bindman recommended directing people to the ePASS website, epass.nc.gov. Ms. Elrahal said that patients can also apply on healthcare.gov, and Ms. Rivera added that ePASS is a portal for people to access many public benefits, such as EBT/WIC, energy assistance, Tanf, and it can be used to bypass the phone trees at DSS. • Dr. Stuebe commented that negative Medicaid experiences can influence an individual's likelihood of voting and otherwise being civically engaged and that the work Legal Aid does is so important, as not all County DSS are as good as Orange County's. • Dr. Royce said that the Legal Aid team are superheroes and asked what the Board of Health can do to help. Mr. Bindman said that funding at DSS is the biggest need that he sees. Ms. Rivera commented that providing flyers and referrals to people is useful, though they cannot be referred to through EPIC (they use EveryAction). Ms. Elrahal added that it would be helpful for them to be more integrated in the healthcare system to help people differentiate between Legal Aid and potential scams. • Dr. Stuebe asked if there was a way to notify people alongside their state tax returns that they may be eligible for Medicaid, an idea which the Legal Aid team all applauded but agreed that they likely did not have the influence to make it happen. In response to Dr. Baldwin's question about the submission of 1095 forms, which provide proof of health insurance throughout the year, Mr. Bindman explained that these are no longer required after the Supreme Court removed the ACA condition that penalized those without health insurance. • Dana Crews, Community Health Services Director, shared that several Family Home Visiting and Family Success Alliance Navigators are currently being trained as Medicaid Ambassadors. B. Campus Community Coalition (CCC) Update Samantha Luu, Director of the Campus Community Coalition (CCC), presented the annual update on the CCC program. Some highlights of her presentation are below: • In response to Dr. Stuebe's question, Ms. Luu shared that BORGs (Black-Out Rage Gallons) continue to be used by students on campus. • The CCC emerged from their strategic planning process with goals organized in five "buckets" targeting environmental change. Polysubstance use (that is, intentional or unintentional use of two or more substances at the same time) is emerging as an area of concern. • CCC recently conducted a social norms campaign to promote engaging in harm reduction practices as normal and acceptable (e.g., only having one drink the night before big study days, drinking lots of water and eating when consuming alcohol). • Based on EMS injury data, about half of campus area 911 calls related to alcohol use were for individuals who were under 21 years of age. A lot of the injuries were in areas with a high concentration of individuals involved in Greek life (e.g., Fraternity court, Granville towers). Black students were disproportionately affected by alcohol-related injuries, particularly motorized vehicle accidents. Ms. Luu also mentioned that there has been an increase in EMS calls about THC overdoses related to consuming cannabis- infused gummies. • Ms. Luu shared a map of youth access to vaping products and other substances provided by Orange Partnership and explained that retailers often cluster in areas of less privilege (e.g., lower income areas, communities of color). She explained that "flagged S:\Managers Working Files\BOH\Agendas &Abstracts\2025 Agenda and Abstracts/ March Page 6