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ORANGE COUNTY <br />BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS <br />ACTION AGENDA ITEM ABSTRACT <br />Meeting Date: November 19, 2002 <br />Action Agenda <br />Item No. ~~ <br />SUBJECT• Additional Fees for Personal Health Services at Health Department <br />DEPARTMENT: Health PUBLIC HEARING: (YIN) No <br />ATTACHMENT(S): INFORMATION CONTACT: <br />Rosemary Summers, ext 2411 <br />TELEPHONE NUMBERS: <br />Hillsborough 732-8181 <br />Chapel Hill 968-4501 <br />Durham 688-7331 <br />Mebane 336-227-2031 <br />PURPOSE: To consider approving additional fees for rendering personal health services at the <br />health department. <br />BACKGROUND: The Board of Health is recommending the addition of several fees to the <br />Personal Health Services fees authorized to be charged by the Health Department. There have <br />been several changes in interuterine devices (IUD) over the past several years, with the <br />technology continuing to improve. The department has had several requests over the past few <br />months from patients desiring a certain type of IUD called a Mirena IUD. These devices are <br />effective for at least five years. These fees are eligible for Medicaid reimbursement. The staff <br />has also identified a foundation that will provide these IUDs free to low-income clients who are <br />not eligible for Medicaid and do not have insurance that will reimburse for this. The usual <br />sliding fee scale would be applied to those not qualifying for other subsidy and in some cases <br />would mean that service would be available to clients free of charge. The following fees are <br />recommended for this service: <br />• Mirena IUD (device itself) $420 <br />• Insertion fee $ 85 <br />The second fee that the Board of Health is recommending is a new charge for a urinary lab test <br />called a Uricult. This test is currently conducted by UNC Labs for the Health Department for all <br />prenatal patients and as such is part of the "package" the Department charges for prenatal <br />services. This particular test is also useful for diagnosing urinary tract infections, especially <br />when a woman comes in for a family planning or a child comes in with an apparent urinary tract <br />infection. The Department is proposing that this test be conducted in-house by County <br />laboratory personnel, and the positive uricults would continue to be sent to UNC Labs for <br />additional testing as needed. The addition of this fee in-house would enable the Department to <br />recover the charges for this test for these clients. The sliding scale would be applied in all <br />qualifying cases. The following fee is recommended for this laboratory test: <br />• Uricult $15 <br />