Affiliates Briefs

Illinois Affiliate helps bill for vaccinations

The Illinois Public Health Association hopes a federal grant to help bill insured patients for immunizations could be a revenue generator for its state health departments.

The APHA Affiliate is in charge of implementing a $450,000 immunization capacity building grant from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which allows local health departments to develop billing programs to bill third party-payers for preventive health care such as immunizations.

The interest in starting a program came from the association and the Illinois Department of Public Health brainstorming ways to find additional money for the state’s local health departments who may have seen drops in funding, according to Ron Culves, MA, the association’s immunization project manager.

Local health departments will be able to bill insured patients for services and carry private stock vaccines. Ten pilot health departments that serve 16 counties were chosen to test the billing program based on demographics, need and location. The Illinois Department of Public Health received the grant in September 2012 for the two-year program and the association is overseeing the program.

“The funds generated from this program can be used to replenish vaccine inventory, enhance current immunization services, improve immunization programs, and give (local health departments) a more stable funding source,” Culves wrote in a September project update.

The Illinois association plans to complete an evaluation of the cost effectiveness of the program by September 2014.

Wisconsin Affiliate opposes raw milk

The Wisconsin Public Health Association is working with a state coalition to inform on the dangers of consuming raw milk.

The APHA Affiliate is one of more than a dozen groups in the Wisconsin Safe Milk Coalition, which has pushed legislators since 2010 to reject bills advocating for legal raw milk sales. As of September, there were bills in the state senate and assembly supporting such sales.

Supporters of legalization say there are curative properties in raw milk, and that consumption decreases obesity and alleviates conditions such as asthma, said Doug Gieryn, treasurer of the association’s executive board.

But Gieryn, director-health officer of the Winnebago County Health Department, said drinking milk that is not pasteurized — heated to kill bacteria — puts a person at risk of consuming bacteria such as listeria, campylobacter and E. coli.

“We ask for the evidence,” Gieryn told The Nation’s Health. “There’s really very little if any evidence that supports raw milk being a more nutritious food or having medicinal qualities.”

Michael Welsh, a contract lobbyist for the association, said the coalition work has picked up speed in the past 10 months. Coalition members spoke at September press conferences in the cities of La Crosse and Madison about the public health concerns.

“We’re not looking to be the food police,” Welsh told The Nation’s Health. “We’re certainly in the business of looking for a safe food supply in the state of Wisconsin. There are other foods that carry pathogens, those can be typically washed, but with milk it has to be pasteurized. It’s about making sure our population is healthy and safe from foodborne illness.”

Georgia sponsors photo challenge

The Georgia Public Health Association wants snapshots of the state’s youngest residents being active to promote a state child exercise initiative.

Georgia Public Health Association consultant Scott Maxwell, center, poses with his son’s Boy Scout troop while hiking in New Mexico recently. The association is seeking pictures of state residents being active as part of a photo challenge.

Photo courtesy James Wall

The APHA Affiliate is sponsoring an ongoing photo challenge, asking state residents to take a photo with the logo for Georgia Student Health and Physical Education, or SHAPE, program, a state health initiative led by Gov. Nathan Deal to reduce childhood obesity and get children physically active. Participants can email or mail the photos to GPHA to post on its Facebook page.

Scott Maxwell, a governmental affairs consultant to GPHA, got the idea for the contest before an 11-day Boy Scouts backpacking trip to New Mexico this summer. Maxwell and the troop took a photo with the logo.

“I just thought it would be neat to take the SHAPE logo,” Maxwell told The Nation’s Health. “I know what they’re trying to do administratively in the state, but sometimes a picture is worth a thousand words. At least kids would see it, or kids that did see the picture would say ‘I’d like to do that.’”

The association will post photos as soon as it receives them, Maxwell said. He hopes to have a presentation of photos and personal stories about physical fitness for the association’s annual meeting in spring 2014.

For more information visit www.gapha.org.