Michigan Council for Maternal and Child Health Friday Notes

January 30, 2015
In this issue
DCH Pushes Back Timetable for Medicaid Rebid
Nurse Scope of Practice Bill Reintroduced
Sign-on to Renew Funding for CHIP
DCH Confirms First Measles Case for 2015
DCH Pushes Back Timetable For Medicaid Rebid
The Department of Community Health is moving back various deadlines on its plan to rebid the state's Medicaid health plans.

The bid will be released May 1 with responses due in August. The current contract, which ends September 30, 2015, will be extended to December 31, 2015. New contracts as a result of the rebid will begin January 1, 2016.

In a statement, DCH and the Department of Technology Management and Budget officials said they realize bidders need more time to develop adequate networks as a result of the recently released decision that all counties in a region must be included in all bids. Current practice calls for plans to bid on individual counties within a region.

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Nurse Scope Of Practice Bill Reintroduced
Sen. Mike Shirkey on Thursday introduced a major rewrite of the Public Health Code to establish licensure requirements of advanced practice registered nurses and revise requirements for nurse midwives, nurse practitioners and clinical nurse specialists, among other general revisions.

Sen. Shirkey's (R-Clarklake) bill is similar to what was a major priority for former Sen. Mark Jansen to expand the scope of practice for APRNs. But it differs slightly in that it sets up a fund for a portion of the license fee for APRNs that would go to the Department of Treasury to be used by APRNs who work in under-served areas of the state.

SB 68 was sent to the Senate Health Policy Committee, which is chaired by Sen. Shirkey.

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Sign-on to Renew Funding for CHIP/MIChild
MCMCH has joined the national organization First Focus in a sign-on letter urging congressional leaders to take action as soon as possible to provide four years of renewed funding for the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP)/MIChild.

Congress failed to act on CHIP last year. CHIP is a key source of coverage for more than 8 million children and hundreds of thousands of pregnant women; in Michigan this coverage is the MIChild program. Funding is currently set to expire on September 30, 2015 but states are now developing their FY 2016 budgets and need to know that CHIP will not run out of funding after September. If Congress fails to act, millions of children who rely on CHIP will face coverage disruptions; many will lose coverage altogether. At a time when our nation has made so much progress in covering kids, this would be an enormous step backwards. Let's make sure Congress knows that swift action on CHIP must be a top priority!

All interested stakeholders are encouraged to sign-on. Click here to review the CHIP letter.
Click here to renew or add your organization's name and location to the letter.
The deadline for signing the letter is Wednesday, February 11.

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DCH Confirms First Measles Case for 2015
State officials said last week the source of the state's first measles case of the year could be related to the outbreak at Disneyland. The Department of Community Health confirmed that the state's first case of measles was an adult from Oakland County, but did not give more detail on the case. There have been four suspected cases so far this year.

Officials used the case to encourage residents to be vaccinated for the disease.

"As we are seeing with the recent outbreak in California, measles is a highly communicable disease that can affect both children and adults," Doctor Matthew Davis, chief medical executive with DCH, said. "The best way to protect our families and communities against measles is to get vaccinated."

The state saw five confirmed cases of the potentially fatal disease in 2014.
But cases are increasing nationally, officials said. The national count jumped to 644 cases in 2013 from an average of 60 cases annually between 2001 and 2012. Fifty cases have already been reported in 2015.

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Contributors to this Issue
Gongwer News Service
HealthDay
MDCH
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Quick Links . . .

Nearly Half of U.S. Girls Start HPV Vaccination Late
A study in the journal Vaccine revealed the number of U.S. girls receiving the human papillomavirus vaccine beginning at ages 11 or 12 grew from 14% in 2008 to 56% in 2012. However, researchers found nearly half of girls receive the first dose of the vaccine after the recommended age. Read more

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Learn about State's Race to the Top - Early Learning Challenge Grant
Staff from MDE - Office of Great Start will host an introductory webinar about Michigan's Race to the Top - Early Learning Challenge (RTT-ELC) grant on Monday, Feb. 2, 2015 from 10:00 - 11:00 AM EST. The webinar will provide an overview of RTT-ELC projects and activities, and time for participants to ask questions. Register here
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Save the Date: 8th Annual Moving Toward Solutions Conference, Aug. 16-18
The Moving Toward Solutions: Addressing Teen Pregnancy Prevention in Michigan conference will be held August 16-18, 2015 at the Kalamazoo Radisson. The purpose of the conference is to provide educators, providers and community stakeholders with practical strategies for the day to day implementation of effective programming around teen pregnancy prevention and adolescent sexual health. A primary focus of the conference is to highlight specific programs and strategies that prevent risk taking behaviors, which may lead to unintended pregnancy, STIs and HIV/AIDS.
Target Audience: Professionals from a variety of prevention education settings: health departments, schools, hospitals/clinics, child & adolescent health centers, faith-based, youth serving, STD/HIV and other community-based entities.
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2015 Immunization Schedule Available
The 2015 Childhood Immunization Schedule is now available online. Every year, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) develops recommendations for routine use of vaccines in children, adolescents, and adults. When adopted by the CDC Director, they become official CDC/HHS policy. The Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report will publish a summary of childhood schedule changes in early February. All of the 2015 figures, footnotes, and tables for the childhood schedule are currently available on the CDC website.
CDC has also updated the following parent-friendly schedules to reflect the new 2015 recommended immunization schedule:
For children from birth through age 6
For pre-teens and teens from 7 through 18 years old