Juan Peña, 29, has worked in the fields since childhood, often exposing his body to extreme heat like the wave hitting the Midwest this week.

The heat can cause such deep pain in his whole body that he just wants to lie down, he said, as his body tells him he can’t take another day on the job. On those days, his only motivation to get out of bed is to earn dollars to send to his 10-month-old baby in Mexico.

Farmworkers, such as Peña and the crew he leads in Iowa, are unprotected against heat-related illnesses. They are 35 times more likely to die from heat exposure than workers in other sectors, according to the National Institutes of Health, and the absence of a federal heat regulation that guarantees their safety and life – when scientists have warned that global warming will continue – increases that risk.

Over a six-year period, 121 workers lost their lives due to exposure to severe environmental heat. One-fifth of these fatalities were individuals employed in the agricultural sector, according to an Investigate Midwest analysis of Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) data.

One such case involved a Nebraska farmworker who suffered heat stroke alone and died on a farm in the early summer of 2018. A search party found his body the next day.

In early July 2020, a worker detasseling corn in Indiana experienced dizziness after working for about five hours. His coworkers provided him shade and fluids before they resumed work. The farmworker was found lying on the floor of the company bus about 10 minutes later. He was pronounced dead at the hospital due to cardiac arrest.

“As a physician, I believe that these deaths are almost completely preventable,” said Bill Kinsey, a physician and professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “Until we determine as a society the importance of a human right for people to work in healthy situations, we are going to see continued illness and death in this population.”

Peña harvests fields in Texas and Iowa. This summer, he’s overseen five Mexican seasonal workers picking vegetables and fruits in Louisa County, Iowa. With its high humidity and heat, Iowa’s climate causes the boys, as he affectionately refers to them, to end their day completely wet, as if they had taken “a shower with their clothes on,” he said. They work up to 60 or 70 hours a week to meet their contractual obligations.

“I’m lucky because my bosses are considerate (when it’s hot),” he said in Spanish, recalling that he managed to endure temperatures as high as 105 degrees in Texas. “I’ve had bosses who, if they see you resting for a few minutes under a tree to recover yourself, think you’re wasting your time and send you home without pay.”

Some of his friends have been less fortunate, and a few minutes of rest have been cause for dismissal, he said.

The fatalities scratch the surface of what is a more extensive issue, according to health experts, academics and advocacy groups, who say the data on heat illnesses and death is inadequate.

“There is a massive undercount,” said Elizabeth Strater, director of strategic campaigns for United Farm Workers.

She said it is common for the death of a person who died after a heat stroke to be classified as caused by a heart attack on an autopsy.

Strater said it’s difficult to quantify issues that face farmworkers because those that are undocumented tend to shy away from authorities and, in general, the population moves around a lot and lives in secluded areas. “Everything to do with farmworkers is particularly difficult because we don’t know,” she said.

An estimated 2.4 million people work on farms and ranches nationwide, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s census of agriculture. This population, mostly Latino, is roughly equal to the population of Chicago. More than one-third are undocumented.

A possible federal standard

Although employers are generally responsible for ensuring a safe working environment that protects their employees’ well-being and lives, no federal regulation stipulates a specific temperature threshold that mandates protective measures.

Nearly four in 10 farmworkers are unwilling to file a complaint against their employer for noncompliance in the workplace, mostly out of fear of retaliation or losing their job, according to survey data of California farmworkers conducted by researchers at the University of California Merced Community and Labor Center.

Only four states have adopted outdoor workplace heat-stress standards, and none of them are in the Midwest. California was the first to implement such standards, followed by Oregon, Washington, and Colorado.

This leaves the protection of agricultural workers from heat stress at the discretion of their employers in most states.

OSHA has been working on a heat-stress rule since 2021 that will require employers to provide adequate water and rest breaks for outdoor workers, as well as medical services and training to treat the signs and symptoms of heat-related illnesses. However, according to a U.S. Government Accountability Office report, this process can take from 15 months to 19 years.

OSHA officials would not comment on the pending federal heat standard.

Last year, the Asuncion Valdivia Heat Stress Injury, Illness, and Death Prevention Act, which would force OSHA to issue a heat standard much faster than the normal process, failed to get the votes on the floor.

The bill was named in honor of Asuncion Valdivia, who died in 2004 after picking grapes for 10 hours nonstop in 105-degree heat. Valdivia collapsed unconscious and, instead of calling an ambulance, his employer told his son to take his father home. On the way home, he died of heat stroke at 53.

A group of Democratic lawmakers reintroduced the bill last month.

“There is definitely a political decision to be made by members of Congress, in both the House and the Senate, because they have the power to pass legislation to tell OSHA to issue a standard more quickly,” said Mayra Reiter, project director of occupational safety and health at the advocacy group Farmworker Justice.

Reiter added that the legislation would also help shield that standard from future legal challenges in court.

As in several recent years, the summer of 2023 has broken records for heat.

In response, President Joe Biden announced new measures to protect workers — including a hazard alert notifying employers and employees of ways to stay safe from extreme heat — as well as steps to improve weather forecasting and make drinking water more accessible.

But farmworker advocacy groups are calling on the administration to speed up OSHA’s issuance of a rule protecting workers. They are also pushing for the 2023 farm bill to include farmworker heat protections.

“Farmer organizations and many other worker advocacy groups are hoping that there’ll be a federal regulation,” Reiter said, “because, going state by state, we have seen that there isn’t that urgency to develop these rules.”

Long way to a new rule

Creating a new rule to protect workers from heat must overcome several hurdles, from bureaucratic procedures to lobbying industries, including the agricultural industry.

“OSHA is uniquely slow,” said Jordan Barab, who served as OSHA’s deputy assistant secretary of labor during the Obama administration.

He said the 1970 act that created OSHA imposes many requirements on the rulemaking process. The agency has to determine the current problem and whether the new standard will reduce risk. OSHA must also ensure that the new standard is economically, technically and technologically feasible in all industries.

The road to regulations to protect workers from the heat also has to overcome industry lobbying, including big agricultural and construction groups. One group that has expressed hesitancy to new federal rules is the American Farm Bureau Federation, which has spent on average about $2.3 million on lobbying over the past two years, according to OpenSecrets.

“Considering the variances in agricultural work and climate, (the Farm Bureau) questions whether the department can develop additional heat illness regulations without imposing new, onerous burdens on farmers and ranchers that will lead to economic losses,” Sam Kieffer, vice president of public policy at American Farm Bureau Federation, said in a statement.

Vulnerable populations

To make a living, Jaime Salinas fills 32 sacks of apples each day in Missouri. His daily quota is one ton, or about 3,200 apples. His wife used to walk 11 miles a day to harvest fruits and vegetables when she worked in the field.

He said when he gets too hot, he sits in the shade to drink water but feels pressured to keep working due to the method of payment, which depends on the amount harvested.

Strater, with Farmworker Justice, believes that the way farmworkers are paid is one of the main obstacles that must be overcome to ensure their safety because it often incentivizes volume, forcing them to expose themselves to continued work without regard to the signs of heat-related illness.

Kinsey, the University of Wisconsin professor and the director of a mobile clinic, said the demographic has a higher incidence of diabetes, hypertension, and chronic kidney disease.

“Climate stress,” he said, “has introduced an additional layer of complexity to these existing challenges.”

Seasonal visa workers are especially vulnerable because they depend completely on whoever hires them: from the house they live in to the food they eat.

“You’re going to endure as much as you can with the hopes of continuing to provide for your family,” Strater said. “The thing is the endpoint for that is death.”

In Tama County, Iowa, David Hinegardner owns a small farm called Hinegardner’s Orchard, where he grows apples, strawberries, corn and soybeans. He sells his crop to supermarkets, farmers’ markets, schools, and colleges.

The farmworkers are immigrants from Latin America who reside in the surrounding area, and some of them have been working on his farm for decades. One of the measures he takes during the summer to avoid risks to his workers is to change the work schedules to avoid the hottest part of the day.

“I think they do a much better job when they’re treated with respect and taken good care of,” he said.

This story is a product of Harvest Public Media, Investigate Midwest and the Mississippi River Basin Ag & Water Desk as part of the series A Changing Basin. News outlets can sign up to republish stories like this one for free. 

The post Poor regulatory safeguards leave farmworkers suffocating in the face of increasing heat waves appeared first on Investigate Midwest.

It’s taking longer than expected, but residents in Clinton should once again have a hospital operating in their community soon, while those living in Woodward hope to experience a seamless continuation of hospital services during an operational transition later this year. Plans call for the emergency room of Clinton Regional Hospital to open Oct. 30, […]

The post Two western Oklahoma cities work to preserve their hospitals appeared first on NonDoc.

A new school year is nearly upon us and families are racing to complete their back-to-school to-do lists. But how many will get the required vaccines with COVID-19 skepticism still so high?

Initial data suggests the vast majority will. 

Schools in Wyoming don’t require COVID-19 vaccines, but the inoculations are encouraged by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Instead, years-old requirements range from vaccines against hepatitis B to measles to polio.

At Fremont County School District 25, K-12 students last year averaged a 97% vaccination rate, according to special services director Dallas Myers. While some practice their right to get a waiver, he said they are in the minority.

Head nurse Janet Farmer with Laramie County School District 1 heard from a Wyoming Department of Health employee that the use of vaccination waivers was down, she said. The health department has not confirmed that yet. Families in Farmer’s district have until Sept. 22 to submit health-officer-approved waivers, she added.  

Some school kids are particularly vulnerable to illnesses because of health conditions like recovering from cancer, Farmer added, and others getting vaccines helps keep them healthy.

“If we have that herd immunity that’s strong, we’re in a much better position for all those students.”

Head nurse Janet Farmer

“We always have people who are very immune compromised,” she said. “If we have that herd immunity that’s strong, we’re in a much better position for all those students.”

The latest data from the 2021-22 school year shows that more than 92% of Wyoming kindergarteners had gotten the required vaccinations.

“The big takeaway is that the vast majority of Wyoming’s school children continue to receive the required vaccines by the time they enter school,” Wyoming Department of Health spokesperson Kim Deti stated in an email.

“At the same time, there have been small dips in the coverage percentages and some increases in exemption numbers,” she added, referring to the data ending in 2022. “That was starting to be a concern across the country about decreasing rates before the pandemic, and then the pandemic likely had some additional effects.”

Vaccine skepticism is “not unexpected,” Deti stated, but the health department urges families to utilize both the required and suggested vaccines at this time. 

Federal funds also bolstered a Wyoming-specific campaign urging residents to consider vaccination. Based on an archival news clip about a Basin man who died from tetanus after shaving, Deti said, the commercial “takes a lighter approach to reminding residents of the successes vaccines have had over time.”

“One reason affecting vaccination rates is likely that younger generations are not familiar with many of the diseases vaccines can prevent,” Deti stated. “These diseases may not seem like real threats today.”

The mandatory vaccine with the lowest uptake in Wyoming, according to kindergartener records, was one for tetanus and diphtheria. About 92.5% of the schoolkids had that vaccine versus 94.6% who were vaccinated against hepatitis B.

Students can be exempted from vaccine requirements for religious and medical reasons. The latter is “very rare,” Deti stated. 

The health department website cites state code allowing for the exceptions, but adds with emphasis, “The law does not allow parents/guardians to request a waiver simply because of inconvenience … Wyoming statute does NOT allow for the authorization of waiver requests based on philosophical beliefs. Schools should maintain an up-to-date list of students with waiver, so they may be excluded during a vaccine-preventable disease outbreak as determined by the State Health Officer o[r] a County Health Officer.”

Statewide vaccine information from last year and this coming year’s school kids is not yet available, and Deti said she doesn’t know when it will be. It is required by the state for anyone attending school to provide “documentary proof of immunization” within the first 30 days of the school year.

The post Vast majority of Wyoming kids get vaccinated appeared first on WyoFile.

By Will Atwater

Last month, three people died as a result of infections from a category of bacteria you’ve likely never heard of: Vibrio. It is commonly present in coastal and brackish water, especially during warmer months.

“There are almost 80 described species of Vibrio that live in the water,” said UNC Chapel Hill Institute of Marine Sciences researcher Rachel Noble. But Noble also noted that as the seas warm through to climate change, there’s more Vibrio in North Carolina’s waterways. 

According to a news release from the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services, there have been 47 recorded cases and eight deaths from infection caused by Vibrio microorganisms since 2019. 

One way that people get infected with the bacteria is through eating undercooked seafood. Another way is the bacteria getting into a cut or scrape in the skin when exposed to water containing Vibrio. In people with weakened immune systems, a Vibrio skin infection can all too quickly lead to a systemic infection that can lead to loss of limbs or, left untreated, death.

Noble is among the experts who predict that in the future, Vibrio cases will pop up in places that previously had no issues, and they indicate that there will be more infections in December and January, for instance, since coastal waters are not cooling as much as in the past. .

Noble said that when she began testing the Neuse River estuary for Vibrio two decades ago in the winter, she found anywhere from three to ten microorganisms per 100 milliliters (a tenth of a liter) of water.

“Twenty years later, those numbers are closer to 100 to 200 per 100 milliliters in January.”

“There has definitely been not only an extending of the summer infection season,” she said, “but there’s also been a trend that it’s no longer true that our estuaries go down to almost zero in concentration in the winter months. They don’t. The Vibrios [bacteria] are still very much there.”

Climate change and Vibrio

Vibrio bacteria thrive in warmer, brackish waters where blue crabs live, especially when they’re molting and losing their hard outer shell. And one of the prime ways people get infected is when the bacteria gets into small cuts and scrapes. 

Those small nicks in the skin have the potential to be a big issue for people like commercial fisherman Keith Bruno.

Bruno migrated to North Carolina from Long Island, where he once fished for lobster. After an outbreak of West Nile virus in New York in the 1990s, the regions around Long Island Sound aggressively sprayed for mosquitoes that carry the virus. Bruno is among those who blame the spraying for the collapse of the lobster fishery there. But around the same time, the waters in Long Island Sound began to warm, likely delivering the lobsters a fatal blow. 

Now, the waters off the North Carolina coast, where Bruno harvests blue crab, are warming. The Vibrio bacteria threaten commercial fishers and those who work and play  in or near coastal estuaries and marshes. In the wake of Hurricane Florence in 2018, there were a number of Vibrio incidents. 

And with that warming water comes more risk to Bruno and other fishers, who often get cuts and scrapes over the course of their work day. 

Because of a medical condition, Bruno leaves most of the handling of crab pots to his son these days. But, he said, the risk of infection is part of the job.

“We are constantly getting scratched and cut and bit and jammed and poked,” said Bruno, who recounted being scratched from handling crab pots and fishing gear and being poked by bones protruding from buckets of bait.

“If anybody gets a wound in the water, they need to get medical attention right away,” said Dr. Michael Somers, an emergency medical physician at Carolina East Medical in New Bern. “We can … treat the infections, but better than that we can give medication to prevent the infection.”

If people who may have been exposed to Vibrio seek immediate medical attention, they can be prescribed an antibiotic such as doxycycline to protect themselves against developing the infection, Somers said. 

Bruno said to save time, he and other fishers rely on bleach to prevent infection while out on the water. 

“The down and dirty is ‘throw some bleach on it and get back to work,’” he said. “We live to work and work to live … We’re not going up to the walk-in clinic for antibiotics every time we get scratched — we’d live there and never make any money.”

There’s something in the water

A research article published in March 2023 supports the idea that Vibrio is spreading northward along the Atlantic Coast. That study bolsters a growing body of research showing that warming seas are driving more bacterial infections in more northern climes. 

To better track the bacteria, the CDC partnered in 1989 with the Food and Drug Administration and four Gulf Coast states — Texas, Louisiana, Alabama and Florida — to develop the Cholera and Other Vibrio Illness Surveillance. The surveillance has now expanded and includes Vibrio data for the Atlantic Coast states.

Noble said that two forms of Vibrio are of particular interest to researchers and public health officials in the state: Vibrio vulnificus and Vibrio parahaemolyticus. V. vulnificus infections usually occur from exposure to brackish water, and V. parahaemolyticus is associated with eating undercooked shellfish.

The Centers for Disease Control reported in an email that in 2019, there were 158 Vibrio vulnificus infections. Twenty-one percent of the infections resulted in deaths — roughly one-half of V. vulnificus infections occurred in Gulf Coast states, and about one-third were in Atlantic Coast states. 

When it comes to V. parahaemolyticus, the agency estimates about 52,000 people contract it annually from shellfish. While it will make a person miserable, with vomiting and stomach cramps, it has a very low death rate. 

One of the three North Carolina deaths was someone who both ate seafood and waded in brackish water, so it’s unclear whether food or water exposure killed them.

Typically, healthy individuals infected with Vibrio have mild reactions. However, the CDC reports that individuals with underlying health conditions “are more likely to develop V. vulnificus or severe complications such as septicemia,” according to the email.

Protective measures

Sheila Davies, director of public health with the Dare County Department of Health & Human Services, understands the challenges faced by crabbers and fishers, but she strongly advises anyone to seek medical attention as soon as possible if they have scratches or cuts that have been exposed to brackish water.

“If you’re getting cut on a fishing hook, or crab pot or barnacles hanging … it increases your risk of infection,” she said. “So [I’m] strongly promoting how important it is to seek medical attention.”

Echoing Davies’ concern, NCDHHS included the following suggestions designed to help people avoid a Vibrio infection:

• If you have a wound (including from a recent surgery, piercing or tattoo), stay out of saltwater or brackish water, if possible. This includes wading at the beach.
• Cover your wound with a waterproof bandage if it could come into contact with saltwater, brackish water or raw or undercooked seafood.
• If you sustain any type of wound while in salt or brackish water (e.g., cutting your hand on a boat propeller or crab pot) immediately get out of the water and wash with soap and water. 
• Wash wounds and cuts thoroughly with soap and water after contact with saltwater, brackish water or raw seafood.
• Thoroughly cook all shellfish to an internal temperature of at least 145 degrees Fahrenheit for 15 seconds, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

The post Warmer seas drive more bacterial infections, threatening fishermen, public health appeared first on North Carolina Health News.

Every summer, people flock to Maryland to eat blue crabs. Named for their brilliant sapphire-colored claws, blue crab is one of the most iconic species in the Chesapeake Bay. The scientific name for blue crabs, Callinectes sapidus, means “beautiful savory swimmer.”

In restaurants and at home, diners pile steamed and seasoned blue crabs in the middle of a table covered in paper. Then, using small mallets, knives, bare hands and fingers, they break open the hard shells and extract the juicy meat from inside.

It is a messy experience, especially with Old Bay seasoning and beer known locally as Natty Bohs, one that is quintessentially Maryland.

Though many people know firsthand how difficult it is to pick and clean crab meat, they often don’t realize how crab is processed when it is sold in stores already picked and cleaned. Most people also may not know that crab picking is a livelihood for many, mainly poor, women.

For generations, African American women from Maryland’s rural, maritime communities labored for crab houses on the Eastern Shore.

Today, fewer than 10 crab houses are left on the Shore. The workforce consists of mainly female migrant workers from Mexico who do the grueling job of picking crab for eight to nine hours a day, from late spring to early fall. They make on average of US$2.50 to $4.00 for every pound of crabmeat they pick.

That pay is roughly one-tenth to one-twelfth of the wholesale price of one pound – or about a half of a kilogram – of the seafood they pick, which is $35 to $44. In comparison, the Maryland minimum wage is $13.25 an hour, while the federal minimum wage is $7.25.

Rise of immigration in rural America

Over 2.1 million migrants and immigrants work in jobs growing and processing food in the United States, playing an essential role in feeding Americans.

As an anthropologist and global health researcher, my work has shown that they are part of an increasing trend in rural America. Since 1990, immigrants have been moving to small towns and rural regions at unprecedented rates, accounting for 37% of the overall rural population growth from 2000-2018.

Some rural counties, like Stewart County in Georgia and Franklin County in Alabama, have experienced growth rates of over 1,000% in their foreign-born population, which have boosted their local economies and mitigated rural population decline.

Maryland’s rural Eastern Shore, for instance, has experienced a rapid rise in immigration since 2000. From 2010 to 2019, migration was the primary source of population growth, with the foreign-born population increasing by 90%.

Many immigrants come to this region to find work in agriculture, poultry and seafood processing. Some come directly from Mexico, Central America and Haiti.

Typically, farmworkers have temporary visas and arrive in late spring and early summer and stay through the growing season. Migrant Mexican women who work in crab processing also follow the same seasonal employment pattern. Others, like those working in poultry processing plants, have settled here more permanently, either as undocumented or permanent residents.

At risk of exploitation and injury

Immigrant workers in rural regions work dangerous jobs and are exposed to pollution, deplorable living conditions and limited safety training.

Additionally, immigrant workers are among the lowest paid and lack access to health information, preventive care and medical treatment. Dry skin, cuts, scrapes, rashes, chronic pain and broken bones are common among immigrants who work in agriculture, poultry and seafood processing.

These workers also suffer from numerous invisible injuries such as discrimination, verbal harassment and physical exploitation.

Challenges to rural health

Despite the daily risk of harm, migrant workers in rural regions have limited access to health care and rely on mobile clinics, local health departments and community health centers.

But these facilities are not equipped to handle specialty care or emergencies. Nor are many of them easily accessible due to location or hours of operation. In addition, many workers cannot afford to miss work or are afraid to tell their supervisors that they need care.

Some avoid health providers altogether because they are not treated well or feel misunderstood.

Essential but undervalued

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the notion of “essential” workers became part of the nation’s vocabulary as a way to describe people required to continue in-person work under lockdown conditions. They included food industry workers.

The pandemic exposed the disproportionate numbers of immigrant workers in the agriculture, poultry and seafood industries in rural America.

It also revealed how policies enacted during the pandemic to protect public health and essential workers did little to prevent people from working in dangerous workplace conditions without adequate safeguards.

Unable to self-quarantine at home, many food production workers got sick or even died as a result of working in crowded conditions without personal protective equipment and adequate ventilation.

In many ways, the COVID-19 pandemic demonstrated the long-standing crisis of health care for immigrants in rural America.

But despite evidence that close to 2.5 million foreign-born people live and work in rural America, very little information exists on these people’s health.

This inattention by lawmakers is harmful and dangerous because it leaves health care providers and social workers with little understanding of immigrant experiences in small towns and sparsely populated rural communities.

Thurka Sangaramoorthy receives funding from The National Institutes of Health.

By Jaymie Baxley

Two organizations that manage behavioral health services for people with Medicaid and for some uninsured people in different areas of North Carolina have agreed to merge into a single entity that will serve more than 100,000 people across 21 counties. 

Eastpointe, an organization that coordinates care for low-income residents in 10 eastern counties, on Thursday said it intends to consolidate with the Sandhills Center, which operates in 11 southwestern counties. The consolidated entity is expected to be the second-largest of its kind in the state “based on population,” according to a news release from Eastpointe.

Sandhills Center and Eastpointe are part of a network that currently consists of six state-supported managed care agencies, commonly called LME-MCOs, that serve people with mental health needs, substance use disorders and intellectual or developmental disabilities. These people tend to require more extensive care and support than the average Medicaid participant.

The LME-MCOs play a critical role in the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services’ vision for the future of Medicaid, which includes moving many of the residents served by the agencies onto specialized health care plans that are tailored to their complex needs. DHHS had originally hoped to launch the tailored plans in December 2022. After multiple delays, the department announced last month that the rollout would be postponed indefinitely to give the LME-MCOs more time to prepare for the transition. 

In a statement to NC Health News on Friday, DHHS said the decision to delay the launch of tailored plans was “influenced in part by the need to ensure LME/MCOs readiness and focus on providing services to populations they are best positioned to manage successfully.”

“Ensuring that all North Carolinians have access to quality whole-person health care is central to the Department’s mission,” a DHHS spokeswoman said in an email. “This is especially true when it comes to management of the Medicaid Tailored Plans that will serve people with complex behavioral health conditions, Intellectual/Developmental Disabilities and traumatic brain injury.”

The spokeswoman added that DHHS will “evaluate the intent to consolidate” Sandhills Center with Eastpointe, and “work with the entities on a path forward that best serves improving outcomes for the people of our state.”

‘The best opportunity’

The department has said about 150,000 people, or 5 percent of the state’s Medicaid participants, will eventually be moved to tailored plans. The LME-MCOs will be responsible for coordinating care for tailored-plan enrollees by acting as intermediaries between patients and providers, who will work under contract with the agencies.

In the news release announcing the consolidation agreement, Sarah Stroud, CEO of Eastpointe, said combining with Sandhills Center will “give us an unmatched ability to deliver quality benefits and support our provider partners while also meeting the objectives of the state’s policymakers.” Stroud will also serve as CEO of the consolidated entity, which has not yet been named.

Anthony Ward, who earlier this year became CEO of Sandhills Center, added that consolidation “offers the best opportunity to preserve local management of services for individuals in our communities.” In an email to NC Health News, Ward said he will serve as executive vice president of the consolidated organization.

No layoffs are expected in connection with the consolidation. The new entity will employ nearly 900 people and oversee a budget of about $1.4 billion, according to the news release. It will be based out of Sandhills Center’s facility in the Moore County town of West End.

In addition to Moore, the Sandhills Center covers Anson, Davidson, Guilford, Harnett, Hoke, Lee, Montgomery, Randolph, Richmond and Rockingham counties. Eastpointe covers Duplin, Edgecombe, Greene, Lenoir, Robeson, Sampson, Scotland, Warren, Wayne and Wilson counties. 

The boards of Eastpointe and Sandhills Center, which are made up of 19 commissioners from the agencies’ respective counties, will be condensed into a single board. The consolidated organization will “draw about half of its board members from each LME-MCO,” according to the news release. 

Harry Southerland, a Hoke County commissioner who chairs the Sandhills Center board, said the agreement “presents a tremendous opportunity to promote superior services to our members and meet the goals of the Department of Health and Human Services and our legislature.” 

His comments were echoed by Jerry Jones, a Greene County commissioner who chairs the Eastpointe board. Consolidation, Jones said, “ensures our approach to service delivery reaches more members at exactly the right time as North Carolina looks to expand its Medicaid program.”

The proposed consolidation must still be approved by DHHS. In its statement to NC Health News, the department said it does not know how long that will take.

“Without having seen the specific proposal at this time, it is hard for NCDHHS to comment on the consolidation,” the department said.

The last consolidation of an LME-MCO occurred after the demise of Charlotte-based Cardinal Innovations in 2021, after a series of spending scandals and dissatisfaction with the organization’s services expressed by commissioners in multiple member counties.

If approved, the new consolidation will reduce the number of LME-MCOs in North Carolina to five. The other agencies are Alliance Health, Partners Health Management, Trillium Health Resources and Vaya Health.

The post Mental health agencies agree to consolidate amid delayed launch of specialized Medicaid plans appeared first on North Carolina Health News.

| CRIMINAL JUSTICE By Royal Calkins The medical and correctional staff at the Monterey County Jail had seen young David Sand before, which might explain why they ignored him and his obvious need for psychiatric care. Born into a prominent Carmel Valley family, he fared well while growing up but fell into a hole of […]

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Newly released records detail horrific health care failures at Monterey County Jail was first posted on August 10, 2023 at 8:14 pm.
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