TMLA Cadets Earn Awards in Kentucky
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WWW.TRIANGLE TRIBUNE.COM DHHS seeks to The Triangle reassure patients, providers By Rose Hoban RIBUNE N.C. HEALTH NEWS TTHE TRIANGLE’S CHOICE FOR THE BLACK VOICE All dressed up and ready to … wait? That was the prevailing sentiment in Pinehurst last week at the annual Center for In- VOLUME 21 NO. 27 WEEK OF DECEMBER 15, 2019 $1.00 tegrative Health Conference designed to help Medicaid pro- viders, contractors and patients share best practices. Even though the Pinehurst resort was decked out in holiday finery, many of the folks who attended were feeling profoundly unset- Rivals Jordan and tled as they tried to grasp what was happening with the Medi- caid transformation that was supposed to roll out last month, Hillside split their then in February and now, who knows? doubleheader in junior “We’re just kind of like sitting on the edge of our seats waiting to be told what to do next,” said Jenny Gadd, chief compliance varsity basketball. officer with Alberta Professional Services, a mental health agency that works with people with intellectual and devel- opmental disabilities. “It’s been really disheartening and unclear where to go from here.” For four years, the Department of Health and Human Services, physical and mental health service providers, the managed care Please see DHHS/2A NC health TMLA cadets earn care awards in Kentucky costs COURTESY rise Nursing By Yen Duong N.C. HEALTH NEWS workers North Carolinians spend a greater share of their money on health care costs than the national fill gap average. A new report shows that in 2018, North Carolinians in rural paid almost 14% of the state’s median income on employer-sponsored areas health plan premiums and deductibles, up from By Nadia Ramlagan around 11% in 2008. For N.C. NEWS SERVICE comparison, in 2008, the average American spent RALEIGH – Access to men- just under 8% of median tal-health care in rural com- income on premiums and munities continues to shrink, deductibles. By 2018, that but a team of nurse prac- rose to 11.5%. titioners aims to change that. About half of Americans The University of North get health insurance Carolina-Chapel Hill has re- through their employers, ceived $6 million in federal according to the report funding to recruit, train and published by The Com- financially support 70 pri- monwealth Fund, a non- mary-care nurse prac- profit research institute. titioners specializing in Using federal data from a mental health who will work survey of over 40,000 exclusively in rural areas. American employers, the Dr. Victoria Soltis-Jarrett, researchers concluded that Carol Morde Ross distin- premiums and deductibles guished professor of psychi- have grown faster than in- atric-mental health nursing come, which means at the university, is leading they’re taking a higher per- the effort and said mental- centage of family incomes. health needs in the state are The data did not con- outpacing the number of sider copays, which means COURTESY health care providers. that people are likely Two cadets from the Thomas Mentor Leadership Academy were honored recently in "The mental health system spending even more of Louisville, Kentucky, at the Rumble, Young Man, Rumble banquet. in North Carolina is over- their income on health Trey Breeden won the Muhammad Ali Spirituality Award, and Aahron Benthall earned whelmed," Soltis-Jarrett said. care costs. “Health care "So it's not that it's broken so and health insurance cov- the Muhammad Ali Respect Award. much as it's just over- erage are essential to For more information about the academy, visit www.tmlacademy.org. whelmed and inundated with people’s well-being and fi- referrals because primary nancial security,” said care doesn't know nec- David Blumenthal, pres- essarily how to manage these ident of the Common- individuals." wealth Fund. “And yet Suicide is now the second- employer health care cov- leading cause of death erage is leaving millions of among the state's young families exposed to high Education board examines people, and, in 2016, more and potentially unafford- than 1,000 North Carolinians able costs.” ended their own lives, ac- Next year, the penalty for cording to the state Depart- not having health insur- decline in exam pass rates ment for Health and Human ance will be $0, effectively Services. eliminating the individual By Greg Childress Soltis-Jarrett added in the mandate created by the Af- THE POLICY WATCH southeastern part of the fordable Care Act. Not only The percentage of teachers state, natural disasters have do high premiums keep passing state licensure exams compounded stress from the people from choosing in- has fallen to 80 percent, leav- opioid crisis. surance, but high deduct- ing some members of the State "One, in particular, is in the ibles can keep even Board of Education to wonder southeast of North Carolina insured folks from using if students are being short- where they've had a lot of health care, said the report changed by ill-prepared tragedy with the two hurri- authors. teachers. canes, flooding, there's a lot When deductibles add up A report shared with SBE of poverty," she said. to 5% or more of a family’s members last week showed She said allowing nurse income, the Common- the passing rate on state practitioners to provide wealth Fund calls those teacher exams falling from health care without oversight families underinsured. Un- 96% percent in 2014 to 80.2% from physicians could allow derinsured families are the in 2018. nurses to expand their serv- norm in 18 states, includ- “I know there are other path- ices even more. ing North Carolina, where ways to teaching, but if you "I've actually even had average deductibles are spent four years at a university physicians say, 'Is there any $3,325, or 5.7 percent of in an EPP [Education Prepara- way we can get rid of this re- median income. Many tion Program] and can’t pass striction or requirement?' I families fall into the the content test and the ped- think is how they put it," she “family coverage glitch.” agogy test, then we have a said. For single-person pol- The SAVE Act, introduced problem and it’s showing up in CLAYTON HENKEL icies, employees qualify our test scores,” SBE member earlier this year by Rep. Josh for marketplace subsidies Amy White said during the Quality is this North Carolina’s teacher’s superpower. Dobson and Sen. Ralph Hise if they spend more than from Spruce Pine, both Re- board’s monthly meeting. most in low-wealth districts who are not adequately 9.86 percent of their in- White and others questioned publicans, would lift state re- come on premiums. But with the lowest-performing equipped to help students strictions that now require whether the falling scores re- schools,” White said. “Those grow and perform at the rate that doesn’t work for flect a decline in teacher qual- nurse practitioners to be su- family plans: in NC, fam- are the hardest teaching seats they should.” pervised by a physician. ity. to fill, so it gives me great SBE member J.B. Buxton said ilies spend an average of “This is probably most con- 10.25 percent of their in- pause that we would be put- EPPs should give licensure cerning to me because I know ting educators in those seats Please see HEALTH/2A that teacher vacancies occur Please see BOARD/2A ### Index Address: 115 Market St., Suite 360-G Publisher: Gerald O. Johnson Follow The Tribune on News 1A Religion 5A Durham, NC 27701 Managing Editor/Sports Editor: Bonitta Best Classifieds Sports 6A (919) 688-9408 Advertising: Linda Johnson 4A Focus 8A © 2019 The Triangle Tribune www.triangletribune.com 2A NEWS/The Triangle Tribune Sunday, December 15, 2019 DHHS seeks to reassure Health care costs for patients, providers NC employees rise Continued from page 1A ruary one, that people were on contract until December Continued from page 1A fordable Care Act, ex- charged by providers of organizations that will run geared up to do that work, 13 in order to staff the come on premiums but plained Hughes Waren Jr. care to commercial in- the new system, and North they were prepared to do phone calls coming in from don’t get the subsidies. “If of the North Carolina Asso- surers and that are passed Carolina’s entire health that work, and then we people around the state people are facing premium ciation of Health Under- on to employers,” Radley care system has been gear- changed it and that just trying to figure out what is costs that high, at which writers. For example, the said. ing up for the change. creates lots of chaos and going on. About 150,000 point do they decide to not federal out-of-pocket limits Waren, who has worked Under transformation, the conflict with folks.” Medicaid beneficiaries had continue having insur- for family plans are rising in health insurance since Medicaid program will go That chaos was reflected chosen which managed ance?” Collins asked. “At to $16,400 in 2020 versus 1997, doesn’t think that from one that pays for in comments from care care company they wanted what point does it become $12,600 in 2014. “Larger North Carolina employers each individual visit, shot providers, who had put in to get their care from. The a matter of public policy to employers have greater are passing the buck to and test, to one that pays a lot of work to make the rest of the people who think about addressing control of trying to keep employees, and attributes providers a lump sum in changeover, and who are were slated to change over, that affordability issue?” their benefit plan the same the higher percentage here exchange for better health also stymied in their ef- more than a million North Carolina is one of as it was the year prior,” to lower median income: outcomes for beneficiaries.