Radio Interview with Sect. Cansler, via NC Policy Watch.
NCSAPA Announcements |
Sec. Lanier Cansler discusses his resignation, the Medicaid shortfall, and the challenges facing DHHS |
|
| January 24th, 2012 | by Clarissa Goodlett |
| Posted in NCSAPA | No Comments » |
DHHS secretary to step down |
|
| January 16th, 2012 | by Clarissa Goodlett |
From WRAL.com 1.13.12 Lanier M. Cansler, who has been secretary of the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services since the beginning of the Perdue administration three years ago, is leaving to take a job in the private sector at the end of the month. On Friday afternoon, Gov. Bev Perdue named her senior policy advisor Al Delia acting secretary of the department as of early February. Cansler fought a never-ending battle for funding during his tenure, which coincided with the depths of recession in North Carolina. In October 2009, he called budget cuts imposed by the General Assembly “historic.” “The challenge we have is to try to maintain the level of services to the extent we can with the dollars we have available,” he said. As recently as October, he sent a letter to legislative leaders saying, “These will be devastating cuts to North Carolina’s medical providers and to our citizens in need of these medical services.” As Republican lawmakers battled Democrat Perdue over budget cuts last fall, Cansler often found himself at the epicenter of the political firefight. For more on this story, click HERE.
|
|
| Posted in NCSAPA | No Comments » |
Medicaid shortfall grows with no fix in sight |
|
| January 4th, 2012 | by Clarissa Goodlett |
From WRAL.com 1.3.12 The funding shortfall in North Carolina’s Medicaid program has ballooned to $150 million, and the political fight over how to fill the growing budget hole shows no signs of a solution. Health and Human Services Secretary Lanier Cansler says the Medicaid program, which serves more than 1 million people statewide, won’t be able to achieve more than $350 million in cuts mandated by the state budget under its current operations. Cansler says the budget offers him only one option to accomplish the required savings: deep cuts to optional services and to the reimbursement rates the state pays Medicaid providers. For more on this story, including video interview with Sect. Cansler, click HERE.
|
|
| Posted in NCSAPA | No Comments » |
Booze and pills catch up to aging baby boomers |
|
| December 27th, 2011 | by Clarissa Goodlett |
From the News and Observer 12.27.11 The aging generations of baby boomers will raise the percentage of older people using both alcohol and drugs to a new level, even as this group grows to nearly 1 of 5 North Carolinians by 2030. The effect of drinking and using drugs – from cocaine to prescription pain pills – is still under study, but science and experience show it can be deadly. The state Alcoholic Beverage Control Commission is launching an early-warning campaign to alert people, not just about drinking, but also about the larger issues of substance abuse among the elderly. “I certainly think that it’s going to be a rapidly growing problem, and we in health care need to be aware of it and aware of how to deal with these concerns,” said Jena Burkhart, geriatric clinical pharmacist at UNC-Chapel Hill’s Eshelman School of Pharmacy. Research into the effects of substance abuse on older people, yielding a number of grim statistics, have sparked efforts by the ABC and the medical community to give people more and better information on the subject. Baby boomers are the generation after World War II, generally those born between 1946 and 1964. As a boomer and a recovering alcohol and drug user himself, Keith Kimbro, 60, sees plenty of evidence of the trends in his job at the Alcohol/Drug Council in Durham. “Typically, these people have had some issues that have happened, a car accident, a spouse’s dying, they’re becoming disabled,” Kimbro said. “That’s the people who up to this point have not had an issue with addiction. Then they hit 55 or 60. Read more: http://www.newsobserver.com/2011/12/27/1735664/booze-and-pills-catch-up-to-aging.html#ixzz1hkkJjSSw |
|
| Posted in NCSAPA | No Comments » |
Rep. Verla Insko discusses the $139 million shortfall in NC’s Medicaid budget |
|
| December 15th, 2011 | by Clarissa Goodlett |
From NC Policy Watch 12/12/11: Click the link below to listen to radio interview with Rep. Verla Insko (former co-chair of the Joint Legislative Oversight Committee on Health and Human Services) as she discusses the $139 million shortfall in NC’s Medicaid budget. Rep. Verla Insko Radio Interview
|
|
| Posted in NCSAPA | No Comments » |
