June 27, 2013 -- Today the Oregon House passed a bill that encourages coordinated care organizations to develop a plan within their currently required Community Needs Assessments to:
- Work with school health, the Youth Development and the Early Learning Councils
- Integrate all services for kids-physical, emotional, oral health and prevention
- Identify improvements in school-based health care (SBHC) systems or services
The bill also authorizes the Oregon Health Authority to provide incentive grants to CCOs to help with the implementation of the plan, and requires CCOs to report progress of the integration strategies and implementation of the plan to OHA, who must report to the legislature in December of 2014.
The focus of the bill is to bring together health care and education reform efforts so that children and families are getting the best education and health services in ways that make sense. Kids need to be healthy to learn, to be successful in life, and to grow into healthy adults. Healthy, educated youth will make communities healthier in the long run. SB436:
- Prioritizes kids' health care needs without detracting from current cost-cutting efforts for adults with chronic health concerns;
- Improves health care access where the kids are, at school, in the heart of the community;
- Directly impacts kids' academic success;
- Uses the existing CCO to coordinate the efforts, who is already doing a needs assessment; and
- Bridges health and education reform efforts.
The Oregon School-Based Health Care Network (OSBHCN) was the lead organization advocating for SB 436. The bill was carried by Senator Steiner Hayward and Representative Nathanson. Passing with strong bipartisan support, the final vote for SB 436 was 49-9 with one House member excused. The bill will now go to Governor Kitzhaber's desk to be signed.
During the discussion on the floor of the House, Representative Nathanson underscored that she understands very well that school health providers are part of the CCO network, and that CCOs will be working with them. "This is just providing some direction to include them in the plans. We are pleased that CCOs are working with different parties in the community, and each CCO will be able to figure out what the best mix of providers will be in their area. This is merely reminding them not to forget to work with SBHCs in their area."
OSBHCN Executive Director Paula Hester says, "This bill highlights the strong relationship between health and learning, and is an important step towards connecting Oregon's changing health and education systems, which in the long run supports both health and education reform, and most importantly, children and families."
OSBHCN would like to thank everyone in involved making SB436 possible including bill sponsors Senators Steiner Hayward, Kruse, Monnes Anderson, Rosenbaum, and Shields, as well as Representatives Nathanson, Buckley, Hoyle, Keny-Guyer and Reardon. Thank you to community member Bill Thomas and all of the School-Based Health Center Community. Finally a special thank you to NW Grassroots and Communications for all of their hard work at the Oregon State Capitol.
OSBHCN promotes the health and academic success of children and youth, helping all children and youth across the state to be healthy, learning, and thriving.
