N.C. Health and Wellness Trust Fund

If you can follow this, worry

bniolet — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 16:54:19 -0400

Here is Dome's nomination for government gobbly goop talk of the day.

This is from a news release from Gov. Beverly Perdue's office announcing that she had signed an executive order putting the Health and Wellness Trust Fund Commission in charge of North Carolina Health IT recovery efforts.

Here, notes Rob Christensen, is one particularly impenetrable paragraph from the news release.

The ARRA contains authorization for nearly $19 billion in funding for health information technology infrastructure over six years. Designating HWTF as the state-designated entity meets North Carolina’s first requirement necessary to apply for grants from the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC). Perdue’s action of designating the HWTF follows the receipt of the final report from NC Office of Recovery and Investment’s Health Information Technology Strategic Planning Task Force.

Correction: The post now includes the correct spelling of the word "impenetrable." Dome totally deserves that for mocking others.

Claims Dept: Perdue's 'Believe in' ad

ryanteaguebeckwith — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 15:54:55 -0400

A second version of an ad by Democratic gubernatorial candidate Beverly Perdue stresses her support for stem cell research.

What the ad says: Perdue speaks: "I'm Bev Perdue. I'm running for governor and I sponsored this ad." The ad shows images of Sarah Witt, a Raleigh woman who suffers from paralysis because of primary lateral sclerosis. Witt narrates through a voice box: "I used to run marathons, but not anymore. A motor neuron disease has already taken away my ability to walk and to speak. But it hasn't taken away my ability to hope. Hope that stem cell research will let me see my kids grow up. I know Bev Perdue supports stem cell research. She believes in hope, and I believe in her."

The background: Witt says in the ad that she knows Perdue supports stem cell research, but it would have been hard to tell before the commercial was made.

Perdue's campaign could not produce any evidence that she made a public statement regarding stem cell research prior to her campaign for governor.

The campaign's proof that she was engaged in "activity" regarding stem cells included: a September 2006 policy briefing paper that was distributed among Perdue's staff and a copy of the agenda from a meeting two months later of a special legislative committee examining the issue, indicating that a Perdue staffer attended.

N.C. Rep. Earl Jones, a Greensboro Democrat, said Perdue played no role in the drafting of his bill for stem cell research funding that passed the House in 2007, even though the money would come through the N.C. Health and Wellness Trust Fund that she chairs.

Jones said Perdue did call after the House passage, offering to help in the Senate, where she serves as president and presides over the daily session. The bill, which arrived near the end of the legislative session, never got out of committee, and there was no evidence offered of Perdue speaking out, writing a letter or otherwise publicly advocating for the bill.

Is it accurate? Yes.

— Mark Johnson and Ryan Teague Beckwith

Jones: Perdue helped on stem cell bill

ryanteaguebeckwith — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 16:57:32 -0400

State Rep. Earl Jones says Beverly Perdue was helpful on a stem cell research bill.

After a recent ad by the Democratic gubernatorial candidate citing her support of embryonic stem cell research, her Republican rival Pat McCrory questioned whether Perdue had a record on the issue.

Jones sponsored a bill in 2007 that would have allowed the N.C. Health and Wellness Trust Fund to make grants on research. The Greensboro News & Record reports that he said Perdue was involved:

Jones said Perdue did take an interest in the issue when it was before the legislature. Jones led a study committee that sought to raise awareness of the issue.
Draft legislation that came from that committee would have put tax money into embryonic stem cell research and laid down guidelines for how it should be conducted. By the time it left the House, the bill would have provided only a framework for stem cell research, but backers say it would have moved their cause forward.
When that bill moved to the Senate, where the lieutenant governor presides, Jones said Perdue reached out.
"She called me directly and she had her staff work with me," Jones said. "Her office was the first one to call when it (the bill) crossed over to the Senate."

The bill died in the Senate, however. The Senate's Democratic leadership referred it to a committee on health care in July of 2007, but it was never acted on during the 2007 or 2008 sessions.

Perdue on stem cell research

ryanteaguebeckwith — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 15:02:40 -0400

Beverly Perdue says the state should fund embryonic stem cell research.

After Tuesday night's debte, the Democratic gubernatorial candidate spoke to reporters briefly about her views in light of a set of recent TV ads on the issue.

One version of the ad features primary lateral sclerosis sufferer Sarah Witt saying that Republican Pat McCrory is "against hope" for opposing the research.

Perdue said that she came to support it after reading up on the issue and talking with scientists and a friend from Morehead City whose son is a quadriplegic. She noted that the stem cells come from fertilized eggs leftover from in vitro fertilization clinics.

"You know, these stem cells are donated by families," she said. "Otherwise they'd be discarded. I mean, they're there, and it just seems to me — and to Nancy Reagan and to John McCain — that it's a really good use for science if the family agrees to do it voluntarily."

She said she would support spending between $8 million and $10 million on research, with the money coming from the N.C. Health and Wellness Trust Fund, which is funded by the state's tobacco settlement.

Perdue said she and her husband, Bob, will walk Sunday in the Magnificent Mile, a benefit started by Witt, a former marathoner.

"She's trying to raise money, and I'm going to help her do that," she said.

Perdue: Mental health not separate

ryanteaguebeckwith — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 14:08:25 -0400

Beverly Perdue says mental health is not separate from physical health.

In response to a post earlier this morning, spokesman David Kochman said that she was not saying that mental health and physical health are different things during a debate at WRAL last night.

"To clarify, Bev was talking about her responsibilities as chair of the Health and Wellness Trust Fund not extending to mental health," he wrote Dome. "In most of North Carolina's policy discussions, mental health has been cordoned off in its own separate category. But she's the one candidate who has repeatedly said that the only way to fix the system is to stop treating mental and physical healthcare as two separate systems."

He pointed to a section of Perdue's campaign Web site that echoes this thought.

"My background in health care tells me that it makes no sense to separate mental from physical health care," Perdue says on the site.

Later in the day, Republicans also pointed to the same section to criticize Perdue.

"Which is it, Bev?" said N.C. GOP chairwoman Linda Daves in a statement. "Is there a difference between mental health care and physical health care or not?"

Physical health, not mental health

ryanteaguebeckwith — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 09:15:50 -0400

Is there a difference between physical and mental health?

In recent years, mental health providers and advocates have sought to blur the line between diseases of the mind and body, arguing that it is a false distinction that leads to common misperceptions of how mental illness works.

In pop culture, mental illness is caused by childhood trauma or an inability to cope and is solved with Freudian talk therapy. But increasingly doctors are finding that genetic problems or brain injuries are behind many problems and prescription drugs are the answer.

(Advocates also hope that erasing the distinction will lead to mental health parity — meaning that insurers and the government do not distinguish between heart disease and bipolar disorder, for example, when paying for care.)

It would be mostly an academic question, but Democratic gubernatorial candidate Beverly Perdue used the distinction during a debate Tuesday to argue she was not responsible for the problems with the state's mental health reform efforts.

When Republican Pat McCrory noted that Perdue has called herself a "health leader" in the state, she responded: "Physical health, not mental health, Pat. There's a real difference."

Since 2001, Perdue has chaired the N.C. Health and Wellness Trust Fund. Although the group did not play a role in mental health reform, it has tackled the issue of mental health.

In this May 2007 press release, for example, the group announced that it was providing a grant for mental health providers to help with prescription drug needs.

Update: The Perdue campaign responds here.

Survey: Teen smoking down in N.C.

bkrueger — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 13:34:06 -0400

The latest survey of teens in North Carolina indicates that fewer of them are smoking cigarettes.

The N.C. Health and Wellness Trust Fund announced today that the 2007 N.C. Youth Tobacco Survey of 7,500 middle and high school students found that 19 percent of high school students and 4.5 percent of middle school students smoke. Officials said those rates are historic lows.

The trust fund is chaired by Lt. Gov. Beverly Perdue, who hailed the results as "another step closer to reaching our goal of creating the first tobacco-free generation in North Carolina."