Joint Health Services Subcommittees – October 26, 2009

Posted on October 26th, 2009

Date & Time: Monday, October 26, 2009 at 1:30 PM
Location: Room 130, State Capitol
Committee Information: Senate Subcommittee House Subcommittee
Agenda: http://www.arkleg.state.ar.us/assembly/2009/Lists/Meetings/Attachments/12196/I7827.pdf

1:33 pm – Meeting called to order by Rep. Eddie Cheatham. The minutes of the last meetings was approved. That meeting had a presentation on the Dept. of Health’s Tobacco Prevention and Cessation Program and the UAPB Minority Health Initiative. They claimed that they have reduced the number fo youth smokers from 35% (2001) to 20.4% (2007), which puts Arkansas at the national rate for youth. They also claim that the adult rate has dropped from 25.1% (2002) to 20.7% (2008), and is attributed mostly to free medicine, the Quitline, the Clean Indoor Air Act and the 2009 tobacco tax. [How the 2009 Tobacco Tax can impact statistics in 2008 is a mystery I will never understand.]

1:35 pm – Dr. Wilson, retiring Chancellor of UAMS is presenting an update on the programs involved in the Tobacco Settlement. Sen. Bill Pritchard has asked that all those who recieve tobacco settlement fund to present 1) a written statement of mission as it relates to Initiated Act 1, 2) details of expenditures and funding sources (personnel hired, job descriptions, and grants), 3) a list of evidence-based results, and 4) specific detailed outcomes of goals. [Senator Pritchard has does a good job of bringing business like oversight to this relatively unsupervised set of government programs. These reports and requests for information have been the results of his efforts.]

1:45 pm – Aaron Black, Executive Director of the Arkansas Tobacco Settlement Commission is presenting a synopsis of the Biennial Progress Reports on the College of Public Health’s (COPH) and the Arkansas Biosciences Institute’s (UAMS) Tobacco Settlement Programs. We recieved a synopsis of the “Rand Report” handed out as Mr. Black was making the presentation.

1:48 pm – The COPH offers degree programs for students to pursue eduction in the field fo public health. The had 4 goals for 2007-2008: 1) Establish doctoral programs in three areas, 2) Establish staffing of a minimum of five faculity for each of the three doctoral programs, 3) Increase distance-accessible education, 4) Increase outside grant funding for research by 20 percent above 2004-2005.

1:51 pm – The independent evaluator key findings: COPH’s number of scholary publications continues to increase. In 2007, both the total number of publications and the number publications in ranked journals increased substantially from previous years. The total number of publications and those in ranked journals increased substantially over prior years. This suggests that the COPH is not only producing more publications but also more high quality publications.

1:52 pm – Rep Gaskill asked if any of the lottery funds can be used for scholarships to the COPH. Apparently the may be, but graduate programs are not funded.

1:54 pm – Senator Pritchard expressed that he is not a fan of the Rand report and he pointed out the nebulous and non-metric based set of goals created by a report that we pay $375,000 to an independent group to write.

1:58 pm – Dr. Jim Raczynski, PhD, FAHA, FSBM, who is a Professor and Founding Dean for the College of Public Health is presenting a report that covers the information requested by Senator Pritchard. [Alot of the material seems rather unresponsive and instead looks more like boiler plate information. I am not sure if the information as it relates SPECIFICALLY to Initiated Act 1 are even included in the inch and a half stack of paper that was made availiable to us at today's committee meeting.]

2:06 pm – Apparently about 23% of the Fiscal Year 2009 Budget for the COPH comes from Tobacco Funding from the Tobacco Settlement. In 2005 this was about 40%.

2:09 pm – There are about 84 employees paid with tobacco funds.

2:19 pm – Senator Pritchard is asking questions to determine if there are duplication of services from tobacco settlement dollars. Dr. Raczynski had previously testified that they were not currently receiving tobacco funds from an outside group that gets tobacco funds. Apparently after Senator Pritchard pointed out a specific instance where that was the case, he then retracted and said he just received a note about another instance. When asked what that person did, he did not know but knew that the person spend that percentage if their time with the group providing the funding.

2:25 pm – I am currently looking at a map of active research projects by the COPH by county. Apparently Northern Arkansas, and Southwest Arkansas are not being included in any additional programs.

2:29 pm – Alot of the legislators are asking questions about the wisdom of alot of the research projects. Some of the seem downright comical, but they are not funded from state funds but rather the Federal government. We can’t use those funds in a discretionary manner for more reasonable projects, but rather must use them for the purpose for which they were funded by the outside funding sources like the National Institutes of Health and the US Dept of Agriculture.

2:34 pm – Rep. Wells is asking a follow-up question about a grant for $1,800,000 for “a couple of schools to do school gardens.” It seems that $900,000 per garden has been spent. There is nothing we can do about this as a state legislature since this is from the federal government but those reading this blog should really take notice about the waste and abuse in spending at federal government.

2:40 pm – Rep. Green is asking of the grant is written to get funding that is available or if the grant is orginal and directed at an specific problem in Arkansas. Apparently the cost of administering the grant falls on Arkansas because the federal government does not the allow the grant funds to be used for administration. So, as usual, to get money from the Feds, it will cost the taxpayers of the state money. Usually this works out to be about 3 for 1. Inside information not discussed in the committee: I understand that the director of this program works directly for the USDA and was part of the Bush Administration who reapproved this grant program for Arkansas, Louisiana, and Mississippi right before he left office. This is the kind of stuff that now plagues Republicans from claiming the mantle of “fiscal conservatives”.

2:52 pm – On page 96 of the report from the COPH there is this statement describing what resources were provided from state funds recieved: “COPH faculty/staff actively participated in the 87th AR General Assembly and worked with all concerned for the passage of Act 180 (HB 1240) – cigarettee tax increase” also “Act 308 – primary seat belt law” and “Act 394 – graduated driver’s license”. I wonder how my readers feel about having their tax dollars go to LOBBY for tax increases and restriction and removal of liberty?

2:57 pm – Sen. Pritchard is asking Dr. Raczynski if the Rand Report is really needed and how valuable is it. He wants to know if they agree with the goals are set. Dr. Raczynski says that it is helpful.

3:03 pm – Rep. Andrea Lea is asking about how the COPH compares with others in the US on salary, student/faculty ratio. Salary is “competitive” the student/teacher ratio is lower.

3:05 pm – Rep. Hall is asking if the graduates are staying in Arkansas and where they end up working in Arkansas. Approximately 93% are staying in Arkansas, but almost all are staying in their current jobs. [I would bet that most of them end up working for the State Government at the Health Department. Are we using tax dollars to train healthcare lobbyist to lobby for more tax dollars?]

3:12 pm – Rep. Reep is asking if the Initiated Act 1 require an independent evaluation. It does, and the legislation somewhat limits who may provide this legislation. Okay, apparently there is not consensus on that issue. Rep Reep asked the question about 5 times, to get the same answer five times. It is clear that he is not trying to get information from Dr. Raczynski, but instead trying to emphasize a point to the members of the committee.

3:20 pm – Sen. Pritchard makes the point that the legislation “authorized hiring and independent evaluator” and did not “require” that it be done.

3:24 pm – Aaron Black is providing the summary for the Independent Evaluator Report for the Arkansas Biosciences Institute (ABI). The ABI was created to foster the conduct of research through its member institutions – UAMS, UA-Ag, UAF, ASU, and the Arkansas Childrens Hospital.

3:28 pm – The Initiated Act charged ABI to encourage and foster the conduct of research and pursue the following: 1) Agricultural research with medical implications, bioengineering research focused on the expansion of genetic knowledge and new potential applications in the agricultural-medical fields, tobacco-related research that focuses on the identification and applications of behavioral, diagnostic and therapeutic research addressing the high level of tobacco-related illnesses in the State of Arkansas,
nutritional and other research focusing on prevention or treatment of cancer, congenital or hereditary conditions or other related conditions, and other research identified by the primary education and research institutions involved in ABI.

3:29 pm – Dr. Robert “Bobby” E. McGehee, Jr., PhD, Dean, UAMS Graduate School and Director of the Arkansas Biosciences Institute is presenting the response to the requests for information for this committee. [It seems this guy has come along way since he ditched Janice and stopped thumbing "diesels" down. Just hearing his name has be singing that song in my head.]

3:43 pm – UAMS attained a record high $60 million in total NIH research funding in Federal Fiscal Year 2009.

3:46 pm – Dr. McGehee says that tobacco settlement funding has helped bring about 12 new major research scientist to Arkansas for each year since 2002. Employment from ABI-Related Extramural Funding has gone from about 25 to about 340 from 2002 to 2009.

3:56 pm – We are currently going over the report from the Arkansas Biosciences Institute. It is a good thing that all legislators are experts on the “Effects of Polymorphisms within Folate Metabolism Enzymes on Risk of Limb Reduction Defects; Genes, Micronutrients and Homeeobox Related Malformations. We would have been in trouble if we had to review “Ethanol and Osteoblastogenesis: Roles of IL-1 and TNF”. Oh wait… What? Never mind. Apparently not all references to ethanol have to do with gasohol or whiskey. One of which we legislators are quite knowledgeable.

4:05 pm – In seriousness, I have been impressed by the return on investment of tobacco funds with the Biosciences Institute.

4:07 pm – Sen. Pritchard is asking about research about Medical Marijuana.

4:10 pm – Meeting Ajourned.

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One Response to “Joint Health Services Subcommittees – October 26, 2009”

1. Robert E. "Bobby" McGehee Says:
   October 28th, 2009 at 1:53 pm

   Representative Martin, thanx for your nice comments about the ABI, particularly the one about our return on investment. And for the record, not too many decades ago I really was “busted flat in Baton Rouge”. However as a kindred spirit with someone like yourself who also shares a somewhat infamous name, yours is circling around and around-over and over in my head as well