Latest Public Health cuts not as drastic as proposed earlier

Clark County Public Health will see a small cut in state funding that pays for its community health data systems and emergency poison control calls.

The recent round of cuts presented last week to the Clark County Council, acting as the Board of Health, were separate from the proposed cuts in May, said Marissa Armstrong, communications manager for Public Health.

That’s because the funding, which comes from a statewide initiative known as Foundational Public Health Services, is distributed through four sectors: local health departments, the state Department of Health, the state Board of Health and tribes.

The most recent cuts were made through the state Department of Health and will affect Clark County Public Health’s contract for emergency poison control calls and its community health data systems, which will impact the collection of population health data through various methods.

Clark County Public Health Director Dr. Alan Melnick said the cuts are not as drastic as the proposed reductions in May, which put several Public Health programs at risk of losing funding. For example, the 12-month contract for emergency, after-hours poison control calls totals $1,500, Melnick said.

Clark County Public Health received 15 calls last year using the emergency poison control line, a small number compared with other jurisdictions, which receive up to 500 calls in a given year, Melnick said.

“The bottom line is it’ll be a minimal cost for us,” he said.

Cuts being evaluated

Cuts to the community health data systems still are being evaluated.

The latest round of funding cuts comes as Foundational Public Health Services works to make up reductions approved in Gov. Bob Ferguson’s supplemental budget.

Foundational Public Health Services lost another source of funding when the state changed its approach to taxing vapor products, which are now treated as tobacco products. The change means tax dollars on vapor products that were going toward Foundational Public Health Services will now go to the general fund.

In May, Clark County Public Health was poised to lose about one-fifth of the funding that pays for such crucial tasks as investigating communicable disease outbreaks, analyzing health data and preventing chronic disease, because Foundational Public Health Services allocated about $1.288 million less for Clark County Public Health in the 2027 fiscal year.

In the end, the Clark County Council supported shifting baseline, flexible Foundational Public Health Services funding to support the program categories facing cuts.

The state Department of Health notified local health departments May 27 of the program areas in which it was reducing Foundational Public Health Services funding, Armstrong said in an email to The Columbian. That notification came a few weeks after Clark County Public Health learned of the first round of cuts.

Over the next several weeks, Clark County Public Health received additional information and details on how those reductions might impact services provided by the Department of Health. Additional impacts might arise as the state agency continues to work through the reductions, Armstrong said.