Latest news with #MaineDHHS
Yahoo
01-04-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
AG Frey joins multi-state suit as Maine health agencies face over $91 million loss in federal funds
The entrance to the Maine Department of Health and Human Services in Augusta. Feb. 25, 2025.( Photo: Jim Neuger/ Maine Morning Star) Maine is facing a barrage of healthcare cuts, possibly losing as much as $93 million in federal funding to a wide array of services, from vaccinations and disease tracking to mental and reproductive health. More than $91 million of these cuts is due to last week's termination of six federal grants, according to the Maine Department of Health and Human Services. Three million is in separate cuts to Title X, the country's only federally funded program that supports family planning services. Attorney General Aaron Frey announced that the state is joining a multi-state lawsuit, along with attorneys general from 23 states and the District of Columbia, against the Trump administration for 'abruptly and illegally terminating' funding. The legal challenge was filed in U.S. District Court in Rhode Island against the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. for withholding nearly $11 billion in 'critical public health grants' to the states, according to a statement from Frey's office. Vaccine distribution, disease monitoring and response and rural health services, among other programs, are at risk if funding is not restored. According to the Maine Department of Health and Human Services, the terminated grants directly impacted work by more than 70 vendors and at least 40 contracted personnel at Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention. 'The termination of these grants will compromise Maine's ability to respond to disease outbreaks, maintain vaccine availability, address health disparities, and support community-based health workforce efforts,' said Maine DHHS Commissioner Sara Gagné-Holmes. 'Additionally, these cuts threaten critical planned investments in mental health and substance use disorder services. Maine DHHS is continuing to evaluate the full impact of these cuts to these important public health and behavioral services.' Most of the funding cuts — about $88 million — affect the Maine CDC and will impact vaccination programs, making it harder to distribute vaccines and educate the public; reduce the state's ability to monitor outbreaks and run lab tests; cut health equity programs meant to help vulnerable communities and terminate community health services, according to DHHS. About $3 million will be cut from Maine's Office of Behavioral Health, impacting substance use prevention programs, and school-based mental health and interventions. 'These actions jeopardize critical public health response capabilities and services, and weaken our state's public health infrastructure,' said Dr. Puthiery Va, Director of the Maine CDC. Congress approved extra funding for health programs during COVID-19, including mental health and addiction services. But on March 24, without legal justification, the federal government suddenly cut off these funds, saying they were no longer needed since the pandemic is over. Frey and other attorneys general are arguing that these cuts are illegal. They say the funding was never meant to end just because the pandemic officially ended over a year ago, and some of the grants weren't permitted to be canceled this way. The lawsuit is asking the court to block the funding cuts and stop the government from enforcing or reinstating them, claiming the decision violates federal law. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
Yahoo
28-03-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Maine to lose more than $90M in cut to federal health grants
Mar. 27—Maine officials are assessing the impact on state programs after the federal government slashed more than $11 billion nationwide in public health initiatives funded by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. An additional $1 billion is being cut from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. It was unclear on Thursday exactly how the cutbacks would affect Maine, but Lindsay Hammes, spokesperson for the Maine DHHS and the Maine CDC, said $91 million in grants supporting dozens of contracts statewide were impacted by the cuts. "On March 24, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services began notifying Maine DHHS that certain federally funded grants supporting important public and behavioral health work have been terminated without notice, effective immediately," Hammes said in a written statement Thursday. "Maine DHHS continues to review contracts impacted by the termination of these federal grants and assess the broader implications of the funding cuts." Matt Wellington, associate director of the Maine Public Health Association, called the cuts "shortsighted" and argued that they "will have serious impacts for Mainers' health and safety." "At a time when we're experiencing an intense flu season in Maine, a measles outbreak in multiple states across the country, and the looming threat of bird flu, we should be investing in systems and programs that protect people from infectious diseases, not dismantling them," Wellington said in a prepared statement. The funding was approved during the pandemic but supports broader disease prevention and public health programs. Andrew Nixon, spokesperson for the U.S. DHHS, said in a statement that the "pandemic is over, and HHS will no longer waste billions of taxpayer dollars responding to a nonexistent pandemic that Americans moved on from years ago." The U.S. DHHS also announced 10,000 layoffs within the federal health agency on Thursday, including more than 1,000 layoffs at the National Institutes of Health. Including early retirements, the overall federal health workforce would shrink from 82,000 to 62,000, with cuts also coming to the U.S. CDC and the Food and Drug Administration. Wellington said "public health professionals are used to operating on a shoestring budget. These cuts just pulled out the laces. People across Maine and the U.S. are going to be more vulnerable as a result." Wellington said in an interview that the funding that's now being taken way was "mostly about shoring up our public health infrastructure so we could better protect people in Maine. "We will see a lot of impacts on our ability to track and manage disease outbreaks," Wellington said. The New York Times reported that state health departments began receiving notices this week that funds allocated during the COVID-19 pandemic were being axed. "No additional activities can be conducted, and no additional costs may be incurred, as it relates to these funds," according to the notices sent to states. THOUSANDS OF LAYOFFS EXPECTED Some states prepared to lay off epidemiologists and data scientists, the Times reported. Thousands of layoffs at state and local health agencies are expected across the nation. The cuts also could have trickle down effects on local health agencies. In Portland, which has one of the two city-run health departments in Maine, "it is likely we will be affected, as most of the funding we receive from the Maine CDC is federal pass-through," city spokesperson Jessica Grondin said. In February, a U.S. CDC worker who had been working for Portland's health department, was laid off by the Trump administration. Copy the Story Link
Yahoo
26-03-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Bipartisan health committee members reject limits on syringe service programs
A sharps disposal box sits beside Needlepoint Sancutary's set up at Camp Hope, an unhoused encampment in Bangor. The syringe service program hands out provisions and clean syringes along with kits containing fentanyl testing strips and the overdose reversal drug Naloxone. (Photo by Eesha Pendharkar/Maine Morning Star) A majority of legislators on the health committee on Wednesday rejected a bill to limit the number of clean syringes certified programs can hand out, backing Maine's more flexible policy, which medical providers and harm reduction experts have vouched for. Penobscot County is currently experiencing an HIV outbreak, with 22 cases since last October (compared to one or two cases a year, in recent years). During the public hearing on the bill, health providers and operators of syringe service programs stressed the importance of access to clean needles in the light of this outbreak, citing research that supports the efficacy of these programs. But some municipalities have blamed expanded syringe services for syringe litter on sidewalks, public parks and private property. LD 216, introduced by Rep. Anne-Marie Mastraccio (D-Sanford), would limit the number of clean syringes needle exchanges can hand out, reverting to a one-for-one ratio that Maine allowed until 2022, before adopting new rules that allow participants to bring in just one used syringe to receive 100 clean ones. Maine Department of Health and Human Services also allows participants to receive up to 100 syringes, even if they don't bring any used ones in, at the discretion of the provider. Maine DHHS, which oversees the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention, opposed the bill, arguing the 'proposed language is not supported by evidenced based practice, would limit access, and increases infectious disease transmission risk including HIV and Hepatitis C,' according to testimony by Maine CDC Director Dr. Puthiery Va. Needle exchanges face municipal pushback despite state, public health backing Both Republicans and Democrats on the Legislature's Health and Human Services Committee said Wednesday that municipalities should decide what policies are best suited for needle exchanges in their communities, but the statewide ratio does not need to change. 'To me, it just sounds like a disposal issue,' Sen. Marianne Moore (R-Washington) said during the work session on the bill. 'However, it's local control, so each of the cities can do their own ordinance. So I personally think that we should just leave it up at 100, because it's been working other than the disposal part of it.' With the exception of a few votes, the vast majority of the health committee voted against Mastraccio's bill. That recommendation now heads to the full House and Senate to consider. Last November, Sanford passed an emergency ordinance to revert back to the one-for-one syringe ratio, which Mastraccio said appears to have reduced syringe litter. 'We believe the ordinance has reduced the number of discards greatly, and I have not heard of corresponding outbreaks of HIV or Hepatitis among the needle exchange population,' she said in public testimony. Amanda Campbell of the Maine Municipal Association also said many towns and cities supported the tighter restrictions on needle exchanges because they are 'concerned about the safety of their public works employees and their residents who are consistently exposed to used needle litter.' But according to the Maine CDC's syringe service report from 2023, released last May, most users bring in roughly the same amount of syringes they receive. Syringe services handed out 1.16 syringes for each one they collected last year, which means that despite some concern about the state's 100 to 1 ratio, the effective rate of exchange has not dramatically changed. Syringe service programs also provide sharps disposal containers and help reduce discarded waste in communities, according to Dr. Kinna Thakarar, a physician at Maine Medical Center and an associate professor at the Tufts University School of Medicine. Another solution lawmakers discussed is Portland's needle buyback program, which the city's public health director, Bridget Rauscher, said has helped reduce syringe litter by 76% and also resulted in a 58% increase in used syringe return. Participants can earn 10 cents per used needle they turn in, with a weekly cap of 200 syringes per person. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
