For Release: March 23, 2017 – Tony Sellars, Office of Communications – (405) 271-5601
On request of the Office of Management and Enterprise Services (OMES), the Oklahoma State Department of Health (OSDH) has developed plans covering projected scenarios for Fiscal Year (FY) 2018. The plans are based on 5, 10 or 15% reductions in state appropriations and would affect programs and services currently offered by OSDH.
Under the scenarios, programs and services that could be affected include ending payment of uncompensated care for uninsured Oklahomans who receive care from Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHC), reduction or elimination of child abuse prevention programs, elimination of funding for colorectal cancer screenings, reduction or elimination of the parentPRO program, elimination of the dental services program, closure of county clinics in areas that have more than one county health department and reduction of funding for the Oklahoma Athletic Commission.
OSDH has received a 28.9% reduction in state appropriations since 2009, from $75 million dollars to $54 million dollars. The projected cuts in the scenarios provide range from an additional $2.7 million dollars to $8.1 million dollars.
“The requested scenarios place OSDH in the unfortunate situation of having to eliminate programs, reduce services, regionalize statewide services and close county health department sites to meet the requirements of the potential revenue reduction,” said OSDH Commissioner and Secretary of Health and Human Services Dr. Terry Cline. “These are steps that are painful, but necessary in the current financial climate.”
Final impact from any budget reductions won’t be known until the legislature and Governor Fallin approve the budget for FY2018.
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Last Modified on
Jun 03, 2022
