Next week, the County Commission will consider another contract for the Cascade County City-County Health Department to handle tasks previously handled by what is now Alluvion Health. Commissioners will consider a “business associate agreement” with Office Ally for and electronic health record system. The agreement will cover the handling, usage, storage and transmission of HIPAA protected information for CCHD clients.

County Commissioners unanimously voted last week to approve a contract with Big Sky Billing and Office Management to handle billing for the Cascade County City-County Health Department. CCHD’s billing was previously handled by Alluvion Health, which split from the county effective Jan. 1 and quit handling billing on Oct. 31. Trisha Gardner named as city-county public health officer The county

The Montana Supreme Court has reversed a decision by the district court and upheld the City-County Board of Health’s regulations regarding the Montana Clean Indoor Air Act and smoking shelters. The Supreme Court issued its opinion in mid-November and remanded part of the case back to the district court for further proceedings regarding the claim of selective enforcement by Totem

The county has named Trisha Garnder as the new Cascade County City-County Health officer. Gardner has worked for 10 years at CCHD and most recently was the interim prevention services division manager and privacy officer. The position has been vacant since Tanya Houston left to work for Alluvion in March, though the county contracted with Alluvion for Houston to continue

Alluvion Health split from the county as of the first of the year, but has been operating in some county facilities and handling the billing for the Cascade County City-County Health Department. There’s been other areas of crossover as well, including Tanya Houston continuing her duties as the health officer for the county after moving to Alluvion. The non-profit health

The future of the Cascade City-County Health Department is uncertain. Since the county split with what is now Alluvion Health, a private nonprofit that took many county staffers with it including the health officer and prevention services division manager, the county has struggled to figure out next steps. By the end of a meeting on Sept. 18 between the County