Community intervention programs.

(1) DEFINITIONS.—As used in this section, the term:

(a) “Chronic disease prevention and control program” means a program including a combination of the following elements:

1. Health screening;

2. Risk factor detection;

3. Appropriate intervention to enable and encourage changes in behaviors that create health risks; and

4. Counseling in nutrition, physical activity, the effects of tobacco use, hypertension, blood pressure control, and diabetes control and the provision of other clinical prevention services.

(b) “Community health education program” means a program involving the planned and coordinated use of the educational resources available in a community in an effort to:

1. Motivate and assist citizens to adopt and maintain healthful practices and lifestyles;

2. Make available learning opportunities which will increase the ability of people to make informed decisions affecting their personal, family, and community well-being and which are designed to facilitate voluntary adoption of behavior which will improve or maintain health;

3. Reduce, through coordination among appropriate agencies, duplication of health education efforts; and

4. Facilitate collaboration among appropriate agencies for efficient use of scarce resources.

(c) “Community intervention program” means a program combining the required elements of a chronic disease prevention and control program and a community health education program into a unified program over which a single administrative entity has authority and responsibility.

(d) “Department” means the Department of Health.

(e) “Risk factor” means a factor identified during the course of an epidemiological study of a disease, which factor appears to be statistically associated with a high incidence of that disease.

(2) OPERATION OF COMMUNITY INTERVENTION PROGRAMS.—

(a) The department shall assist the county health departments in developing and operating community intervention programs throughout the state. At a minimum, the community intervention programs shall address one to three of the following chronic diseases: cancer, diabetes, heart disease, stroke, hypertension, renal disease, and chronic obstructive lung disease.

(b) Existing community resources, when available, shall be used to support the programs. The department shall seek funding for the programs from federal and state financial assistance programs which presently exist or which may be hereafter created. Additional services, as appropriate, may be incorporated into a program to the extent that resources are available. The department may accept gifts and grants in order to carry out a program.

(c) Volunteers shall be used to the maximum extent possible in carrying out the programs. The department shall contract for the necessary insurance coverage to protect volunteers from personal liability while acting within the scope of their volunteer assignments under a program.

(d) The department may contract for the provision of all or any portion of the services required by a program, and shall so contract whenever the services so provided are more cost-efficient than those provided by the department.

(e) If the department determines that it is necessary for clients to help pay for services provided by a program, the department may require clients to make contribution therefor in either money or personal services. The amount of money or value of the personal services shall be fixed according to a fee schedule established by the department or by the entity developing the program. In establishing the fee schedule, the department or the entity developing the program shall take into account the expenses and resources of a client and his or her overall ability to pay for the services.