Dr. Mina Brewster, the St. Mary’s County health officer, told the board on Tuesday that the county’s Health Hub has logged more than 10,000 clinical and care‑coordination encounters and has served a little more than 4,000 unique individuals to date. The school‑based health centers have seen “several hundred” new enrollments since the last meeting, and behavioral‑health counseling at those sites is now producing a two‑to‑four‑week wait list.

Brewster said the health department is preparing to absorb new administrative work tied to state and federal changes. “One in five county residents rely upon Medicaid,” she told commissioners, and anticipated changes — including a shift to six‑month eligibility redeterminations — will increase the department’s workload in helping residents retain coverage.

Brewster also highlighted a change in federal funding for tuberculosis services that will reduce support for treatment of uninsured or underinsured patients, and she said the department is tracking potential changes to subsidies for insurance purchased through Maryland’s health benefits exchange. “Coverage losses are expected,” she said, and that could “translate to more gaps in care and some financial hardship.”

On vaccines, Brewster said Maryland will align with consensus guidance from major medical societies and that the state is launching a program to provide free COVID‑19 and influenza vaccines for uninsured adults beginning in January. She said childhood vaccines for eligible children remain available through the health department and local providers.

Brewster reviewed workforce and access issues: the county is a mental‑health Health Professional Shortage Area and is under consideration for a countywide primary‑care HPSA and a high‑needs mental‑health HPSA, reflecting shortages especially for child and senior behavioral‑health providers. She described the department’s work to expand a robust continuum of behavioral‑health crisis services and the use of the sequential‑intercept model to coordinate interventions with judicial partners.

The presentation included operational updates: near‑completion of digitizing decades of environmental health property records for GIS access; selection for CDC Foundation in‑kind support (an 18‑month data‑modernization project manager and data engineer); the agency’s community health assessment (a multi‑year process) and strategic planning aligned to recommendations from the Maryland Commission on Public Health.

Brewster closed by listing community offerings and outreach — parenting workshops, nicotine cessation classes, food‑safety training, infant hearing and vision screenings, CPR training and an open house for the Health Hub scheduled for Feb. 17 — and said staff will provide follow‑up data requested by commissioners, including breakdowns of encounter types.

The Board of Health adjourned and the commission reconvened to conduct county business.