May 2011
In this Issue
NEW MEDIA:
- The Kaiser Family Foundation hosted a webcast titled HHS' Action Plan to Reduce Health Disparities. Panelists discussed the Department of Health and Human Services’s Action Plan to Reduce Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities, addressing the contents of the strategy, its timeline for implementation, and its implications for providers. They also discussed how the new strategy relates to health reform implementation and other recently released HHS strategies including the National Strategy for Quality Improvement in Health Care, the National Prevention and Health Promotion Strategy, the Healthy People 2020 initiative, and the National HIV/AIDS Strategy.
- The Kaiser Family Foundation created a new Women's Health Care Chartbook that presents findings from a national survey of women ages 18 to 64 and provides a look at the experience of women in the health care system. The chartbook includes data on insurance coverage, affordability of and access to care, use of health care services, prevention, and family health. The chartbook also segments this data by race and ethnicity.
- New Routes to Community Health produced 10 videos to help Chinese American seniors overcome cultural, navigational, and language barriers so that they may communicate effectively with their adult children caretakers and health care providers. Each video focuses on a particular health topic of interest to Chinese American seniors and provides them with clear background information and step-by-step instruction to help them successfully navigate the health care system and receive quality care.
- The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation released the 2011 County Health Calculator, an interactive online application that shows the impact that education and income level have on health in the United States by county. It calculates how many fewer premature deaths there are in communities that have populations that are healthier and have higher educational degrees and higher incomes. Advocates can use the Calculator to make comparisons between counties with a large racial and ethnic minority population and those with smaller minority populations.
FUNDING OPPORTUNITIES:
- Community Transformation Grants
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced the availability of more than $100 million in funding for up to 75 Community Transformation Grants. The Affordable Care Act created these grants to help communities implement projects proven to reduce chronic diseases, such as diabetes and heart disease. By promoting healthy lifestyles and communities nationwide, especially among groups experiencing the greatest burden of chronic disease, these grants will help improve health, reduce health disparities, and lower health care costs. Letters of Intent are due June 6, 2011, to Vivian Walker at the following address: 2921 Brandywine Road, MS E-14, Atlanta, GA 30341. Final applications are due July 15, 2011. For more information about these grants, please click here. To submit a final application, please click here.
PUBLICATIONS:
- Families USA released the report, Cutting Medicaid: Harming Seniors and People with Disabilities Who Need Long-Term Care. The report assesses the human impact of proposed Medicaid cuts on those who need long-term care, as well as their families. It provides state-specific numbers on how many people would be affected by cuts, as well as how the cuts would hurt families and state workers.
- Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality unveiled the Health Literacy Interventions and Outcomes: An Updated Systematic Review. This report updates a 2004 systematic review of health care service use and health outcomes related to differences in health literacy level. The report examines disparities in health outcomes by health literacy level and the effectiveness of interventions among different socioeconomic groups. It also looks at interventions designed to improve these outcomes for individuals with low health literacy.
- The Center for American Progress released Public Opinion Snapshot: Public Priorities on Health Care Spending. This piece analyzes public opinion on repealing the health reform law and replacing it. According to the research, 39 percent of respondents believe the law should be repealed, compared to 51 percent of respondents who favor keeping the law. The author contends that conservative opponents are out of touch with the public’s priorities on health care services and spending.
- The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) released Pathways to Integrated Health Care: Strategies for African American Communities and Organizations. The report explores a range of issues discussed in a recent roundtable and the resulting policy recommendations. The participants recommended strategies for integrating primary care and behavioral health as equally important elements in an overall holistic health care approach for African Americans. The roundtable looked specifically at whether there are successful integrated health approaches or models currently at work in African American communities. Participants of the roundtable included 45 African Americans who were experts in a range of disciplines including psychiatry, primary care, religion, and advocacy.
- The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) released the report Movilizandonos por Nuestro Futuro: Strategic Development of a Mental Health Workforce for Latinos. The report is based on a roundtable that HHS hosted to discuss Latinos and behavioral health. Out of the roundtable, a formal steering committee was organized and resulted in the development of the Alliance for Latino Behavioral Health Workforce Development. The committee considers the availability of culturally and linguistically competent behavioral health services for Latinos, which is inclusive of a skilled bilingual and bicultural workforce, to be a national priority and shared responsibility. The Alliance will lead and implement the final consensus recommendations and create a process for developing and monitoring an action-oriented educational awareness and advocacy plan while engaging multiple stakeholders from across the nation.
- With Medicaid being the focus of the federal and state debates on deficits, the Kaiser Family Foundation's president and CEO examined a recent poll about the program's popularity that may be surprising considering the current discussion. In Pulling it Together: A Public Opinion Surprise, the Kaiser Family Foundation notes that only 8 percent of poll participants were willing to see "major reductions" in Social Security or Medicare, and only 13 percent of participants were willing to see major reductions in Medicaid.
- The Kaiser Family Foundation recently published Raising the Age of Medicare Eligibility: A Fresh Look Following Implementation of Health Reform. This report examines the expected effects of raising Medicare eligibility to age 67. It assumes that the change will be fully implemented in 2014 in order to illustrate the likely effects once fully phased in. This is the first study to examine the expected effects of raising the Medicare eligibility age in a post-health reform environment. The report specifically looks at how raising the age will affect federal and state spending, out-of- pocket spending for individuals ages 65 and 66, premiums paid by younger adults who purchase coverage through the exchange and premiums paid by elderly and disabled beneficiaries under Medicare Part B, as well as the cost implications for employers.
- The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation released a series of issue briefs relating to social determinants of health; these are the first three in the series of 10. Early Childhood Experiences and Health explores how social and economic conditions early in life shape a child’s long-term health and development and examines the effectiveness of child development programs. The second issue brief, Stress and Health, illustrates how stress can influence health. Lastly, the third issue brief, What Shapes Health, shows the role of social factors on health-related behaviors.
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Legislative Update
House Aims to Repeal Funding for Exchanges
On May 3, 2011, the House passed (by a vote of 238-183) H.R. 1213, a bill that would repeal mandatory funding in the Affordable Care Act set aside for states to establish exchanges. The bill was sent to the Senate, but it is unlikely that the Senate will vote on this bill anytime soon. To see how your member of Congress voted, click here.
Energy and Commerce Health Subcommittee Attacks Stability Provisions in Medicaid and CHIP
On Thursday, May 12, the Energy and Commerce Health Subcommittee is scheduled to mark up H.R. 1683, a bill that would repeal the stability provisions in Medicaid and CHIP, which require that states maintain current eligibility standards in their Medicaid and CHIP programs. Families USA recently released state fact sheets, Protecting America’s Seniors and People with Disabilities: Why It Is Important to Preserve the Maintenance of Effort Requirement in the Affordable Care Act, that explore how allowing states to change their eligibility standards in Medicaid and CHIP could affect those who need long-term care.
HHS Updates
CMS Releases New Rule to Restrict Future Medicaid Provider Payment Cuts
The Center for Medicaid and Medicare Services (CMS) proposed a new rule that would make it more difficult for states to reduce their Medicaid payments to doctors and hospitals. Under the proposed rule, states would not be allowed to cut Medicaid payments to providers unless they could show that Medicaid beneficiaries would still have sufficient access to care after that cut. The rule would require some states to increase their provider reimbursement rates if a previous change in rates resulted in consumers not having access to services. The proposed rule provides guidance for how states must comply with payment rate changes in the future. It would help ensure that beneficiaries, comprised of a high number of racial and ethnic minorities, do not lose access to care because Medicaid provider payment rates are too low. Comments are due July 5, 2011, and can be submitted at http://www.regulations.gov. Follow the ‘‘Submit a comment’’ instructions.
Administration Implements Affordable Care Act Provision to Improve Care, Lower Costs
HHS launched a new initiative that will reward hospitals for the quality of care they provide to people with Medicare and help reduce health care costs. Authorized by the Affordable Care Act, the Hospital Value-Based Purchasing program marks the beginning of an historic change in how Medicare pays health care providers and facilities. For the first time, 3,500 hospitals across the country will be paid for inpatient acute care services based on care quality, not just the quantity of the services they provide. For more information, please click here. The final rule establishing the program was placed on display at the Federal Register, and can be found online at http://www.cms.gov/HospitalQualityInits.
Health Action New Mexico was founded in 1995 as a coalition to advocate for health care access for all New Mexicans, with a special interest in protecting the Medicaid program from harmful cuts. In 2000, Health Action New Mexico became incorporated as a nonprofit. They have focused on creating initiatives that help New Mexicans get health care, particularly minorities throughout the state, and they continue to do Medicaid defense work today.
New Mexico is a unique state because it is one of four majority-minority states, which means that more than half of the population is made up of people of other races and ethnicities than non-Hispanic white. Lori Ann Lorea, program coordinator at Health Action New Mexico, believes that the majority-minority status of the state makes their work unique compared to other states. Most of their efforts involve working directly with racial and ethnic minorities, most often with the African American, American Indian, and Latino communities.
Since the passage of the Affordable Care Act, the organization has delved into three initiatives that focus on educating New Mexicans about health reform, understanding the health insurance status of state residents, and providing additional access to oral health care. Given that New Mexico is mostly rural, Lorea notes that their work often involves going directly into the community. They are committed to meeting New Mexicans where they are to provide and promote access to health care. In fact, Health Action New Mexico can boast that they have made 35 community presentations and provided many resource packets to New Mexicans across the state. Their packets consist of health reform resources applicable to everyone, with information tailored specifically to American Indians, senior citizens, people with disabilities, and women. Health Action New Mexico even partnered with the Con Alma Foundation, the state’s largest health foundation, to host six health reform trainings in Spanish with translated resource packets for trainees.
The organization is partnering with the Office of Health Reform in New Mexico in a broad effort to better understand the insurance status of New Mexicans. The organization is conducting this research in an effort to create a health insurance exchange system that is beneficial for all residents. Health Action New Mexico is in the planning stages of hosting focus groups for young adults ages 20 to 35 and for the marginally employed. Health Action has defined the latter group as individuals who work part-time but desire full-time work, individuals who work more than one job, and those who make minimum wage.
In addition to their work around the Affordable Care Act, Health Action New Mexico has a goal to increase access to oral health care through their Oral Health Initiative funded by the Kellogg Foundation and Community Catalyst. The organization hopes to see more dental therapists in the state. Dental therapists often receive specialized training in treating children's teeth and oral hygiene. Lorea noted that tribes, pueblos, and the Navajo nation are primary groups that lack access to dental care. So Health Action New Mexico is partnering with an American Indian health specialist to promote their initiatives in these areas.
Health Action New Mexico continues to make connections at the local level to spread awareness of the importance of access to health care, especially oral health care. Although it can be difficult to reach New Mexicans given the rural environment, Health Action New Mexico seems to be overcoming those obstacles and has had success in reaching many diverse communities across the state.
For more information about Health Action New Mexico, please contact Lori Ann Lorea at lori.loera@gmail.com.
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- NAACP Leadership 500
May 26-29, 2011
Westin Diplomat Hotel, 3555 S. Ocean Drive, Hollywood, FL 33019
Sponsor: NAACP
For more information and to register, click here.
- 6th Annual Texas Conference on Health Disparities: An Eye Towards the Future
June 16-17, 2011
Medical Education and Training Building: University of North Texas Health Science Center,
3500 Camp Bowie Blvd., Fort Worth, TX 76107
Sponsor: University of North Texas Health Science Center: Center for Professional and Continuing Education
For more information and to register, click here.
- American Public Health Association Mid-Year Meeting—Implementing Health Reform: A Public Health Approach
June 23-25, 2011
Sheraton Chicago Hotel and Towers, 301 East North Water Street, Chicago, IL 60611
Sponsor: American Public Health Association
For more information and to register, click here.
- 2011 NCLR Annual Conference: Embrace Now
July 23-26, 2011
Washington Marriott Wardman Park Hotel and Omni Sheraton Hotel, Washington, DC 20008
Sponsor: National Council of La Raza
For more information and to register, click here.
- 102nd NAACP Annual Convention
July 23-28, 2011
Los Angeles Convention Center, 1201 S. Figueroa Street, Los Angeles, CA 90015
Sponsor: NAACP
For more information and to register, click here.
- 6th Annual Many Faces of Community Health Conference
October 27-28, 2011
Hilton Minneapolis/St. Paul Airport Mall of America, 3800 American Blvd East, Bloomington, MN 55425
Sponsor: Many Faces of Community Health
For more information and to register, click here.
Requests for Local Publications
Here
at Families USA, we believe that public education is essential to
gaining support for health reform. We are asking that you help us in our
efforts to educate the public about the benefits of the Affordable Care
Act by informing us of local, state, and even national newspapers that
serve your community. We are especially interested in outlets that reach
various racial and ethnic groups and senior citizens. If you have any
questions or would like to submit publications, please contact the Health Equity Department at Families USA at healthequity@familiesusa.org.
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We’d like to hear from you!
If you would like to see your organization or event
highlighted in a future edition of our newsletter, please send us a
brief description of your organization and its activities, as well as
your contact information. We also welcome guest authors for
the Activities in the Field section of the newsletter. This section
provides members of the minority health field with the opportunity to
share their experiences and insights with other advocates. Please send
all correspondence to: healthequity@familiesusa.org.
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