November 2008

In this Issue:

• Please complete our one-minute survey for the chance to have your fee waived (valued at $425) for our Health Action Conference in 2009! 

• New Resources 
  • NEW MEDIA  
  • PUBLICATIONS
    
    
• Activities in the Field
  
  
• Policy Updates
  
  
• Upcoming Events

How can Minority Health Connection better serve you? Please let us know by completing our one-minute survey. You may win the chance to have your fee waived (valued at $425) for our Health Action Conference in January!

New Resources

NEW MEDIA:

• The Wall Street Journal video, Cultural Taboos That Influence Minority Patient’s Care features the Maimonides Cancer Center in Brooklyn, NY. The medical center faces challenges in treating and diagnosing cancer among its very diverse patient population. According to doctors at the center there is an increasing need for a culturally-sensitive approach to patient care—one that meets the needs of and respects each patient’s cultural values. To view this video, click here.
  
• The Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) Health Braintrust hosted a forum, The Indirect and Direct Costs of Health Disparities: The Economics of Prevention and Why and How Companies Are Making it Their Business, during the CBC’s annual legislative conference in Washington, DC. To view a webcast of this forum, click here. To view other health disparities webcasts from the CBC, click here.

 PUBLICATIONS:

• The Kaiser Family Foundation released Eliminating Racial/Ethnic Disparities in Health Care: What Are the Options?, a policy brief that examines why racial and ethnic disparities in health care are a concern in the United States. It presents policy options to address these disparities, including raising public and provider awareness, expanding health coverage, and increasing the number and capacity of providers in underserved communities. To read this policy brief, click here.
  
• The Center for American Progress Action Fund report, An Update on the State of Minorities, finds that the economic state of Hispanics and African Americans continued to decline in 2007. The authors examined a variety of factors, including health care access, and report that uninsured rates continued to be disproportionately higher among Hispanics (32.1 percent) and African Americans (19.2 percent) when compared to non-Hispanic whites (10.4 percent). To view this brief, click here.
  
• The American Journal of Public Health released a report called Language Spoken and Differences in Health Status, Access to Care, and Receipt of Preventive Services among U.S. Hispanics. The study explains that the Spanish-speaking Hispanic population faces worse health outcomes than English-speaking Hispanics. More than half of Spanish-speaking Hispanics lack health insurance, for example, as compared with 23 percent of English-speaking Hispanics. To view an abstract of the article click here.
  
• The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation published two briefs: Where We Live Matters for Our Health: The Links between Housing and Health, and Where We Live Matters for Our Health: Neighborhoods and Health. Both examine the ways in which poor housing and neighborhood conditions can negatively affect health as well as strategies to address such conditions.
  
• A study released by the Archives of Surgery, Race and Insurance Status as Risk Factors for Trauma Mortality, concludes that health insurance is a more important predictor of trauma outcomes than race. African Americans have a 20 percent increased death risk with no health insurance (compared to 17 percent with health insurance), and Hispanics have a 51 percent increased risk with no health insurance (compared to 47 percent with health insurance). To view this report, click here.
  
• The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) published two reports: Differences in Access to Care for Non-Hispanic Asian and Non-Hispanic White Children, 2002-2005 and Characteristics of Non-Hispanic Asian and Non-Hispanic White Adults Uninsured for 6-12 Months During a Year, 2002-2005. These studies concluded that from 2002 to 2005, non-Hispanic Asian children were less likely to have a usual source of care and to be insured as compared with non-Hispanic whites.
  
• The George Washington University School of Public Health and Health Services published a policy brief, Assessing the Effects of Medicaid Documentation Requirements on Health Centers and Their Patients: Results of a “Second Wave” Survey. The study finds that 75 percent of all health centers face significant barriers with respect to citizenship documentation for one or more patient groups, including minority pregnant women, children, and newborns.

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Activities in the Field

Save Our Sons is an innovative health education project, sponsored by Community Voices of Morehouse School of Medicine, the Lorain County Urban League, the National Urban League, and Pfizer, Inc. The Save Our Sons project targets African American men and boys. African American men in particular have the lowest life expectancy and the highest death rates compared to women and men in other racial/ethnic groups in the nation.

African Americans face disproportionate rates of diseases, such as diabetes, and other health inequalities within our nation. For example, African Americans are 1.8 times more likely to develop diabetes as compared with non-Hispanic whites. More than 13 percent (3 million) of all African Americans 20 years of age and older are diagnosed with diabetes. To help combat this high rate of diabetes, Save Our Sons provides free educational workshops on healthy eating and exercise to help participants maintain a healthy lifestyle. These workshops are part of a six-session diabetes prevention program carried out by community health workers. Some workshop topics have included simple ways to prevent diabetes, ways to add physical activity to one's daily routine, and strategies for incorporating and maintaining a healthy diet. Save Our Sons also works to improve the health status of African American men by connecting them with a primary care health physician and/or a medical home. Community health workers facilitate this process.

Save Our Sons moderates focus groups where men can talk about their health and health care issues, conducts interviews with key stakeholders and informants in the community to help target health policies, and develops marketing and health education materials for distribution through various media. The organization also hopes to create a best practice education- and community-centered model, so that this program may be replicated in other states for African American men.

For more information on this project, please contact Mr. Michael Ferrer, Lorain County Urban League at (440)336-1501 or mf777df@msn.com; or Ms. Briana Webster-Patterson, Community Voices of Morehouse School of Medicine at (404)752-1977 or bwebster-patterson@msm.edu.

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Policy Updates

American Indian Health Care Improvement Reauthorization Bill (HR 1328) Did Not Pass 

The Indian Health Care Improvement Act reauthorization bill (HR 1328), intended to improve health care for American Indians and Alaska Natives, did not pass last month in the House. Despite the Senate’s reauthorization of the bill in February, the House has had several failed attempts to move the bill forward. In September, the National Indian Health Board (NIHB) attempted several legislative strategies to get the bill passed in the House. The NIHB first tried to attach the bill to a Continuing Resolution (HR 2638), and then tried to move forward smaller parts (Title II) of HR 1328—including amendments that would have improved access to Medicare, Medicaid, and SCHIP—as a stand-alone bill. Congress was also unable to fund the modified bill. The NIHB will continue to push for this legislation with the commencement of the 111th Congress in January.

Upcoming Events

• Improving Quality and Addressing Disparities: Accreditation Standards, Market-Strategies and Levers for Action Webinar
  November 20, 2008, 3 p.m. – 4:30 p.m.
  Sponsors: Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and the Disparities Solution Center
  For more information and to register, click here. 
  
• 13th Annual Summit of Minority Communities: Shifting the Focus from Disease to Determinants
  November 19-21, 2008
  Hilton Memphis, 939 Ridge Lake Boulevard, Memphis, TN, 38120
  Sponsors: Tennessee Department of Health
  For more information and to register, click here. 
  
• National Institutes of Health (NIH) Summit: The Science of Eliminating Health Disparities
  December 16-18, 2008
  Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center, 201 Waterfront St, Oxon Hill, MD, 20745
  Sponsors: National Center on Minority Health and Disparities
  For more information and to register, click here. 

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