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March 2007
1 Year Anniversary Edition
In this Issue:
Minority Health Connection is celebrating its one year anniversary this month! The Minority Health Initiatives program at Families USA hopes that this newsletter serves as a valuable resource for you each month. We invite you to send us any suggestions you have for improvement. In addition, we would love to hear from more of you for our “Activities in the Field” section, either to provide a closer look at what your organization is doing to help improve minority health or to share your reflections and experiences as you work on minority health issues. Please send all comments to minorityhealth@familiesusa.org. Thank you, and happy reading!
New Resources
PUBLICATIONS:
NEW MEDIA:
FUNDING OPPORTUNITIES:
Activities in the Field
Policy Updates
The Immigrant Children's Health Improvement Act (ICHIA)
Citizenship Documentation Requirement
Upcoming Events
PUBLICATIONS:
Community Voices recently published a report entitled Where Are the Men? The Impact of Incarceration and Reentry on African-American Men and Their Children and Families. This report describes the numerous obstacles African American men face as they reenter their communities after incarceration, as well as the hardships faced in the African American community because of the disproportionate incarcerations of African American men. Obstacles such as lack of access to health services, have a negatively impact not only on the men themselves, but also on their children, families and communities.
NEW MEDIA:
Kaiser Family Foundation launched a new series of webcasts entitled Today’s Topic in Health Disparities. The first webcast, Is the U.S. Making Progress in Reducing Disparities in Health Care Access and Quality?, held on March 2, provides an overview of key findings in the 2006 National Healthcare Disparities Report.
The National Library of Medicine and Meharry Medical College are co-sponsoring a new Web site, Factline: Tracking Health in Underserved Communities. The site highlights public health research findings that document health disparities faced by women, people of color, the elderly, and other underserved communities.
FUNDING OPPORTUNITIES:
The National Council of La Raza’s Emerging Latino Communities Initiative is now accepting applications for its community organizing/ technical assistance small grants program. This program is designed to assist emerging grassroots organizations that help Latino migrants in places where the population is new and emerging. Applications and supporting materials must be submitted electronically to cmontoya@nclr.org by Tuesday, May 1, 2007.
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation has released calls for proposals for two exciting funding opportunities. The first, Finding Answers: Disparities Research for Change, awards grants ranging from $100,000 to $275,000 to support the evaluation of replicable solutions designed to reduce and eliminate disease-specific racial and ethnic health care disparities. The second, New Routes to Community Health, supports local partnerships among immigrant organizations, media production centers, and established community institutions to foster collaborations to improve immigrants’ health, work life, and civic participation. These grants range up to $225,000 over 39 months. Proposals for both funding opportunities are due by May 17, 2007.
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Community Health Workers: A Wise Investment
Earlier this month, The Center for Community Health Partnerships (CCHP) at Columbia University Medical Center and Community Voices at Morehouse School of Medicine hosted a national conference entitled “Community Health Workers: A Wise Investment.” The conference was designed to address the importance of incorporating community health workers (CHWs) as an integral part of the health care field and, within this framework, to identify sustainable funding sources for CHW programs throughout the country.
CHWs have gone by many names, from promotores de salud to lay health educator to outreach worker. What all of these titles share is that they refer to an individual who is known and trusted within his or her community and who can serves as a liaison to and navigator of the often complex health care system, particularly for those who are unfamiliar with how those health care systems work. For communities of color that face language, cultural, and socioeconomic barriers to health care, CHWs serve as invaluable resources for linking individuals to needed health care services, and they can therefore play an important role in eliminating racial and ethnic health disparities.
The “Wise Investment” conference served as a forum in which key stakeholders could discuss how to better establish and refine the important role of CHWs in creating meaningful access to health care, and how to attain financial sustainability within this movement.
As the conference progressed, several key themes and issues began to emerge:
- In order for serious funding opportunities to develop, CHWs must be recognized as Allied Health Professionals and as an integral part of the U. S. health care system. Achieving this goal would require developing standards and core competencies within the CHW profession.
- Although presenters had found that many different funding mechanisms were successful in various situations, it became clear that broader and more reliable funding sources are necessary, specifically (but not limited to), mandated inclusion of CHW reimbursement under federally funded programs, particularly Medicaid and the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP).
- Legislation is being introduced to fund CHWs, but advocates must help to gain further political support. Senator Bingaman (D-NM) has already introduced legislation to provide some funding for CHWs in his bill, “The Community Health Worker Act of 2007” (S. 586). Similarly, Representative Solis (D-CA) has discussed her intention to introduce legislation soon that would include funding for CHWs in SCHIP, which is up for reauthorization this year.
The open discussion generated at the conference provided insight into how those working at the policy level can best assist those working on the front lines of health care. As the movement to reform our health care system gains momentum, it is crucial that minority health advocates mobilize around key issues that benefit communities of color, such as federal funding for CHWs, so that these important provisions are included in any new health care agenda.
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The Immigrant Children’s Health Improvement Act (ICHIA)
On March 5, 2007, bipartisan legislation was introduced in both the House and the Senate that would allow lawfully present immigrant children and pregnant women to enroll in Medicaid and the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP). Under current law, newly arrived immigrants in the United States are barred from enrolling in Medicaid and SCHIP for five years, even if they meet all other eligibility requirements and have no other source of health coverage. This arbitrary five-year bar prevents many children and parents from obtaining necessary health care services.
The Legal Immigrant Children’s Health Improvement Act (ICHIA) would completely eliminate the five-year bar for legal immigrant children and pregnant women. In the House, H.R. 1308 was introduced by Representatives Lincoln Diaz-Balart (R-FL), Waxman (D-CA), Solis (D-CA), Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL), Pallone (D-NJ), Mario Diaz-Balart (R-FL), Rangel (D-NY), Lahood (R-IL), Fattah (D-PA), Price (D-NC), Lantos (D-CA), and Gene Green (R-TX). In the Senate, S. 764 was introduced by Senators Clinton (D-NY), Snowe (R-ME), Bingaman (D-NM), Cantwell (D-WA), Durbin (D-IL), Kerry (D-MA), and Nelson (D-FL).
SCHIP reauthorization provides an important opportunity to focus attention on the health care needs of immigrant children and to make sure that our health care safety net provides quality health coverage to all children. More than 20 states already spend their own money to provide safety net programs for low-income immigrants. Enacting ICHIA would bring significant fiscal relief to the states that are already doing the right thing.
To see the latest news on ICHIA and SCHIP reauthorization, visit our Medicaid and SCHIP Action Center.
Citizenship Documentation Requirement
On March 20, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) issued a statement indicating that the agency will reverse the policy it established last July that created a new distinction between infants born to U. S. citizens and infants born to undocumented immigrants when enrolling in Medicaid. Since July 2006, state Medicaid agencies have been required to obtain proof of citizenship for all babies born to undocumented immigrants before enrolling them in Medicaid, even if Medicaid paid for their birth. Newborns of citizen mothers, on the other hand, could be "deemed" eligible for Medicaid and automatically enrolled for a year without having to have their citizenship proven. The policy reversal announced by CMS this week will allow all eligible newborns to be automatically enrolled in Medicaid for one year.
This change in policy is an enormous victory for advocates. The new policy recognizes that all children born in this country are U. S. citizens who deserve equal access to health coverage from the day they are born. According to the press release, CMS plans to include the new policy in a rule the agency will release shortly.
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MARCH:
- The National Hispanic Medical Association will hold its 11th Annual Conference, “Celebrando Diversidad”, on March 22-25 in San Antonio, Texas.
- The National Medical Association is hosting its 8th National Colloquium on African American Health, “The Quality Movement and Its Impact on Healthcare Disparities,” on March 24-27. For more information, please contact Yolanda Fleming at yfleming@nma.net.
- The George Washington University School of Public Health and Health Services will host an event entitled “Beyond Health Disparities: Arc to Justice” on March 27 from 8:30- 11:45 AM in Room 405 of the Marvin Center on the GWU campus. The event will feature a sneak preview of a pioneering film by California Newsreel: Unnatural Causes: Is Inequality Making Us Sick?.
- The National African American Drug Policy Coalition, Inc. is holding its 3rd Annual Summit, "Substance Abuse among Vulnerable Populations: Enhancing Treatment, Eliminating Disparities, and Promoting Justice," on March 28-30 at the Grand Hyatt Washington in Washington, D. C.
- The Latin American Health Institute is hosting a series of events to commemorate its 20th Anniversary, which includes a lecture and awards series. The second lecture of the series will be held on March 28 and will feature Massachusetts State Senator Jarrett Tomás Barrios. All events will be held from 3:00-6:00 PM in the Jury Assembly Room & Jury Lounge in the Moakley Courthouse in Boston, Massachusetts.
APRIL: (April is Minority Health Month!)
- The New England Regional Minority Health Committee will hold the 5th annual New England Regional Minority Health Conference on April 2-4 at the Foxwoods Conference Center in Mashantucket, Connecticut.
- The Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars’ Global Health Initiative will host a half-day conference entitled “US Disparities in Health Status” on April 4 from 9:00 AM to 12:45 PM at the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington, D. C.
- The Congressional Black Caucus will hold its 2007 Spring Health Braintrust, The Health and Wellness of the African-American Male: America's Challenge; Our Imperative, on April 19-20. The welcome reception on the 19 begins at 5:30 PM (location pending). On the 20, events will be held from 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM in the Cannon Caucus Room (345 Cannon House Office Building, Washington, D. C.). For more information, contact Britt Weinstock at Britt.Weinstock@mail.house.gov.
- The National Health Policy Training Alliance for Communities of Color is holding an event entitled Health Policy Journalism Institute: Covering Health Disparities on April 27 in Atlanta, Georgia, with a kickoff dinner and reception on the night of the 26. For more information, please contact Briana Webster-Patterson at Minorityhealth@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: minorityhealth@familiesusa.org.
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