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September 2007
In this Issue:
New Resources
NEW MEDIA:
PUBLICATIONS:
NEW OPPORTUNITIES
Activities in the Field
The Naugatuck Valley Translation Project
Policy Updates
Children's Health Coverage
Upcoming Events
News Media
- Kaiser Family Foundation has updated its popular "Race, Ethnicity and Health Care" tutorial that examines racial and ethnic health disparities and access issues. The tutorial also provides recommendations on what needs to be done on a national level to eliminate these disparities.
- Department of Health and Human Services Office on Women's Health webcast features highlights from the August 2007 Minority Women's Health Summit: Women of Color: Addressing Disparities, Affirming Resilience, and Developing Strategies for Success. This event addressed health disparities among women of color within the United States.
- University of North Carolina Minority Health Project sponsored a videoconference as part of the 13th Annual Summer Public Health Research Institute videoconference, entitled "Does Racism Make Us Sick?". This videoconference occurred on June 25, 2007, and looked at the impact of segregation and racism on the general health of people of color.
- Health Affairs sponsored a discussion on September 11, 2007, titled "Vulnerable Populations and Health: How Can We Improve Results?" The presenters gave their perspectives on the effects of environment, economic stability, and insurance coverage on health. A webcast of this event is available.
Publications
The Commonwealth Fund financed a study entitled "Separate and Unequal: Racial Segregation and Disparities in Quality across U.S. Nursing Homes." A summary of this study is available online. The study, published in Health Affairs, has identified racial segregation in U.S. nursing homes and discusses how it affects health disparities in quality of care. It also found that African Americans were more likely to be residents of nursing homes with insufficient staff and greater financial instability.
Journal of Urban Health has published "Let's Not Ignore a Growing HIV Problem for Asians and Pacific Islanders in the U.S." The authors analyze recent data reported by the CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR) and note that among racial groups in the U.S., Asians and pacific Islanders had the only significant rise in HIV/AIDS diagnoses rates within a four-year period.
Centers for Health Care Strategies, Inc. recently published "From Policy to Action: Addressing Racial and Ethnic Disparities." This issue brief examines strategies that states and Medicaid managed care organizations are undertaking to address racial and ethnic health disparities.
Public Policy Institute of California published "Death in the Golden State: Why Do Some Californians Live Longer?". The report documents life expectancy trends for minorities compared to whites. It also cites health and socioeconomic disparities in minority populations as contributors to this gap.
Connecticut State Conference of NAACP Branches Health Committee released "A Health Status Report on African Americans in Connecticut,". The report looks at the health conditions that particularly affect the African American community in Connecticut and suggests that the state develop a strategic plan to combat these disparities.
New Opportunities
The 2008–2009 program brochure of The Commonwealth Fund/Harvard University Fellowship in Minority Health Policy (CFHUF) is now available. This fellowship is designed to prepare physicians, especially ones of color, for leadership roles in forming and implementing public health policy on a state and national level.
The Naugatuck Valley Translation Project
Three years ago, a pregnant woman who spoke only Spanish entered the emergency department in a Connecticut hospital. She was having abdominal pain, but she was unable to describe her symptoms or the reason she was there to her English-speaking providers. After she miscarried, it was finally discovered that she was seeking only prenatal care. Unfortunately, there are many more stories like this one in the medical care community. The Naugatuck Valley Project (NVP) wanted to change this situation.
NVP is a grassroots organization that addresses social issues in the community such as housing, youth empowerment, and jobs. In 2006, NVP conducted a study that found that 32,000 residents in the Lower Valley area of Waterby, Connecticut had limited English proficiency (LEP). The group held health meetings and focus groups with the community at 20 different medical institutions. Through these meetings, NVP discovered that most hospitals were providing inadequate interpreter services, using security guards or janitorial staff to translate—or none at all. At that point, a meeting was convened where 300 community residents, executives from four area hospitals, and State Senator Chris Murphy (D) listened to the testimonies of native born citizens from Costa Rica, Portugal, Albania, and Puerto Rico, as well as the study results.
Several positive steps have come from this gathering. First, monthly meetings have been held for the past year to solve problems regarding the availability of translation services in area hospitals. Second, Senator Murphy sponsored legislation to provide funding to monitor the translation services of 35 Connecticut hospitals and to ensure that they comply with Title VI federal regulations. The legislation will go into effect April 2008Third, in the Naugatuck Valley area, two of the four hospitals have now contracted with a translation agency. The other two are translating their patient information materials into several languages and looking into doing videoconferencing for the deaf.
However, NVP is still actively working to guarantee that hospitals are abiding by the medical translation guidelines. They have organized hospital walk-throughs by community leaders who are bilingual. These volunteers have two objectives: 1) to see how they are treated as non-English speaking patients and 2) to observe if the hospitals are using any translator tools. The translation project has been funded by grants from the Connecticut Health Foundation; the Jessie Cox Foundation in Boston, Massachusetts; and the Catholic Campaign for Human Development.
Ms. Carol Burkhart-Lyons, Director of NVP, summed up the issue when she said, “Hospitals have a tendency to think that they can solve these problems on their own. But we need to work together to provide quality health care to the community.” She added that NVP is not only continuing to monitor whether hospitals are complying in their use of translation services, but they are also hiring consultants to conduct studies to evaluate the impact that providing translation services has had on health disparities, as well as where videoconferencing could be used by LEP residents and health care providers.
For more information on the Naugatuck Valley Project and its upcoming activities and meetings, contact Carol Burkhart-Lyons at 203-574-2410 or by e-mail at nvpcarol@conversent.net.
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Children’s Health Coverage
Tick tock, Tick tock! Time is ticking away until the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) expires on September 30, 2007. CHIP currently provides health coverage for 6.5 million children. Unless additional federal funding is made available, 18 states will immediately experience CHIP funding shortfalls, and 20 more will have a shortfall some time in 2008. Before their August recess, the House and Senate each passed bills to reauthorize and expand CHIP.
The next step in the CHIP reauthorization process will be the formation of a conference committee, which will produce one final bill. However, the Bush Administration has made several attempts to stall bipartisan efforts to expand children’s health coverage. First, President Bush has threatened to veto both the House and Senate bills that provide coverage to more uninsured children under CHIP. Second, the Administration has announced new rules to limit CHIP eligibility for millions of uninsured children. On August 17, 2007, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) sent a letter to state health officials imposing new CHIP requirements for states that want to cover children with family incomes above 250 percent of the federal poverty level ($42,925 for a family of three). These states must first:
- Cover 95 percent of eligible children with family incomes less than 200 percent of poverty. However, no state currently meets this standard, and without new funding, states will not be able to do outreach to increase their enrollment.
- Provide evidence that the number of children with employer-sponsored insurance has not fallen more than 2 percent in the past five years. There are many reasons other than CHIP availability that can account for a drop in the number of children with employer-sponsored coverage, for example, economic downturns and natural disasters.
- Require that children be uninsured for one year before they can apply for CHIP. This rule goes against the purpose of CHIP- to cover more children.
Every state must comply with the same burdensome standards, no matter what their individual circumstances are. These new regulations will only increase the number of uninsured children.
In addition, CMS proposed another rule change during Congress’ August recess. This new regulation would limit Medicaid reimbursement for certain school-related administrative and transportation activities. This would effectively eliminate home-to-school transportation for children with disabilities.
Advocacy groups, state governors, medical professionals, and faith communities are actively engaged in sounding the alarm and gathering public and congressional support to ensure reauthorization of CHIP before the September deadline. You too can lend your support in this movement to cover all children. Please visit the Families USA Medicaid & SCHIP Action Center for more information, and to take action, sign the “Care for Kids” petition.
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- Call for Abstracts and Speaker Nominations for the 2008 “Health Care Reform: A Priority for Hispanic Communities” conference, April 17-20, 2008, at the Washington Hilton, 1919 Connecticut Avenue NW, Washington, DC
Sponsor: The National Hispanic Medical Association
Deadline: September 20, 2007
For more information: www.nhmamd.org
- “Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Access to and Quality of Health Care” webinar briefing, September 21, 2007, 2:00-3:30 p.m.
Host: The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Synthesis Project
To sign up, please send an e-mail with your name, organization, and
phone number to cwilliams@azaconsult.com.
- “Genes & Justice: A Community Symposium on Health, Race, & Rights,” September 24, 2007, 8:00 a.m.–6:00 p.m., the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, 1515 Malcolm X Boulevard, Harlem, New York City
Sponsor: Libraries for the Future and WE ACT
Co-Sponsor: Genetics Equity Network
Contact: genesandjustice@weact.org
- Sneak preview of the PBS documentary, “Unnatural Causes: Is Inequality Making Us Sick?”, Thursday, September 27, 2007, 11:15 a.m.-4:00 p.m., The George Washington University Marvin Center, 800 21 Street NW, Washington, DC
Sponsor: Consumer Health Foundation
For more information: http://consumerhealthfdn.org/
To register online: http://consumerhealthfdn.org/Annual_Meeting_RSVP.88.0.html
- 2007 Health Braintrust, “Demanding Opportunity and Justice for African-American Health Providers,” September 28, 2007, 8:00 a.m.-3:00 p.m., Convention Center, 801 Mount Vernon Place, NW, Washington, DC
Sponsor: Congressional Black Caucus Foundation, Inc.
For more information: http://www.cbcfinc.org/
- Fourth Annual Asian American Health Conference, “Leading the Way, Partnering for Change,” September 28-29, 2007, NYU School of Medicine, 550 First Avenue, New York, NY
Sponsor: NYU School of Medicine
Contact: csaah@med.nyu.edu
For more information: http://www.med.nyu.edu/csaah/training/conf2007.html#conf_links
- “Transformation & Recovery in Latino Behavioral Health,” October 1-4, 2007, Los Angeles Airport Marriott, 5855 W Century Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA
Sponsor: Latino Behavioral Health Institute
For more information: www.lbhi.org
- Health Disparities Awareness and Lobby Day, October 3, 2007, 10:00 a.m., Massachusetts State House, on Beacon Street and Bowdoin, Boston, MA
Sponsor: Disparities Action Network
Contact: Camille Watson, e-mail: cwatson@hcfama.org, phone: 617-350-7279
For more information: http://www.hcfama.org
- 2007 Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander (NH&PI) Health & Well Being Summit, October 10-11, 2007, the Academy for Educational Development Technology Center (AED), 1825 Connecticut Ave. NW, Washington, DC
Sponsor: The Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islanders Alliance
Contact: Victor Pang, e-mail: nhpi_alliance_ca@yahoo.com, phone: 714-401-1785 or 714-968-1775
- “Partners to Achieve Racial Equality,” annual meeting, October 31-November 3, 2007, Alexandra Mark Hilton Center, 5000 Seminary Road, Alexandria, VA
Sponsor: Society for Public Health Education (SOPHE)
For more information: www.sohphe.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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