Monday, May 05, 2008 thru Friday, May 09, 2008

• New Legislation Would Require Mandatory Federal Standards for Physical, Mental Health Care for Detained Immigrants
  [May 07, 2008]

New Legislation Would Require Mandatory Federal Standards for Physical, Mental Health Care for Detained Immigrants
[May 07, 2008]

      House Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration, Citizenship, Refugees, Border Security and International Law Chair Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.) on Tuesday announced that she has introduced a bill (HR 5950) to establish mandatory standards for medical care for immigrants in detention centers, the New York Times reports. The legislation, introduced late last week, would require the federal government to establish mandatory standards for physical and mental health care to replace the voluntary standards that currently apply to the more than 300 federally and privately operated detention centers where the government holds immigrants who face possible deportation.

In addition, the bill would require the Department of Homeland Security secretary to report all deaths at the jails to the Office of Inspector General at the Department of Justice, as well as the DHS Office of Inspector General, within 48 hours. The legislation also would require Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials to submit a comprehensive report on all such deaths annually to Congress.

According to data obtained by the Times, ICE in fiscal year 2004 detained 231,804 immigrants, of which one out of every 9,200 died. In FY 2007, ICE detained 311,213 immigrants, of which about one out of every 28,000 died. ICE officials said that the agency in FY 2007 spent $91.6 million on health care at the detention centers, an 82% increase from FY 2004.

Comments
Lofgren said of the bill, "This is about whether the government is conducting itself according to the basic minimum standards of civilization," adding, "Many of those in immigration custody are there for minor violations, many for administrative and paperwork-related mistakes. Their detention should not be a death sentence."

ICE officials declined to comment on the legislation. Kelly Nantel, a spokesperson for ICE, said, "While a single death of an ICE detainee is a serious matter, we strive to maintain safe, secure and human detention conditions and to ensure that all detainees receive quality health care" (Bernstein/Preston, New York Times, 5/7).

Email this story to a friend	Link to this story.
Print this story.	Save this story in my saved links.

Contract Dispute Between California Hospital and Insurer Disrupts Care for Hmong Immigrant Children, Parents Say
[May 08, 2008]

      A dispute between Children's Hospital Central California and Anthem Blue Cross has caused Hmong immigrant children enrolled in government health insurance programs in Fresno County, Calif., to face long waits for specialists and to travel to other cities to seek care, dozens of parents testified on Tuesday at a county Board of Supervisor's meeting, the Fresno Bee reports. The contract between Children's and Blue Cross ended Aug. 1, when the two parties could not agree on payment levels for children enrolled in Medi-Cal -- California's Medicaid program -- and Healthy Families -- the state's version of SCHIP.

Gia Xiong of the Center for New Americans said some parents have been told to take their children to San Francisco to seek care, adding, "The reality is, a newly arrived refugee has no idea where San Francisco is or where the hospital is." At the meeting, supervisors said Blue Cross is responsible for not providing the children with accessible care. Supervisors directed the county's health director, Edward Moreno, to begin to develop a list of steps the county could take to ensure the children have access to care. Supervisors also called for a legislative hearing to discuss the contract dispute.

According to the Bee, the county's ability to resolve the matter is "unclear." Stan Rosenstein, chief deputy director of the California Department of Health Care Services, said it is the state's responsibility to address the issue. Julie Hornback, director of the county's Employment and Temporary Assistance Department, said the county is not involved in confidential negotiations between hospitals and insurers.

Talks between Blue Cross and the hospital are ongoing, the Bee reports. Leslie Porras, a spokesperson for Blue Cross, said that negotiations are "very positive" and that the company is "hopeful that we can reach an agreement here soon" (Anderson, Fresno Bee, 5/6).

Email this story to a friend	Link to this story.
Print this story.	Save this story in my saved links.

Births Higher Among Hispanic Women Than Among Non-Hispanics, Report Finds
[May 09, 2008]

      Hispanic women in the U.S. have higher fertility rates than non-Hispanic women, and unmarried Hispanic women born in the U.S. are more likely to have children than single immigrant Hispanic and non-Hispanic women, according to an analysis released on Thursday by the Pew Hispanic Center, the AP/Hartford Courant reports (Gamboa, AP/Hartford Courant, 5/8). For the report, lead researcher Felisa Gonzalez and others analyzed data from the 2006 American Community Survey, a U.S. Census Bureau survey of about three million U.S. households (Hispanic Women in the United States 2007 report, 5/8).

The study found that there were 84 births per 1,000 Hispanic women, compared with 63 births per 1,000 non-Hispanic women. In addition, there were 73 births per 1,000 Hispanic women born in the U.S., compared with 96 births per 1,000 immigrant Hispanic women. Overall, about 50% of Hispanic children were born to unmarried women, although the percentage of single immigrant Hispanics who gave birth -- about 35% -- was nearly the same as for non-Hispanic women, the report found.

Census Bureau data released last week state that Hispanics account for about 15.1% of the U.S. population and one out of every four children in the U.S. under age five. The nation's Hispanic population is expected to grow as new births outnumber new immigrants, according to the AP/Courant (AP/Hartford Courant, 5/8).

The report is available online (.pdf).

Email this story to a friend	Link to this story.
Print this story.	Save this story in my saved links.

Hospitals in Connecticut, Oklahoma Seek To Address Language Barriers in Health Care Through Interpretation Programs
[May 07, 2008]

      The following summarizes recent news coverage of language interpretation services at hospitals in Connecticut and Oklahoma.

• Connecticut: The Connecticut Department of Social Services has sent letters to state hospitals requesting information about each facility's use of interpretation services, the Connecticut Post reports. According to the Post, a "growing number of Connecticut hospitals are relying on certified medical interpreters ... to act as intermediaries, conveying critical patient information to doctors and vice versa." The state's request for information will help officials assess the need for the services, the Post reports. The Connecticut Health Foundation estimates that hospitals in the state spend about $4.7 million on interpretation services annually. Patricia Baker, executive director of the foundation, said the state's Medicaid program does not allow hospitals to bill for interpretation services, meaning that hospitals must absorb much of the cost. The Post featured Bridgeport Hospital in Bridgeport, Conn., which recently signed a five-year contract with Ohio-based Language Access Network to receive video-based interpretation services on demand in any foreign language, as well as sign language. According to the Post, "71 languages and an untold number of dialects are spoken" in the city, and more than 53,000 residents have limited English proficiency (Brown, Connecticut Post, 5/7).
  
  
• Oklahoma: The Oklahoman on Sunday examined the growing need for interpretation services in Oklahoma hospitals and profiled efforts to provide those services at Oklahoma University Medical Center. According to the Oklahoman, the state's hospitals "have various ways of serving non-English speakers, from trained interpreters on the phone -- called 'language lines' -- to using nonmedical bilingual employees." OU Medical Center employs 12 interpreters trained in medical terminology who take calls from staff in need of interpretation services. The interpreters also meet with patients. The center averages 2,000 to 2,200 interpretation sessions monthly, up from 300 monthly when the interpretation program began four years ago. Migali Salazar, interpretation services coordinator for the hospital, said the interpreters also help increase cultural competency at the hospital (Raymond, Oklahoman, 5/4).
  

Email this story to a friend	Link to this story.
Print this story.	Save this story in my saved links.

Kidney Disease Worsened in One-Quarter of Black Patients Despite Receiving Medication, Study Finds
[May 06, 2008]

      Despite receiving kidney-protecting medication and maintaining good blood pressure, the kidneys of about one-fourth of black patients with chronic kidney disease caused by hypertension continued to deteriorate, according to a study published in the April 28 issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine, the New York Times reports (Nagourney, New York Times, 5/6).

The African-American Study of Kidney Disease and Hypertension Cohort Study is the largest and longest study on the disease in blacks, according to NIH, which led the research with funding through the agency's National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases. For the study, Lawrence Agodoa of NIDDK and colleagues from 2002 to 2007 followed 750 black patients receiving recommended hypertension therapy for chronic kidney disease. Nearly nine out of 10 participants took an ACE inhibitor or an angiotensin receptor blocking drug, and participants' average blood pressure was close to national guidelines for high blood pressure in chronic kidney disease patients, according to an NIH release.

Researchers found that kidney disease significantly worsened in about one-fourth of the participants. However, the study also found that about one-third of the participants experienced a slow decline in kidney function, in line with "what is generally observed with aging," according to the release. Agodoa said more research is needed to determine what contributed to the smaller loss of kidney function in this group (NIH release, 5/5).

Researchers said the findings do not suggest that patients with chronic kidney disease tied to high blood pressure should not be administered the medication because, without the therapy, participants likely would have experienced a more significant decline in kidney function. The findings demonstrate the difficulty of finding an effective treatment for kidney disease and suggest that other factors beside high blood pressure need to be addressed, researchers said (New York Times, 5/6).

An abstract of the study is available online.

Milwaukee Kidney Donation Effort
In other news, the Wisconsin Donor Network, through several outreach and publicity campaigns, has "improved dramatically" the number of organ donors in the Milwaukee black community, Jay Campbell, director of WDN, writes in a Milwaukee Journal Sentinel opinion piece. Blacks experience disproportionately high rates of kidney disease caused by hypertension, and they are more likely to need transplants or dialysis than any other race, according to Campbell.

Blacks account for 35% of those in need of an organ transplant in Wisconsin, but blacks in Milwaukee historically "have resisted donation," Campbell writes. However -- through programs developed by WDN in conjunction with government officials, educational institutions, black-owned businesses, the media and black churches -- "the response to organ donation improved dramatically" in the past three years, he writes. WDN's approach also included hiring black employees and adopting a "serve the family first" policy that respects the family's decision, regardless of whether they decide to donate.

According to Campbell, 70% of blacks in the city agreed to a request to donate a family member's organs at the time of death in 2007, up from 20% in 2005, before the program began. Black organ donors increased from eight in 2005 to 12 in 2006 and to 30 in 2007, he said, adding, "Each of those organ donors saved nearly three lives. In less than two years, about 75 lives were saved by the [black] community in Milwaukee" (Campbell, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 5/3).

Email this story to a friend	Link to this story.
Print this story.	Save this story in my saved links.

Native Hawaiians, Other Native Pacific Islanders Have Higher Cancer Rates Than Whites, Study Finds
[May 05, 2008]

      Native Hawaiians, Maoris and Polynesians have higher rates of breast, stomach, cervical and lung cancer than whites, according to a study published in the May issue of The Lancet Oncology, the Honolulu Advertiser reports. The study examined the number of cancer cases, and survival and death rates among Polynesian populations in Hawaii, Easter Island and New Zealand, the Advertiser reports.

Breast, stomach and lung cancer deaths occurred in Native Hawaiian men at a rate of 145 per 100,000 deaths, compared with 117 per 100,000 deaths in white men, the study found. Among Native Hawaiian women, 123 per 100,000 deaths were from breast, stomach, cervical or lung cancer, compared with 82 per 100,000 deaths for white women. Researchers also found that 34% of Native Hawaiian men smoked, compared with 23% of white men, and that 28% of Native Hawaiian women smoked, compared with 16% of white women.

Loic Le Marchand, director of the epidemiology program of the University of Hawaii Cancer Research Center of Hawaii and a contributor to the report, said the disparities can be attributed to socioeconomic factors and "biological, genetic reasons." He said, "It's well-known that Native Hawaiians have higher rates of cancer," adding that researchers "want to improve cancer cures, and screening and health education to reduce smoking" among the groups. "For all Polynesians, especially in New Zealand and different Polynesian islands, we're trying to stress the need for improving the data collection for smaller countries, which usually don't have cancer registries," Marchand said (Honolulu Advertiser, 5/2).

The study is available online.

Email this story to a friend	Link to this story.
Print this story.	Save this story in my saved links.

Urgent Action Needed To Address HIV/AIDS Among Minority Communities as Cases 'Skyrocket,' Expert Says
[May 06, 2008]

      HIV/AIDS rates among black and Hispanics in the U.S. have reached alarming levels, and the U.S. urgently needs to establish new initiatives to address the spread of the disease among the groups, Beny Primm, executive director of Brooklyn, N.Y.-based Addiction Research and Treatment, said at a event in Connecticut on Sunday, the Hartford Courant reports. Primm, who was a federal health official under President George H.W. Bush, spoke at the Greater Hartford chapter of The Links, a professional black women's group, where he was recognized for his work related to substance abuse, domestic violence and HIV/AIDS.

Primm said, "It's not on the radar screen. There are not enough voices being raised." Primm said the spread of HIV among black women in particular has not received the same media attention as other groups. He said HIV/AIDS cases among blacks and Hispanics "are skyrocketing," while cases "are at emergency numbers" in black women.

Primm's work has focused, in part, on the connection between the spread of HIV infection through injection drug use. He recently represented the U.S. at the World Health Organization meetings and at an international conference on AIDS prevention in London, according to the Courant.

Sharon Steinle, a Links member and chair of the event, said, "Globally, underserved communities are being ravaged by this disease, and the effects on women have been particularly devastating." She added, "As a volunteer-based organization focused on the betterment of women and the community, we feel it is our duty to educate others about HIV/AIDS and its prevention" (Jones, Hartford Courant, 5/5).

Email this story to a friend	Link to this story.
Print this story.	Save this story in my saved links.

University of Alabama Receives $3M NIH Grant To Study Health Issues That Affect Rural, Elderly Blacks
[May 09, 2008]

      The University of Alabama-Birmingham has received a $3 million, five-year NIH grant to fund three pilot projects that focus on reducing health disparities among rural, elderly blacks, the Birmingham News reports. There is a critical need to improve the health of elderly blacks in rural areas, particularly those living in the deep South, Richard Allman, director of the Division of Gerontology, Geriatrics and Palliative Care at UAB, said.

The grant will establish the Deep South Resource Center for Minority Aging Research, which will be a collaboration of researchers from Morehouse School of Medicine, Tuskegee University, UAB and the University of Alabama. The three pilot projects include the following:

• Yvonne Eaves, a researcher in the school of nursing, will lead a study focusing on improving in-home nursing services;
  
  
• Raegan Durant of the UAB Department of Preventive Medicine will lead a study focused on improving the social support for blacks diagnosed with chronic heart failure; and
  
  
• Hui-Chen Hsu, an immunology researcher, will focus on cytomegalovirus, which is a common virus that some studies suggest is more prevalent in blacks than whites.
  

Email this story to a friend	Link to this story.
Print this story.	Save this story in my saved links.

Latino Commission on AIDS Project Focuses on HIV/AIDS Among Hispanic Immigrants in Deep South
[May 09, 2008]

      NPR's "Tell Me More" on Wednesday included a discussion with Tim Frasca of the Latino Commission on AIDS about the organization's Deep South Project. The project aims to develop strategies to address HIV/AIDS among Hispanics in Mississippi and six other Southern states with rapidly growing populations of new immigrants, Frasca, program coordinator for the project, said.

The rapid influx of Hispanic immigrants to the region has created a need for local organizations to address HIV/AIDS in "areas where infrastructure was not previously available," Frasca said. For example, the number of foreign-born residents in Mississippi has doubled since 2000, with half estimated to be Hispanic, according to the Center for Immigration Studies. Hispanic communities in the targeted states "are very different from what you will find in California, Texas or Florida," Frasca said.

Another challenge facing Southern states is a shortage of comprehensive data on the number of HIV cases among Hispanic immigrants. Any population data collected in Gulf Coast states prior to Hurricane Katrina are "completely out of date," Frasca said, adding that officials estimate that 3% of new cases in Mississippi occur among Hispanics. In North Carolina, more than 8% of new cases occur among Hispanics, which is "thought to be already substantially higher than the proportion of [Hispanics] in the state," he said (Martin, "Tell Me More," NPR, 5/7).

Email this story to a friend	Link to this story.
Print this story.	Save this story in my saved links.

Pittsburgh Initiative Seeks To Reduce Diabetes, Cardiovascular Disease Among Blacks
[May 05, 2008]

     The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette on Monday examined the Healthy Black Family Project, a University of Pittsburgh Center for Minority Health initiative that provides physical activities for blacks in an effort to reduce hypertension and diabetes rates among the group. Diabetes and hypertension rates among blacks are three times those of whites, according to Anthony Robins, director of the project.

The program, which began in 2005, offers smoking cessation, nutrition and health workshops, as well as classes on body toning, African dance, yoga, meditation and stress-management techniques. Each participant undergoes an examination and health assessment before joining activities. To date, the initiative has 2,000 active participants from 12 Philadelphia communities and has collected 700 family health histories, according to the Post-Gazette. The program's $2.5 million budget includes funding from NIH, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the DSF Charitable Foundation, The Pittsburgh Foundation and individual donors. Organizers also are currently negotiating with several large insurers for additional money, Stephen Thomas, director of the Center for Minority Health, said.

Thomas said most of the participants joined the program after hearing about it from someone else, adding that the university's research on diabetes and cardiovascular disease among blacks led to the idea to develop the project. "It begged the question: If we're such a great medical institution, why do we have so many sick neighbors, some less than a mile away?" he said, adding, "Instead of complaining about people not showing up for appointments, we said, 'Let's take the appointments to them.'" A comparative analysis indicating how the project has fared since its inception is currently under review, he said (Nelson Jones, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 5/5).

Email this story to a friend	Link to this story.
Print this story.	Save this story in my saved links.

Initiatives in Baltimore and California Address Minority Health Issues
[May 09, 2008]

• Baltimore: The Baltimore Examiner on Tuesday examined how Mercy Medical Center in Baltimore has recruited a top surgeon from Connecticut to specifically focus on breast cancer in black women. Dalliah Mashon Black, a former assistant professor of surgery at the Yale School of Medicine, is an expert in breast cancer tumor biology and cancer behaviors of women in racially and ethnically diverse populations, according to the Examiner. Mercy officials hope Black's expertise will spur interest from patients and help attract other top physicians to the hospital, spokesperson Dan Collins said (Brown, Baltimore Examiner, 5/6).
  
  
• Oakland, Calif.: Several Oakland physicians and medical groups on Tuesday joined efforts to launch the End the Asthma Attacks Now campaign, which will focus on blacks, the San Jose Mercury News reports. Nationally, blacks are 30 times more likely than whites to develop asthma and two to three times more likely to be hospitalized for the condition, according to the American Lung Association. As part of the campaign, the Bay Area Pediatrics Medical Group throughout the summer will host educational and informational sessions that promote prevention and management (Grady, San Jose Mercury News, 5/6).
  
  
• Sacramento, Calif.: Black-owned barbershops in the Sacramento area on Saturday participated in the national Power To End Stroke campaign by offering no-cost health screenings and educational material to their clients, the Sacramento Bee reports. The American Stroke Association organized the event in collaboration with Mercy General Hospital and the Diabetic Amputation Prevention Foundation (Sacramento Bee, 5/3).
  

Email this story to a friend	Link to this story.
Print this story.	Save this story in my saved links.

Guide Informs Health Workers on How To Use Patient Demographic Data To Develop Equity Reports for Reducing Racial, Ethnic Inequities in Care
[May 08, 2008]

      "Creating Equity Reports: A Guide for Hospitals," Robert Wood Johnson Foundation: The guide provides hospital executives, physicians and other medical staff with information on how to properly collect race, ethnicity, language and socioeconomic status data from patients for use in creating equity reports, which can assist organizations in recognizing and reducing racial and ethnic disparities. The guide, which includes case studies of hospitals that have already implemented equity reports, is designed to help hospitals identify inequalities and track changes over time. Robin Weinick, a senior scientist at Massachusetts General Hospital's Institute for Health Policy and assistant professor at Harvard Medical School; Steffanie Bristol, a research assistant at the institute; and Katherine Flaherty, a health care consultant and former director of Health Access and Community Partnership for Partners HealthCare System, authored the guide (Weinick et al., RWJF release, 5/7).

Email this story to a friend	Link to this story.
Print this story.	Save this story in my saved links.

El Paso, Texas, Region Can Serve as 'Model' for Minority Health Care, Opinion Piece States
[May 05, 2008]

      The El Paso, Texas, region, which is nearly 80% Hispanic, "can serve as a model" to the rest of the nation in "providing quality health care" to diverse populations, but "there still is a long way to go," to eliminate disparities in the area, Robert Anders, dean of the School of Nursing at the University of Texas at El Paso, and Kathleen Curtis, dean of the College of Health Sciences at UTEP, write in an El Paso Times opinion piece. According to Anders and Curtis, "That's because despite notable progress in the nation's overall health, clear disparities still exist in the rates of chronic disease and death experienced by minority groups in comparison to rates of the entire U.S. population."

"Even though the needs are greater, care is less available on the border," Anders and Curtis write, adding, "The border region faces serious shortages of health care providers across primary care, specialty care, nursing, rehabilitation professionals, dentists, pharmacists and mental health professionals." The provider shortages are "projected to increase due to increasing needs of our aging population and anticipated retirements of the health care work force."

Anders and Curtis continue, "With the right investments, we can change this situation. We need to engage in comprehensive regional assessment of health care work force needs and planning for health professions education." They add that with the "absence of sweeping national reform, we need to explore more local solutions for health challenges," including "long-term state investments in health professions education." Anders and Curtis conclude that National Minority Health Month, which took place in April, should be used as a platform to "proclaim that poor health is unacceptable in El Paso and show our region's leadership in righting the national health care crisis" (Anders/Curtis, El Paso Times, 5/4).

Email this story to a friend	Link to this story.
Print this story.	Save this story in my saved links.

Event Date: 5/12/2008
Host: Alliance for Health Reform and Commonwealth Fund
Event: "Racial and Ethnic Disparities: States and Feds to the Rescue?"
Location: Dirksen Building, G50
Event Contact: 202-789-2300; e-mail, info@allhealth.org
Healthcast Note: An archived webcast of this event will be available after 9 a.m. ET, May 13.  Please visit Healthcast

Event Date: 5/12/2008
Host: Institute of Medicine
Event: Workshop to facilitate discussion about improving health equity and patient-centeredness by eliminating health disparities, addressing health literacy and advancing overall quality improvement
Location: Fairmont Newport Beach
Event Contact: Cassandra Cacace, 202-334-2389; e-mail, ccacace@nas.edu; or visit Web site.

Event Date: 5/14/2008
Host: Kaiser Family Foundation
Event: LIVE Today's Topics in Health Disparities -- State Initiatives To Reduce Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities
Location: Kaiser Family Foundation Broadcast Studio
Event Contact: E-mail, ask@kaisernetwork.org
Healthcast Note: This LIVE webcast begins at 1 p.m. ET, May 14. A video link will be posted approximately 30 minutes in advance of the show.  Please visit Healthcast