March 6, 2008

Legislative Preview 2008

This edition of CHAIN Reaction provides an overview of several health care issues of concern to consumers and advocates that are under consideration in the Florida legislative session that began on March 4. This article summarizes a few key issues Florida CHAIN and its partners will be monitoring, followed by more details on several other critical areas. (by Greg Mellowe, Florida CHAIN) Read more



Lisa Margulis, Dr. Louis St. Petery, Adam Searling, Douglas Cook, Bob Sharpe

A Loud Call for Alternatives to Medicaid Reform in Miami-Dade

House Speaker Marco Rubio’s announcement this week that he wants to expand Medicaid Reform to Miami-Dade cast a pall over more than 100 doctors and patient advocates who met on February 28 University of Miami’s Mailman Center for Child Development to call for changes in the project. The event was sponsored by Florida CHAIN, Health Foundation of South Florida, University of Miami's Mailman Center, Children's Trust, Human Services Coalition, and Collins Center for Public Policy. Read more from Florida Health News.

Governor’s Health Agenda: Ambitious or Inadequate? (Answer: Yes)

The 2007 regular legislative session was Governor Charlie Crist’s first in his role as the State’s chief executive. He quickly found his plate full with “hot button” issues such as property tax reform and homeowners’ insurance. In 2008, despite the State’s extremely gloomy financial outlook, he advanced a full slate of proposals in his three priority areas, including increasing access to health care. (by Greg Mellowe, Florida CHAIN) Read more

Florida Medicaid Reform: News & Notes

Even after suddenly leaving the post, former AHCA Secretary Andy Agwunobi wrote that the agency was "not prepared to recommend expansion this year,” a position appreciated by Florida CHAIN and the Medicaid Reform Advocates Coalition. There have also been new developments in the class action lawsuit filed by three Medicaid Reform participants and AHCA's plans for script changes for its choice counselors. (by Greg Mellowe, Florida CHAIN) Read more

KidCare Legislation 2008

Welcome back to the start up of another Florida Legislative session!  A difficult budget year clouds the state but many good policy opportunities are still possible with commitment and some common sense approaches to good advocacy efforts. (by Linda Merrell and Karen Woodall, Florida Child Health Care Coalition) Read more
TAKE ACTION: States' Abilities to Provide Health Coverage to Children Is at Risk!

Over the last several months, the Bush Administration has issued new regulations without Congressional approval that will force states to make significant changes to their Medicaid programs. Tell them to stop these harmful Medicaid regulations from being enacted! (alert from the Children's Defense Fund)  Read more and TAKE ACTION
Bills to Repeal Florida Children’s Prepaid Therapies Law Would Prevent Obstacles, Cuts

Two Miami area lawmakers are sponsoring legislation that would eliminate a Prepaid Therapies Program underway by the AHCA. Unless the Legislature passes the Garcia-Roberson bill or similar legislation, AHCA plans to start enrolling children into the Prepaid Therapies Program later this fall. (by Alisa Snow, Allliance for Pediatric Therapies) Read more

Special Needs Teen/Young Adult Health Care Transition Bills Filed

Help is needed from CHAIN Reaction readers and members in getting the filed Health Transition bills passed by the Florida legislature in 2008. Health Transition is a process that supports adolescents and emerging adults with chronic special health care needs or developmental problems as they move from the child health system to the adult health system. (by Deborah Ducett,

JaxHATS)  Read more

Medicaid Coverage for Florida Workers with Disabilities Bills Filed

Statewide momentum continues to grow around the Work Incentive Medicaid Coverage Initiative to change Florida law to allow people with disabilities to go back to work without fear of losing their Medicaid coverage - as 39 other states have already done. Thanks to our hard-working Strategy and Steering Teams, House and Senate bills have been filed. (by Barbara Butz, The Capstone Consulting Group) Read more

Mental Health Issues in the Florida Session

The 2008 Florida legislature expects to cut instead of adding value. Fiscal crisis focuses the need for intelligent spending to save dollars in mental health and substance abuse. Two key opportunities would allow the legislature to save Florida money in the long run. Cutting or not providing prevention and early intervention funding at needed levels increases costs associated with avoidable crises and acute care needs. (by Scott F. Barnett, Mental Health America of Greater Tampa Bay) Read more
TAKE ACTION: Be a Voice for Mental Health in the Florida Session

Many Florida families are without options for mental health or addictions problems because insurance policies here are not required to offer parity, a comparable benefit for mental health and substance abuse coverage that would be offered for any other chronic disease. As a result, addiction and mental illness are often not covered or covered very inadequately. Legislation to rectify this has been introduced, and 5,000 Friends are needed to take action and be heard on this issue. (alert from Bob Sharpe, Florida Council for Community Mental Health; and Mark Fontaine, Florida Alcohol and Drug Abuse Association) Read more and TAKE ACTION

President’s Budget Would Kick Florida When It’s Down

Although it may seem that Florida is already approaching rock bottom in light of an apparent recession and the $2 billion revenue shortfall the State is already facing in 2008-09, President Bush has also proposed a 2009 budget that would threaten the health and well-being of low-income Floridians even further. (by Greg Mellowe, Florida CHAIN) Read more

REAL STORIES FROM FLORIDA HEALTH CARE CONSUMERS

Young Citizens’ Plight Exemplifies Need for Access to Health Care for All Children

Three children, ages 5, 3 and 2, who are citizens born in the U.S. cannot get the medical attention they need and deserve – not even vaccines - because their parents are not here legally.
Even with Coverage, Health Plan Lapses Present Major Obstacles to Access

Even with health coverage, access to treatment can be blocked by problems within the carrier. The mother of a nine-year-old deaf child was not able to get the Cochlear implant that would restore her daughter’s hearing because she couldn’t find a doctor under Medicaid to perform the procedure.

(by Linda Vaughn, Florida CHAIN) Read more

CHAIN Reaction is a bi-weekly publication of Florida CHAIN (Community Health Action Information Network), a statewide consumer advocacy organization that works toward access to quality health care, empowering people to actively shape their world by participating in civic life and caring for each other’s well being. 

Florida CHAIN: 2812 N. 34th Avenue, Hollywood, FL 33021 info@floridachain.org     www.floridachain.org

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Legislative Preview 2008

 

Below are summaries of just a few of the many issues consumers and advocates will monitor throughout the course of the legislative session that began on March 4. The issues listed are those most closely followed by Florida CHAIN leading up to the session:

 

Budget Crisis:

Lingering economic woes have continued to send State revenue estimates into a downward spiral, to the extent that one of the first things the Legislature will do this Session is cut $500 million more from the State budget for the current fiscal year.  Then they will get about the business of cutting another $2 billion from the budget for the year that begins July 1. Although the Governor’s budget recommendations avoid serious cuts, it does so by tapping reserves and employing other measures about which the House has already expressed great skepticism. When the budget-cutting begins in earnest, health care and particularly Medicaid will again be among the prime targets.

 

Medicaid Reform:

One of the most persistent questions nagging advocates over the past 6 months has been whether or not there would be a push to expand Medicaid Reform during the 2008 Session.  The tentative answer to that question has changed several times, with expansion most recently off the table after AHCA recommended delay to the Governor, who in turn omitted expansion from his recommended budget. The possibility of a compromise that would authorize expansion only into Miami-Dade  (with a quarter of Florida’s Medicaid consumers) rekindled the debate, but assurances from the Miami-Dade legislative delegation doused it?until last week when House Speaker Marco Rubio listed expansion into Miami-Dade as one of his legislative priorities. Florida CHAIN will be working to mobilize consumers and advocates as well as educate legislators about the dangers of allowing an expansion that is at best premature.

 

On the proactive side, SB 1570 (House Bill pending) proposes to fix some long-recognized problems in Reform to reduce the harm or potential for harm caused by Reform. More specifically, if enacted the bill would: 1) address specific concerns raised in the Inspector General’s report issued last October; 2) provide critical protections for consumers; and 3) Require adequate data collection and monitoring, and require the results to be used in evaluating any proposed expansion of Reform.

 

Cigarette Tax:

Florida CHAIN is a member of the Healthy Florida Alliance (HFA), a coalition of health care organizations and consumer advocates working to increase the tax on cigarettes in Florida by a dollar per pack, from 33.9 cents to $1.339. Florida’s rate ranks 45th among the 50 states, and has not been increased since 1990. The proposals (SB 2790/HB 299), sponsored by Senator Ted Deutch and Rep. Jim Waldman, respectively, would create the win-win outcomes of increased revenue and decreasing smoking rates. The proposal calls for funds to be allocated to various initiatives, all of which address smoking-related illnesses or help ensure access to care for Floridians disproportionately impacted by the public health costs of smoking.

 

A few weeks ago, the Legislature’s Revenue Impact Conference produced an estimate of the amount of additional revenue generated by a $1.00 increase in the cigarette tax: $1.06 billion.  The increase (the bill uses the term “user fee”) to $1.339 per pack would bump total collections from $417 Million in 2007-08 to $1.473 Billion in 2008-09. At the same time, cigarette sales would decrease by 11% as well. 

 

Of HFA’s original position on the use of increased collections, 3 items would receive significant investments of new revenue, totaling an estimated $560 million in 2008-09. These include:

1)  Providing a dedicated source of revenue for the Medically Needy program

2)  Increasing physician reimbursement rates in the Medicaid program to ensure access

3)  Providing additional slots to cover uninsured children through the Florida KidCare program. 

 

The other new initiatives proposed by the bill are relief from the “sick tax” (assessments) levied on hospitals; funding for research and improved treatment of cancer as well as cardiovascular and pulmonary disease; and funding of residency programs in oncology, cardiology and pulmonary medicine.

 

Other Bills:

Fix administrative barriers to coverage in the KIDCARE program (SB 2472/HB 1275) – See the article by Linda Merrell and Karen Woodall of the Florida Child Health Care Coalition elsewhere in this issue of CHAIN Reaction.

 

Authorize MEDICAID BUY-IN for persons with disabilities who want to work (SB 2684/HB 1311) – See the article by Olga Golik of Citrus Health elsewhere in this issue.

 

Avoid implementation of the PREPAID THERAPY PROGRAM, which will divert funds from and may unnecessarily limit access to essential therapeutic services to some children  (SB 2238/HB 1319) – See the article by Alisa Snow of Snow Strategies elsewhere in this issue.

 

Other Medicaid Managed Care-Related:

Specialized Plans for Mental Health Consumers: A proposal by the community mental health providers (HB 691/SB 846) reflects a different response to Medicaid Managed Care (including Medicaid Reform), in which Medicaid consumers with mental health-related disabilities have been continuously short-shrifted. The bill would authorize the formation of specialized or “niche” managed care organizations (provider-owned, known as PSNs) that enroll and serve only SSI recipients with psychiatric disabilities. These consumers would be able to enroll in any plan during open enrollment, but would be automatically assigned to the specialized PSN if they did not choose. The aim of the initiative is to ensure continuity and appropriate care by overlaying meaningful case management. Florida CHAIN has not taken a position on this bill.   

 

Literally dozens of other bills filed this Session have a connection to consumer access to quality health care issues, and the discussion of all of them is beyond the scope of this article. During the Session, additional articles and alerts will address timely or pressing issues as they arise.

(Submitted by Greg Mellowe, Florida CHAIN) 

 

 

Governor’s Health Agenda: Ambitious or Inadequate? (Answer: Yes)

 

The 2007 regular legislative session was Governor Charlie Crist’s first in his role as the State’s chief executive. Taking office in January, Crist had little time to develop and refine concrete proposals addressing his priorities. In addition, he quickly found his plate full with “hot button” issues such as property tax reform and homeowners’ insurance.

 

In 2008, however, despite the State’s extremely gloomy financial outlook, the Governor advanced a full slate of proposals in his three priority areas, including increasing access to health care. Perhaps even more surprising to some than the general focus were the number and intensity of his specific proposals. However, none have prompted as much discussion as his proposal to provide guaranteed access to affordable health insurance coverage for the majority of uninsured adult Floridians.

 

The proposed “Cover Florida Health Access Act” calls for the State to negotiate with private insurers to develop plans that offer a limited set of benefits based on consumers’ choices about what aspects of coverage they believe they need. Although all such insurers would need to offer at least 2 plan options, and make preventive, primary and urgent care benefits available, some types or levels of coverage would be eliminated.

 

Most significantly, insurers would need to offer coverage with monthly premiums at or below $150 per month to “all” (the eligibility of undocumented persons is unclear, for example) uninsured Floridians between ages 19 and 64 not eligible for publicly financed coverage. The coverage would not be tied to an employer, nor would any individual be required to sign up.

 

On one hand, as far as coverage expansion initiatives go, it’s difficult to imagine one much more limited in scope, especially compared with efforts undertaken in other states. On the other hand, it may be even more difficult to imagine a Republican governor (Florida is no Massachusetts) prioritizing coverage expansion initiatives, especially given how massive the problem is here.

 

The proposal has already received a cool reception from the House Health Care Council, where an even more market-reliant alternative proposal is forthcoming. But an equally weighty problem the Governor’s proposal would face, even if it did garner the Legislature’s support, is a variation on a familiar theme: some problems defy simple but meaningful solutions that are also profitable for shareholders.

 

Although many insurers like the idea of moving away from mandated minimum coverage of specific services and benefits, it is also a Pandora’s box that consumer advocates have consistently sought to keep closed. Insurers and advocates alike have wondered aloud how the State could guarantee the availability of affordable and comprehensive coverage to everyone who applies - without either requiring some form of subsidy or yielding other very problematic consequences.

 

For one, insurers might offer low-cost premiums in the first year, then raise them drastically in the second or third year, before too many claims are filed. In addition, omitting or limiting coverage of a number of conditions that consumer decides is not necessary will end up backfiring for many, and also shift the burden even more onto uninsured/ underinsured and safety net hospitals. Or even though premiums might be kept affordable, deductibles and copayments soar to prohibitively expensive levels.

 

One of the most significant red flags raised for consumer advocates is the absence of details in the Governor’s initial legislative proposal concerning the State’s negotiation and plan approval processes. Indeed, the proposal is only a few pages long. Only 7 terms are defined, and that includes the terms “agency” and “office”.

 

The State would issue an “Invitation to Negotiate”, and the task of setting any parameters or deciding which proposals seem good enough is left to the sensibilities of State officials. The law would only impose a few criteria, such as precluding plans from “unreasonable” provisions and barring “ambiguous, inconsistent or misleading” explanations.

 

“Guidelines” would also be issued to “ensure” both quality of and access to care. Admittedly, AHCA and the Financial Services Commission could develop rules if they were deemed necessary. As well-intended as an effort to open the door for more opportunities to secure real coverage might be, any benefit derived may be more than overshadowed by the harmful products that seem likely to sneak in that opened door.

 

It must also be noted that the Governor offered a host of other health-related proposals (reviewed in the last issue of CHAIN Reaction), which he envisions as collectively making a significant dent in the unmet health care needs of Floridians. Thus far, it seems that the initiatives are ambitious enough to fall flat with conservatives, but not impactful enough to generate much enthusiasm from progressives. The ultimate deciding factor this Session may be the State’s fiscal woes, which may be so all-consuming as to take all focus off of improvements for now.

 

         (Submitted by Greg Mellowe, Florida CHAIN)

 

  
 

Florida Medicaid Reform: News & Notes

The most significant and surprising development in Medicaid Reform in February   was Agency for Health Care Administration (AHCA) Secretary Andy Agwunobi’s announcement  that he would  resign from his post in order to pursue other opportunities in the private sector. The announcement was timed to allow his successor to be introduced at the same time. The new AHCA Secretary is Holly Benson, who prior to this appointment served as secretary of the Department of Business and Professional Regulation. However, an even more direct prior connection to Medicaid is her pivotal role as a former State representative who helped push then-Governor Bush’s Medicaid Reform proposal through the Legislature.

Nothing on the record suggests that the departure of Dr. Agwunobi - who had sought an independent (and ultimately critical) evaluation of Reform from his own Inspector General and later formally recommended against expansion of Reform in 2008 – and the arrival of Rep. Benson were directly related to Reform. In fact, Benson’s  has stated that her broader focus o will be Governor Crist’s multi-pronged health care agenda, which has never explicitly included expansion of Reform.

However, even after leaving the post, Agwunobi responded to an op-ed printed in the Jacksonville Times-Union, noting that the “lack of available data and outside review, coupled with concerns raised by other external studies and our own internal evaluations, have led the agency to the conclusion that we are not prepared to recommend expansion?this year.”

Although Secretary Benson did not immediately indicate that there were plans to reopen the expansion debate right away, consumers and advocates rightfully wondered whether this change would increase the prospects than an expansion push could yet materialize. Those questions were answered last week, albeit from another source. In outlining his priorities for the Session ahead, House Speaker Marco Rubio listed expansion of Reform into Miami-Dade County among them. More specifically, the Speaker asserted that “[e]xpanding Medicaid Reform into Miami-Dade County is an important step in creating a system that can survive and is a step that we should enact this session.”

 

Florida CHAIN and the Medicaid Reform Advocates Coalition (MRAC) have called for, at a minimum, a moratorium on expansion and fixes to known glaring concerns. Watch for additional articles and, as needed, alerts on this topic as the Session progresses.

There have also been new developments in the case of Reid v. Agwunobi reviewed in the last issue of CHAIN Reaction. Reid is a class action lawsuit filed by three Medicaid Reform participants who were not adequately informed of their right to disenroll from their plans.

 

AHCA had filed a motion with the court seeking to get the case thrown out on a number of grounds, arguing in part that: 1) the consumers had no grounds to complain because they were not locked into their plans, nor did they attempt to disenroll, and 2) AHCA isn’t responsible anyway, not only because the plans provided the required information to consumers, but also because the plans’ efforts were approved by the feds.  AHCA also emphasized that the Medicaid statute they are accused of violating doesn’t provide consumers with any actual rights.

 

Last week, attorneys from Florida Legal Services and Legal Aid of Broward filed their response. For one, the response debunks the notion that the State is not required to provide notice of the right to disenroll, noting for one the obvious fact that plans have a financial incentive to avoid informing consumers. In fact, the enrollee manual cited by AHCA as meeting the requirements is provided at some point after enrollment, and even then doesn’t explain the reasons for which disenrollment is permitted.

 

The consumers also argued that they had adequately demonstrated that they were actually affected by the lack of notice. For example, one was not permitted to appropriately disenroll until obtaining legal representation. The response also directly addresses AHCA’s effort to downplay and dismiss the issues raised. For one,  consumers were indeed “locked in” to a plan. For another,  AHCA is solely responsible for sending notices, because the law does not allow delegation to managed care organizations, as is done in other parts of the law. Finally, the response refutes the charge that this provision of the law isn’t intended to give consumers rights, showing that law’s requirement is clear, mandatory and focused on the individual, which is the standard set by the U.S. Supreme Court.

 

A judge will next decide whether or not consumers have met the standard to have the merits of their complaint considered; otherwise the case will be dismissed.

Sometime soon, AHCA plans to announce the scheduling of a set of public meetings to seek input on proposed changes to the script used by choice counselors to assist consumers with choosing a plan under Reform. The impetus for the script change is the rollout of the newly developed Navigator drug finder software. Navigator will theoretically allow choice counselors to access a consumer’s prescription history and then determine which plans cover those medications. There a number of questions from both advocates and plans) (as discussed in a January issue of CHAIN Reaction), and AHCA appears to be addressing a number of them.

 

But perhaps the greatest concern is the missed opportunity to equip significantly more consumers with information about their options and provide transparency in drug coverage as a result of the continuing decision to withhold Navigator from the public. In responding to a letter from the Medicaid Reform Advocates Coalition, AHCA defended its decision to entrust only choice counselors with this resource.

 

Although risk management is clearly a critical factor in that decision, AHCA ignores the even riskier reality that a number of Reform plans still have not posted their Preferred Drug Lists on-line, despite AHCA’s pledge to remedy that simple problem. So the burden falls to choice counselors, who not only lack medical knowledge, but also average only 8 minutes per counseling session.

 

(Submitted by Greg Mellowe, Florida CHAIN)

 

KidCare Legislation 2008

 

Welcome back to the start up of another Florida Legislative session!  A difficult budget year clouds the state but many good policy opportunities are still possible with commitment and some common sense approaches to good advocacy efforts. 

Please see the introductory message below that will be discussed on a conference call the end of next week.

There are other bills that have been filed in addition to this consensus bill that are referenced in this introductory message.

The Florida KidCare bill that several partners in the Child Health Care Coalition have drafted for the 2008 Legislative Session is a modified version of the consensus bill of 2007 endorsed by a broad based coalition of child health care advocates and state leaders.  This year the bill will specifically address only the administrative elements of the program and not the restructuring of the KidCare program that was part of the 2007 discussion, nor any expansion issues.
 
The changes identified in this year’s proposal reflect many of the KidCare Coordinating Council recommendations to make it easier for eligible children to remain in the program and to help newly eligible children enroll.  The changes will create a more efficient system and cost effective KidCare program.
 
A small workgroup of advocates who were actively engaged in the legislative process in 2007, met with leadership from the Florida Association of Health Plans representing managed care providers in the state.  Through a consensus building process there was a general agreement on the bill components with the understanding that the participants would not be restricted from filing KidCare bills independent from the consensus bill.  The goal was to identify the issues that all stakeholders agreed on so that they would not get caught up in other more controversial issues. 
 
The bills have been filed by Senator Nan Rich and Rep. Lorrane Ausely and they do the following:

  • The 60 day loss of coverage for late premiums is reduced to 30 days.
  • The 6 month wait to enroll if you have insurance is reduced to 90 days with good cause exceptions to the 90 day wait. This provision applies to those families who are at or below 200% of the federal poverty level, FPL and are otherwise eligible for the KidCare program.
  • Twelve month continuous eligibility will apply to all program components.
  • There will be a seamless transition from Medicaid to Title XXI with a 60 day presumptive eligibility period that allows families to adjust to premium payments; healthcare plans and providers will be notified when families are notified that they are losing Medicaid coverage and they will be allowed to contact them to assist with the transition.  The transition period will use Title XXI dollars because it is presumptive
  • The ten percent cap on full pay participation will be removed for families with incomes between 200% and 250% of the federal poverty level; for families with incomes above 250% of FPL there will be a 25% limit and the  6  month wait period will apply if they have health insurance.  Families who are enrolled in the full pay program prior to enactment of this legislation will be grandfathered in.
  • Use of electronic verification of income is required as the first means of enrollment and redetermination, documents will be requested only when this can not be done
  • The CMS program is changed to KidCare Plus to keep consistency with referring to all program components as KidCare.
  • Families that are paying 5% or more of their income for health insurance are eligible for premium assistance if they meet all the other criteria for the KidCare Program.
  • Gives family members access to their child's records and application status

The numbers for the bills will be available soon.  As soon as they are out we will send you the information. 

Other KidCare bills filed:

SB 2032 Senator Fasano, This bill has some of the issues contained in the consensus bill mentioned above, but it omits a number of critical issues and adds a few that cause concern. 

SB 264, Senator Wilson, Outreach bill; Requires Office of Program Policy Analysis and Government Accountability, OPPAGA ,to perform a study of outreach efforts of KidCare; provides requirement  for the study; and a report to the Senate President and the Speaker of the House by January 2009.

SB 888, Senator Mandy Dawson, has a shell bill for KidCare

Now that the 2008 Florida Legislative Session is ready to start the Florida Child Health Care Coalition, FCHC, we will resume regular conference calls next week.  We look forward to providing you all with an update from the Capitol and time for participant questions and comments. 

(Submitted by Linda Merrell and Karen Woodall, Florida Child Health Care Coalition

LindaKids1@aol.com /(386)295-3651 KBWTALLY@aol.com)

 

Take Action: States' Abilities to Provide Health Coverage to Children Is at Risk!

 

Throughout 2007, Congress and the Bush Administration battled over the reauthorization of the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), a program that provides health coverage to more than six million lower-income children.

 

Now the Bush Administration is making changes to limit children's access without Congressional approval. Over the last several months, the Bush Administration has issued new regulations that will force states to make significant changes to their Medicaid programs.

 

Medicaid provides critical health coverage to millions of children, including low-income children, disabled children, children with special health needs, and foster youth. Without Congressional action, these harmful Medicaid regulations will start going into effect over the next few months, putting the health and well-being of our nation's most vulnerable children at serious risk.

 

Learn more and email your Members of Congress today — tell them to stop these harmful Medicaid regulations from being enacted!

 

(from the Children’s Defense Fund)

Bills to Repeal Florida Children’s Prepaid Therapies Law Would Prevent Obstacles, Cuts

Two Miami area lawmakers are sponsoring legislation that would eliminate a Prepaid Therapies Program underway by the state Agency for Healthcare Administration (AHCA).

Sen. Rudy Garcia (Hialeah) filed SB 2238, which would repeal a 2003 state law that, according to some AHCA officials, empowers the agency to hire outside companies to review, manage and administer therapies for thousands of Medicaid-eligible children. The therapies include physical, occupational, respiratory and speech-language pathology.

Rep. Yolly Roberson (N. Miami Beach) is sponsoring the House version, HB 1319.

Unless the Legislature passes the Garcia-Roberson bill or similar legislation, AHCA plans to start enrolling children into the Prepaid Therapies Program later this fall.

As of now, AHCA plans to contract with Care Access, which will subcontract with American Therapy Associates (ATA). The team will serve children in the northern half of the state. Companion Life, which is affiliated with Blue Cross Blue Shield of South Carolina, will subcontract with Therapy Review Systems (TRS) and serve children in the southern half of the state.

State Medicaid spending on pediatric therapies will be cut by 20 percent under the program, according recent agency presentations to lawmakers. “The Prepaid Therapy Program will be cost effective because the capitated rates take a 20 percent reduction from historical expenditures,’’ states AHCA’s presentation materials.

Those historical expenditures, however, are based in part on an actuarial study commissioned by one of the vendors, Companion Life.  The study showed that overutilization of therapy services “by a few providers” amounted to between 8 percent and 20 percent of Medicaid spending on pediatric therapies, a company spokesperson said during a Jan. 31 forum at Nova Southeastern University sponsored by Sen. Nan Rich.

The threat of fraud and overuse of pediatric therapy services are the reasons cited by many lawmakers for passing the 2003 legislation that led to today’s Prepaid Therapies Program. 

Yet, the program only targets children who get their medical care through MediPass or Children’s Medical Services. To get therapies, these children would be required to enroll in the Prepaid Therapies Program.  What’s more, any therapy session provided in a child’s home or in a community-based setting, such as a therapist’s office or in Prescribed Pediatric Extended Care centers would have to be reviewed and managed through the Prepaid Therapies Program.

Meanwhile, there is no oversight to millions of dollars worth of therapy services provided in schools, hospitals, and outpatient hospital clinics – where pediatric patients are allowed to get unlimited therapy sessions. Children enrolled in Medicaid HMO plans, both in reform and non-reform counties, would not be required to take part in the Prepaid Therapies Program.

Of the 1.2 million children enrolled in Medicaid, only 40,000 of them would be required to enroll in the program.

(Submitted by Alisa Snow,
Allliance for Pediatric Therapies, alisa@snowstrategies.com, 850-443-1319)

Special Needs Teen/Young Adult Health Care Transition Bills Filed

Help is needed from CHAIN Reaction readers and members in getting critical health care bills HB 793, sponsored by Rep. Don Davis, and SB 988, sponsored by Senator Stephen Wise, passed by the Florida legislature in 2008. Please contact your legislators to ask that they support passage of this important bill, and look for our updates.

 

Some of you may already be aware of the barriers encountered by youth with disabilities when they reach adolescence and can no longer access the pediatric health care system. At present there is no organized system to assist them in finding comprehensive and coordinated medical care in the adult health care system or to prepare them for the changes they will experience.

 

The JaxHATS Program was begun in 2005 to ensure that youth and emerging adults ages 16 to 25 years of age are able to transition to and access the adult health care system, receive education on resources that can improve their quality of life, and be provided appropriate vocational rehabilitation training and education to meet their career goals.

 

Health Transition is a process that supports adolescents and emerging adults with chronic special health care needs or developmental problems as they move from the child health system to the adult health system.

 

A bill before the Florida legislature in 2008 would create the Don Davis Health and Transition Services Program, previously known as JaxHATS (Jacksonville Health and Transition Services), as a model program for health care transition.  It will follow youth and emerging adults through the transition years providing the following services:

  • Primary medical care
  • Referral to adult specialty care
  • Individualized  care coordination
  • Individualized transition planning which includes social support, education and referrals to educational, vocational and other community services

Health Transition services are vital for these youth for a number of reasons:

  • 4- 5% of youth (ages 16-21) and emerging adults (ages 21-26) living in Florida have serious chronic special health care needs or developmental problems (approximately 130,000).
  • Most youth and emerging adults lose their pediatric providers at age 18.
  • Many also lose health insurance, such as Medicaid or family insurance when they turn 18 or 21.  For those who maintain Medicaid it is hard to find adult primary and specialty physicians who accept Medicaid.
  • At 21, all nursing care coordination programs (e.g., Children’s Medical Services, Sickle Cell Programs) cease, leaving youth and emerging adults on their own to navigate the adult health system.
  • Many adult medical providers lack training and experience caring for complex conditions originating in childhood such as cerebral palsy, Spina Bifida or developmental disabilities.
  • Poor access to care may cause their health to deteriorate, and prevent them from finishing their education or vocational training and becoming self-sufficient adults. 

The purpose of HB 793/ SB 988---“Transitional Services/ Young Adults/ Disabilities” is:

  • Creates the Don Davis Health and Transition Services Program to serve North East Florida
  • Implements and evaluates a model program to assure that all youth with special health care needs in Baker, Clay, Duval, Nassau, and St. Johns counties receive transition services.
  • Provides coordinated and comprehensive primary care using a Chronic Care Model.
  • Assures access to a reliable referral network of adult medical and surgical specialists.
  •  Provides nurse care coordination and vocational/education transition services.

Creates a State-wide Transition Planning Task Force: 

  • Convenes health care leaders and youth with special needs and disabilities and their families in key areas of the State of Florida.
  • Assesses the need for health care transition services.
  • Examines model programs and recommends best practices.
  • Develops and provides to the Governor by February 2009 a report that will include
    • A plan for the implementation of transition services across the State of Florida.
    • Identification of existing and potential funding sources. 

For More Information, please see the jaxhats website at: www.jaxhats.ufl.edu

 

Or contact:

David Wood, MD, MPH

Associate Professor

University of Florida College of Medicine

Division of Community Pediatrics

JaxHATS Medical Director

(904) 244-9233

David.wood@jax.ufl.edu

 

Deborah Ducett, LCSW

JaxHATS Program Manager

(904) 244-9204

Deborah.ducett@jax.ufl.edu

 

Medicaid Coverage for Florida Workers with Disabilities Bills Filed

 

Statewide momentum continues to grow around the Work Incentive Medicaid Coverage Initiative to change Florida law to allow people with disabilities to go back to work without fear of losing their Medicaid coverage - as 39 other states have already done. Thanks to our hard-working Strategy and Steering Teams, Senator Crist has sponsored SB 2684, and Rep. Reed is the filing sponsor of HB 1311.

        

The proposed Medicaid changes would increase the income and asset limits for persons on SSI or SSDI so recipients can go to work, make a living wage and still keep their health coverage.

 

At this time, the bills are on the agendas for the Florida Rehabilitation Council, the Florida Developmental Disabilities Council, the Agency for Persons with Disabilities, the Florida Association of Rehabilitation Facilities, the Florida Association of Centers for Independent Living, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Corporation and the Citrus Health Network. We have also received the support of the Governor's Commission on Disabilities. 

 

If your agency has made a commitment to this legislation - and is not included in this list, please contact us so we can make sure your agency's support is included in other public information materials.

 

We need you to:

  • Speak to your legislators and ask for their support of SB 2684 and HB 1311
  • Help us identify individuals who would benefit from the WIMC, want to work or are working and need health care
  • Sign up on the website for news alerts and to identify additional ways you can help
    For more information go to:

The Citrus Health Network and the Health Foundation of South Florida have provided tremendous support to the Partnership and have worked with Moore Consulting to develop a website for these efforts of the more than 30 organizations in the statewide Partnership for Work and Healthcare: www.partnershipforwork.com. The site includes the most recent materials to assist in  advocacy and public information endeavors, as well as tips on advocating and a signup area that will allow you to receive news alerts and other late-breaking information.

 

In addition, a Partner's brochure is available from danaf@advocacycenter.org. If you need additional information, please contact Barbara@capstone.com or call 850-421-6605.

 

(Submitted by Barbara Butz,
The Capstone Consulting Group)

  
 

Mental Health Issues in the Florida Session

 

The 2008 Florida legislature expect to cut instead of adding value.  Fiscal crisis focuses the need for intelligent spending to save dollars in mental health and substance abuse. 

Two key opportunities would allow the legislature to save Florida money in the long run.  Cutting or not providing prevention and early intervention funding at needed levels increases short to midterm costs associated with avoidable crises and acute care needs.  This also downshifts increasing costs to counties and corrections while legislators too often tout they have saved on taxes. 

The first opportunity is funding implementation of the Florida Supreme Court’s Report on Mental Health Transformation.  Legislators did not keep the promise to create enough community based care when institutions closed.  Correctional systems, jails and emergency rooms have become the place for these “default services” to be rendered and are the least suited to solve the problem.  Supreme Court’s Report recommendations reverse this trend. 

Funding reallocates so it goes where it can do the most good and save costs for avoidable downstream care.  The Florida Supreme Court report’s brilliance is it provides a path for solutions.  To refuse funding the path votes for continued increased spending certain to come from avoiding the issue.  Prospects are decent the legislative leadership will fund the beginnings of this reform.  Grass roots efforts must show legislators this is important to voters back home.

The second opportunity is equity/parity in health insurance.  Florida is one of few states not requiring health insurance policies that provide mental health coverage to provide it on par with other health conditions; creating hidden costs for consumers and businesses.  Again, the issue is lack of preventive services, diagnosis, early intervention and treatment result in avoidable losses in productivity, increases in absenteeism and increases in downstream medical costs.  Confirmed general knowledge indicates that mental health is important for all health.  There are linkages between clinical depression and diabetes, heart disease and other conditions.  Clinical depression associated with other chronic conditions reduces medical compliance by patients.  This makes treatment harder and more costly. 

Therefore, the .5% or 1.5% increase in premiums resulting from providing proper mental health and substance abuse coverage produces financial and other savings far more than the slight premium increase.  Business interests in Tallahassee oppose this legislation because of a fear of any increased costs and a dislike of any mandate.  Two proposals are expected to deal with this matter.  One will deal with equity/parity in general for health insurance.  The other would be to provide it in state employee insurance.  That would allow for a local “experience” based for later expansion.

Of course, the normal funding battles are exasperated by the need to fight budget cuts because of the fiscal crisis.  All in all the session will also be one of great opportunities since the crisis provides the opportunity to show how reform is better overall anyway.

(Submitted by Scott F. Barnett, J.D., LL.M., Executive Director,
Mental Health America of Greater Tampa Bay

TAKE ACTION: Be a Voice for Mental Health in the Florida Session

Thank you for your continued support and your willingness to be a voice in support of adequate services for individuals and families with mental illness and/or addictions. Policy makers need to hear from their constituents that every family needs a place to turn in a time of crisis.

One of the reasons many families are without options when a mental health or addictions problem surfaces is because insurance policies in this state are not required to offer parity, a comparable benefit for mental health and substance abuse coverage that would be offered for any other chronic disease. As a result addiction and mental illness are often not covered or coverage is so minimal that it is inadequate to meet the need.

Rep. Ed Homan and Sen. Victor Crist have introduced legislation to rectify this situation. We are asking 5,000 Friends to take action on this issue and make your voice be heard. Please take a moment today and send a letter by mail or fax to Governor Charlie Crist, Senate President Ken Pruitt, House Speaker Marco Rubio, Representative Aaron Bean of the House Healthcare Council, Senator Rhonda Storms of the Senate Children, Families, and Elders Committee and to your local legislative delegation. This letter should register your support for mental health and substance abuse parity legislation. Ask these leaders to act on this critical issue during the upcoming legislative session.

Your letter also offers the opportunity to add a personal story to help the legislative leadership understand the impact mental health and substance abuse services can have on individuals and families.We strongly encourage you to take the time to describe why this issue is so important to you.

To send your personalized letter, please click on the link below it will direct you to the 5,000 Friends of Florida's Families webpage.The link to the letter is under the "Contact Legislators" link.

Again, thank you for your continued support.Your action today will help ensure this request is taken seriously by the legislative leaders. With so many friends who are committed to creating a healthy Florida we will make a difference!

http://www.5000friends.com/index.cfm/referer/legislator.createMail/ID/416/

(Submitted by Bob Sharpe, President/CEO, Florida Council for Community Mental Health; and Mark Fontaine, Executive Director, Florida Alcohol and Drug Abuse Association)

  

 

 
President’s Budget Would Kick Florida When It’s Down

 

Although it may seem that Florida is already approaching rock bottom in light of an apparent recession and the $2 billion revenue shortfall the State is already facing in 2008-09, President Bush has also proposed a 2009 budget that would threaten the health and well-being of low-income Floridians even further. The Administration’s proposals include the following:

  • Reductions in funding for the Medicaid program totaling $18 billion over five years. The savings would be primarily achieved by shifting costs onto states through the adoption of new rules that don’t require Congressional approval. One new rule would make Medicaid-related services performed by school personnel an ineligible use of federal Medicaid funds. Another would shut off funds for targeted case management services provided by child welfare agencies to children in foster care. Additional rules would eliminate Medicaid funding for graduate medical education in teaching hospitals and limit the types of rehabilitative services that are eligible for Medicaid reimbursement.

(A report issued by the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, based on responses from state governments regarding the impact of the proposed rules, estimated that the cut over five years would be closer to $50 billion. Because Florida’s investment in the services to be affected is somewhat limited, the State estimated that the 5-year impact of these rules would be a smaller but nevertheless significant $665 million. Florida’s estimate doesn’t include an estimate for cuts to targeted case management, however.)

Advocates are appealing to the Administration to reconsider the need to implement these rules. Please review and respond to the alert elsewhere in this issue of CHAIN Reaction.

  • Reductions in funding for Medicare totaling a staggering $556 billion over 10 years. Even then, $54 billion in overpayments to Medicare Advantage plans over and above what Medicare would have cost otherwise are not proposed for reduction. For Medicare advocates such as UHCAN, controlling the growth in Medicare is important, but such efforts require “carefully analyzing and targeting the system-wide problems that actually boost its costs.” In particular, the adoption of an arbitrary “trigger” rule that prevents funding more than 45% of Medicare costs from general revenue solves nothing.
  • Reductions in funding for other health-related initiatives, such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which would lose more than $2 billion over 5 years, hampering the detection and control of infectious diseases and cutting preventive health services. 
  • Reductions in funding for other discretionary programs that are not directly health-related, but which provide other essential supports to low-income people and families that do have a bearing on their health, such as housing and child care by $23 billion in 2009 and by $474 million by 2013.
  • An increase of $19.7 billion in funding for the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (KidCare in Florida) through 2013. However, the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities estimates that approximately $21.5 billion would be needed just to sustain the program at current levels. The funding proposal is accompanied by a proposal to reauthorize SCHIP through 2013, which is interesting given that the President twice vetoed a bipartisan reauthorization bill passed by Congress in 2007. The reauthorization would, as might be expected, include many more stringent restrictions and not adequately expand access for uninsured children.

And this KidCare increase has been touted as the silver lining in the dark clouds of President Bush’s final budget proposal. Unfortunately, this additional front would move in at a time when Florida’s financial storms have already caused need to rise to flood levels.

 

Sources:  Center for Policy and Budget Priorities, UHCAN, Coalition on Human Needs, House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform (http://oversight.house.gov/story.asp?ID=1778)

 

(Submitted by Greg Mellowe, Florida CHAIN) 

 

  

REAL STORIES FROM FLORIDA HEALTH CARE CONSUMERS

  

Young Citizens’ Plight Exemplifies Need for Access to Health Care for All Children

 

Ivonne’s friends are not living here legally, but have three children, ages 5, 3 and 2, who were born in the U.S. But these three small natural born citizens cannot get the medical attention they need and deserve – not even vaccines. They are not eligible for KidCare because their parents are not here legally and do not have social security numbers.  

The three year old isn’t speaking, and the parents are very worried that the child might be autistic.  When the baby was sick, the mother took the child to a public service clinic and because she was so nervous about the child’s condition, she asked that someone look at her right away. 

Her concern and fear were met with shouts from the nurse on duty that she didn’t have the right to ask for anything because she didn’t have legal papers.

Even with Coverage, Health Plan Lapses Present Major Obstacles to Access

Even with health coverage, access to treatment can be blocked by problems within the carrier. The mother of a nine-year-old deaf child was not able to get the Cochlear implant that would restore her daughter’s hearing because she couldn’t find a doctor under Medicaid to perform the procedure.

The mother was finally able to get her daughter coverage under United Health Care, but she has not been able to obtain the insurance card she needs in order to see a doctor. The mother’s repeated calls to the insurance company have been fruitless.

Each of her calls was automatically sent to a voicemail telling her to call back in 48 hours. After calling back numerous times and leaving repeated messages, she finally spoke to someone who told that they could not provide her with the information she needed in order to get her card. Eventually, someone said the card would be mailed in 7-10 days. That was in December. Still no card. Still no care.

(Submitted by Linda Vaughn, Florida CHAIN)

Florida CHAIN Seeks Stories

 

Florida CHAIN welcomes contributions from health care consumers who are interested in sharing their experiences with readers of CHAIN Reaction. If you have a story to share, please contact Linda Vaughn at 850/294-2285or lindav@floridachain.org

 

 State Events 
     North Florida  
     Central Florida     
     East Central Florida     
     West Central Florida
     Southwest Florida
     Southeast Florida
     Florida Audio and Web Events
     Statewide Notices

National Events 
     Conferences 
     National Audio and Web Events

     National Notices

     National Campaigns

STATE EVENTS & NOTICES

 

NORTH FLORIDA  

13th Annual Children's Week (2008)
March 29-April 6  Tallahassee
In addition, local events and activities will take place throughout the state Feb-April. Contact jason@childrensweek.org

 

Florida Children and Youth Cabinet Meeting

April 1   10:00 am - 5:00pm

State Capitol Cabinet Room, Lower Level, The Capitol, Tallahassee

Scheduled to coincide with the 2008 Florida State Legislative Session Children’s Week and the "Kids Only" Town Hall Meeting.  If you would like to speak, get a form from: jennifer.stan@eog.myflorida.com 

 

Florida Children and Youth Cabinet Meeting

May 19   9:00 am – 4:00 pm

UNF University Center, Rm 1058, 12000 Alumni Drive, Jacksonville

 

 

Notices

 

CENTRAL FLORIDA

 

Focus on the Big Picture: Planning Women's Health Over a Lifespan

Call for Proposals Deadline: March 28

Event: May 27-28

The Florida Department of Health, Women's Health program Governor's Conference for Women's Health will be held in Central Florida. The call for proposals is in process; they will be scored by an independent team. Sessions will tentatively run 1.5 hours. Please monitor the Florida Department of Health, Women's Health website for upcoming registration information.

 

2008 Florida Conference on Aging

Aug 11 -14  Orlando Resort at SeaWorld

Call (850) 222-8877 for more information

EAST CENTRAL FLORIDA

WEST CENTRAL FLORIDA 

One Goal: Building the Future Together “Putting Families and Children First”

Proposal deadline: April 2

July 16-18   Hyatt Regency at Tampa City Center

This conference brings together early education and care providers and leaders from around the state to share innovative programs, practices and techniques for improving services and outcomes for all Florida’s children. Includes general sessions, concurrent presentations, and exhibits of appropriate materials. Presenter Proposal Form is on the website. The previous conference “Providing Childcare For Children With Disabilities And Special Health Care Needs” coordinated by the Florida Inclusion Advisory Council is now fully integrated with the One Goal Summer Conference. Registration fee of $45 waived for primary presenter only. Contact: 850/893-6270 or frankieallen_2000@yahoo.com.

SOUTHWEST FLORIDA

  

SOUTHEAST FLORIDA

  

Events

   

HSC First Friday Lunch: What’s on the Florida Legislature’s healthcare agenda?

March 7 11:30 am – 1 pm
HSC Conference Room, 260 NE 17 Terr, #200, Miami
A panel of experts will address what legislators plan to debate in the session. Join a discussion that will include the Medicaid buy-in plan, the tobacco tax, Medicaid reform, oral health programs and much more. Lunch/Lecture fee: $5 (members) and $10 (non-members). RSVP to (305) 576-5001, x 43. No shows will be charged.

 

Women of Color Reproductive Health 2nd Annual Conference - Breaking Barriers and Building Coalitions

March 7  FIU  (No. Campus) 300 NE 151 St, No. Miami

Presented by FANM/HAITIAN WOMEN OF MIAMI and co-sponsored by Women's Fund of Miami, the conference will bring critical information and discussion on womens health focusing primarily on Reproductive health, HIV/AIDS, Domestic Violence, Breast, Ovarian, and Cervical Cancers and their impact on the health and well-being of women and their families.

 

Consumer Forum on Health Insurance

March 12  6:30 pm - 9:00 pm   Stephen P. Clark Center Lobby, 111 NW 1st St, Miami

Do you or your family lack health insurance? Does your job offer health insurance, but you cannot afford co-payments or premiums? How much are you able to pay for healthcare? Find solutions and learn about a low cost insurance program that is being designed just for you.  Your Voice Matters! Free parking. For information: 305-375-5444

 

National Initiative for Children's Healthcare Quality (NICHQ) Annual Forum for Improving Children's Health Care

March 19-21   Miami

This event is for people committed to eliminating the gap between what is and what can be in health care for all children.  The Forum will feature breakout sessions and in-depth workshops, in four tracks, focused on NICHQ's Improvement Agenda: Assessing, Preventing and Treating Childhood Obesity; Providing Seamless, Evidence-based, Family-Centered Care for Children with Chronic Conditions; Purging Harm from Children’s Health Care; Profound Knowledge: Methods and Tools for Improvement and Innovation. Improvement processes/programs in all of these areas should address disparities and include parents/families.

 

Day of relaxation and resource gathering for cancer caregivers (family & friends)

April 5  10:00 am-2:00 pm Jungle Island, Miami

Featuring: resource tables, humor for healing presentation, nutrition workshops, Reiki presentation & demo, Yoga or Tai-Chi or chair massage (working on this) child-life specialists, AND post-event admission to the park.  Contact: GBrown@aptiumoncology.com and  amparo@twcmiami.org 

 

 

Notices

 

2008 Impact Award Nominations Underway

Deadline: March 21

The Donors Forum of South Florida is please to announce the third annual Impact Awards, to honor funders for individual grants that have made which have strongly impacted the community.  Funders eligible for nomination are based in Broward, Miami-Dade, Monroe and Palm Beach Counties and whose grant was given in South Florida OR anywhere outside the region, or based outside South Florida but whose grant was awarded in South Florida. In addition to individual funders, groups of funders that collaborated on specific projects are encouraged to apply. Funding awarded for the purpose of, but not limited to: program support, capacity building, seed money, challenge grants, research, emergency funds/PRIs, and capital campaigns is eligible. Six IMPACT Awards for funding completed between 2005 and 2007 will be given in each of 6 categories from up to $10,000 to over $500,000, as well as one new long-term involvement award. Nominations may be made by nonprofits for  funders or by funders for themselves or other funders. Nonprofits may receive an honorarium.

 

FLORIDA AUDIO CONFERENCES AND WEBCAST

STATEWIDE NOTICES  

Children's Week wants to partner with you! 
This year, Children's Week partners are collaborating and taking the lead in organizing local advocacy events in each of Florida's 67 counties during February, March and April designed to promote the health, safety, and well-being of children and families in Florida. Thanks to successful partnerships with Comcast, Nemours, Publix Super Markets Charities, Florida Department of Health’s Step Up, Florida! program, Prevent Child Abuse Florida’s Winds of Change Campaign, the Association of Early Learning Coalitions, over 70 other leading non-profit and corporate organizations, and hundreds of local organizations statewide – Children’s Week will host tons of events and activities throughout the state this year. If you would like to help coordinate an event or activity in your area, or are already coordinating a Children's Week event, write jason@childrensweek.org

NATIONAL EVENTS & NOTICES

 

CONFERENCES AND EVENTS 

  

Interrogating Diversity: Representation, Power, and Social Justice

Conference: March 21-22  American University, Washington, DC

The Second Annual International Multidisciplinary Conference "Interrogating Diversity" has the theme Representation, Power, and Social Justice. The conference will provide presenters the opportunity to present their research in a forum with an active and engaging audience devoted to discussion. Scholars from all fields of study are welcome to engage in fruitful, analytical discussion. This year's themes examine four areas of concern, including Inequalities in Health and Healing.

 

Active Living Research Conference Seeks Abstracts

April 9-12 Washington DC

The theme of this year's conference is "Connecting Active Living Research to Policy Solutions." Abstracts on all topics related to active living policies and environments are welcome. In addition to policy-relevant research, Active Living Research welcomes abstracts about children and adolescents at greatest risk for obesity—African-American, Latino, Native American, Asian-American and Pacific Islander children and adolescents living in low-income communities.


National Hispanic Medical Association 12th Annual Conference
April 17-20   Washington, DC
Policy, research, medical and clinical presentations focused on improving the health of Hispanics. Conference Goals are to: provide clinical updates on diabetes, cancer, HIV/AIDs, obesity, cardiovascular disease, asthma, Alzheimer’s disease, and renal disease; increase awareness about cultural competence, literacy, language services and medical care delivery to Hispanics; increase knowledge about Federal and State health policies that impact Hispanics; develop skills for health professionals in academic medicine, research, private sector and government; and make recommendations targeted at Hispanics for the national health policy agenda in the U.S. Expected: 100 Exhibitors; 200 Hispanic Medical Students; 700 Physicians; 140 Speakers/panelist/keynote speakers.

 

What's the Use of Race?
April 25-26

Center for the Study of Diversity in Science, Technology, and Medicine, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 

 

Promote optimum health for Black women - physically, mentally and spiritually

June 19-21  Washington, DC

The Black Women's Health Imperative’s 25th anniversary event to celebrate 25 years of creating a lasting legacy of health and wellness for Black women. Topics include: Self-Help SisterCircle;, Program Tracks on Obesity, HIV and Mental Health; Walking for Wellness; Health Screenings and Physical Fitness Activities; Entertainment and family activities. Online registration begins January 7.

 

Race and Class Inequalities in Health

Conference: June 24-27   Hyatt Regency Chicago

Society for Epidemiologic Research annual meeting

 

Making an Impact: Evidence-Based Community Benefit

July 15-16   St. Louis

Co-sponsored by the Catholic Health Association of the United States (CHA) and VHA Inc., in cooperation with the School of Public Health at Saint Louis University, this first-time program offering will introduce new public health evidence-based tools and knowledge to health care practitioners in order to enhance the effectiveness of community benefit programs and thus the overall health of communities. 

Becoming the Healthiest Nation in a Healthier World

Conference: Sept 9-12   Sacramento, CA

This annual National Association of County and City Health Officials (NACCHO) conference will be the year's largest gathering of state and local public health officials in the United States, jointly sponsored with Association of State and Territorial Health Officials (ASTHO).

 

Sixth National Conference on Quality Health Care for Culturally Diverse Populations

Sept 21-24   Minneapolis

Held biennially since 1998, this is one of the most respected and well supported events on cultural competence and health disparities reduction in the United States. It is co-produced by Drexel University School of Public Health's Center for Health Equality, Resources for Cross Cultural Health Care, and the USDHHS Office of Minority Health Care. This year's theme is "Partnerships for the Future: Supporting Practitioners and Advancing the Field through Innovation, Policy and Research."

 

AUDIO AND WEB EVENTS     

ACHI Audio-conference—Registration is now open

Show, Don’t Tell: The Power of Storytelling in Communicating Community Initiatives
March 18

Local Health Care Access Initiatives: Key Factors for Success

April 15

 

NOTICES

 

Nominations for Robert F. Allen Symbol of H.O.P.E. Award

Deadline: April 25

Presented annually by the American Journal of Health Promotion, the Robert F. Allen Symbol of H.O.P.E. (Helping Other People Through Empowerment) Award honors individuals who have worked to promote cultural diversity within health promotion or who have demonstrated significant achievement in serving the health promotion needs of underserved populations.

CAMPAIGNS & INITIATIVES

 

Get Ready for Cover the Uninsured Week 2008

April 27-May 3

Forty-seven million Americans, including more than 9 million children, are living without health care coverage. It's time to start planning for the sixth annual Cover the Uninsured Week and help get America covered. There are many ways for you and your community to get involved in Cover the Uninsured Week 2008: Host an enrollment event at a hospital, community center or school; Organize a health coverage forum with community, business and faith leaders; Plan a seminar for small business owners; Distribute information about available low-cost and free health coverage programs to uninsured individuals and families; Planning materials are available to help you get started

 

2008           

 

March


National Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month
Cancer Research and Prevention Foundation
jasmine@preventcancer.org
www.preventcancer.org/colorectal                       


National Multiple Sclerosis Education and Awareness Month
Multiple Sclerosis Foundation
annette@msfocus.org
www.msfocus.org                                              


National Nutrition Month®
American Dietetic Association
nnm@eatright.org
www.eatright.org  

                                                                     
Save Your Vision Month
American Optometric Association
jmmahoney@aoa.org
www.aoa.org                                                    

                                                                     
National Patient Safety Awareness Week – March 2-8
National Patient Safety Foundation
info@npsf.org
www.npsf.org         

                                                       
Brain Awareness Week– March 10-16
Dana Alliance for Brain Initiatives
bawinfo@dana.org
www.dana.org/brainweek                                    

                                                                     
American Diabetes Alert Day – March 25
American Diabetes Association
askada@diabetes.org
www.diabetes.org/communityprograms-and-localevents/americandiabetesalert.jsp  

                                

April

                                                                     
Cancer Control Month
American Cancer Society
www.cancer.org                                               

                                                                     
National Autism Awareness Month
Autism Society of America
mcolston@autism-society.org
www.autism-society.org  

                                           
National Public Health Week – April 7-13
American Public Health Association
Kaitlin.Sheedy@apha.org
www.nphw.org  

                                                                     
National Infant Immunization Week – April 19-26
National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
cdcinfo@cdc.gov
www.cdc.gov/vaccines/events/niiw/default.htm


2008 March for Babies – April 26-27
March of Dimes
marchforbabies@marchofdimes.com
www.marchforbabies.org  

 

May


American Stroke Month
American Heart Association
inquires@heart.org
www.americanheart.org 

                                                                     
Asthma and Allergy Awareness Month
Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America
info@aafa.org
www.aafa.org                                                   

                                                                     
Healthy Vision Month
National Eye Institute, National Institutes of Health
www.healthyvision2010.nei.nih.gov

                                                                     
Hepatitis Awareness Month
Hepatitis Foundation International
hfi@comcast.net
www.hepfi.org  


Melanoma/Skin Cancer Detection and Prevention Month
American Academy of Dermatology
mediarelations@aad.org
www.aad.org  

Mental Health Month
Mental Health America
infoctr@mentalhealthamerica.net
www.mentalhealthamerica.net                             

                                                                     
National High Blood Pressure Education Month
National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute Health Information Center
nhlbiinfo@nhlbi.nih.gov
hin.nhlbi.nih.gov/nhbpep_kit/                               
www.ctf.org  

         
National Women's Health Week - May 11-17
Office on Women's Health
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
www.womenshealth.gov/whw                              

National Women's Check-up Day – May 12
Office on Women's Health
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
www.womenshealth.gov

June

 

National Headache Awareness Week – June 1-7
National Headache Foundation
info@headaches.org
www.headaches.org  

 

National Men's Health Week - June 9-15
Men’s Health Network
info@menshealthweek.org
www.menshealthweek.org   

         

July

                                  
UV Safety Month
American Academy of Ophtalmology
eyemd@aao.org
www.aao.org/eyemd  

                                   

August


Children's Eye Health and Safety Month
Prevent Blindness America
info@preventblindness.org
www.preventblindness.org  

National Immunization Awareness Month
Centers for Disease Control
http://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/events/niam/default.htm

 

September


Healthy Aging® Month
Educational Television Network, Inc.
info@healthyaging.net
www.healthyaging.net/agingevents.htm  

 

National Cholesterol Education Month
National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute Health Information Center
nhlbiinfo@nhlbi.nih.gov
hin.nhlbi.nih.gov/cholmonth                                 


National Pediculosis Prevention Month/ Head Lice Prevention Month
National Pediculosis Association, Inc.
npa@headlice.org
www.headlice.org  

                                                                     
Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month
National Ovarian Cancer Coalition
nocc@ovarian.org
www.ovarian.org                                               


Prostate Cancer Awareness Month
National Prostate Cancer Coalition
info@fightprostatecancer.org
www.fightprostatecancer.org  

               
National Suicide Prevention Week – September 7-13
American Association of Suicidology
info@suicidology.org
www.suicidology.org                                          


October


"Talk About Prescriptions" Month
National Council on Patient Information and Education
4915 Saint Elmo Avenue, Suite 505
Bethesda, MD 20814-6082
(301) 656-8565
(301) 656-4464 Fax
ncpie@ncpie.info
www.talkaboutrx.org  


Healthy Lung Month
American Lung Association
info@lungusa.org
www.lungusa.org  

 

Let's Talk Month
Advocates for Youth
tom@advocatesforyouth.org
www.advocatesforyouth.org        


National Dental Hygiene Month
American Dental Hygienists' Association
media@adha.net
www.adha.org                                                  

 

National Domestic Violence Awareness Month
Domestic Violence Awareness Project
National Resource Center on Domestic Violence
ck@pcadv.org
dvam.vawnet.org                                              

       
National Mammography Day – October 17

American Cancer Society
www.cancer.org                                               


National Health Education Week – October 20 - 24
National Center for Health Education
ray@nche.org
www.nche.org

 

November

                      
American Diabetes Month
American Diabetes Association
askada@diabetes.org
www.diabetes.org  

                                 
Lung Cancer Awareness Month
Lung Cancer Alliance
info@lungcanceralliance.org
www.lungcanceralliance.org  

 

National Alzheimer's Disease Awareness Month
Alzheimer's Association
info@alz.org
www.alz.org  

 

National Hospice Palliative Care Month
National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization
jradulovic@nhpco.org
www.nhpco.org       

 

Pancreatic Cancer Awareness Month
Pancreatic Cancer Action Network
information@pancan.org
www.pancan.org   

 

Great American Smokeout – November 20
American Cancer Society
www.cancer.org             

Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease Awareness Week – Nov 25-Dec 1
International Foundation for Functional Gastrointestinal Disorders
iffgd@iffgd.org
www.aboutgerd.org  

              

December            


World AIDS Day – December 1
Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS
unaids@unaids.org
www.unaids.org/en/default.asp 

New listings, in order of submission deadlines

 

Blue Foundation for a Healthy Florida Announces Deadlines for 2008

Deadline: March 14 (Summer Cycle); and Sept 12 (Winter Cycle)

The Blue Foundation board of directors has identified community-based health clinics and outreach services as a priority focus for the foundation's grantmaking. The greatest percentage of the Blue Foundation funding will be to identify, nurture, and sustain such activities to benefit uninsured and underserved populations.

Florida Breast Cancer Coalition Research Foundation Education Grants

Deadline: March 19
FBCCRF announces the availability and process for applying for the 2008-2009 round of education grants, themed “Education that Empowers Women to Play an Active Role in their Breast Health.” The Foundation receives the funds that granted through the sale of the Florida End Breast Cancer specialty license plate. ONLY Florida non-profits classified 501 (C)(3) and/ or 509 (a)(1), (2), or (3) with an historic interest in providing life-saving health information to Florida residents are eligible. The Foundation is particularly interested in proposals that target individuals with language and cultural barriers, and who live in underserved areas and programs that target individuals that have the capacity to educate others. Five to seven education grants up to $10,000, and totaling no more than $64,000 are expected. For additional information: assistant@fbccrf.org or (954) 454-4156. 

Public Welfare Foundation Social Change Programs Funded

Full proposal deadlines: March 21 and Aug 1

Letters of inquiry should be submitted at least six weeks before the deadline
The Public Welfare Foundation supports efforts to ensure fundamental rights and opportunities for people in need. The Foundation looks for carefully defined points where funds can make a difference in bringing about systemic changes that can improve the lives of countless people throughout the United States. The Foundation's 2008 funding priorities include Health Reform.

Foster G. McGaw Prize to Honor Health Delivery Organizations for Community Service

Deadline: April 4

The Baxter International Foundation, the Cardinal Health Foundation, and the American Hospital Association invite applications for the 2008 Foster G. McGaw Prize. The prize honors health-delivery organizations (hospitals, health systems, integrated networks, or self-defined community partnerships) that have demonstrated exceptional commitment to community service.

Nominations for Robert F. Allen Symbol of H.O.P.E. Award
Deadline: April 25
Presented annually by the American Journal of Health Promotion, the Robert F. Allen Symbol of H.O.P.E. (Helping Other People Through Empowerment) Award honors individuals who have worked to promote cultural diversity within health promotion or who have demonstrated significant achievement in serving the health promotion needs of  underserved populations.

Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Local Funding Partnerships

Application Deadline: July 8

Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Local Funding Partnerships (LFP) forge relationships between RWJF and local grantmakers to fund promising, original projects that can significantly improve the health of vulnerable people in their communities. Local grantmakers propose a funding partnership by nominating community initiatives that offer creative solutions to critical health or health care problems.

Community Participation in Research (R01)
Expiration Date: May 8, 2011
This Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) issued by the Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research (OBSSR), National Institutes of Health (NIH) solicits R01 grant applications that propose intervention research on health promotion, disease prevention, and health disparities that communities and researchers jointly conduct.

The Effect of Racial and Ethnic Discrimination/Bias on Health Care Delivery (R01)

The Effect of Racial and Ethnic Discrimination/Bias on Health Care Delivery (R21)

The Effect of Racial and Ethnic Discrimination/Bias on Health Care Delivery (R03)

Expiration Date: May 8, 2011

Grant applications are encouraged from institutions/ organizations that propose to: (1) improve the measurement of racial /ethnic discrimination in health care delivery systems through improved instrumentation, data collection, and statistical/analytical techniques; (2) to enhance understanding of the influence of racial/ethnic discrimination in health care delivery and its association with disparities in disease incidence, treatment, and outcomes among disadvantaged racial/ethnic minority groups; and (3) to reduce the prevalence of racial/ethnic health disparities through the development of interventions to reduce the influence of racial/ethnic discrimination on health care delivery systems in the United States.

Continuing listings, in order of submission deadlines 

Innovating Worthy Projects Foundation
Requests are accepted from Jan 1 through Aug 31
The Innovating Worthy Projects Foundation provides support to nonprofit organizations throughout the United States that are dedicated to providing direct care or services for children with special needs, acute illnesses, or chronic disabilities. Preference is given to small organizations that might not otherwise be helped. Grants support new ideas and approaches to providing services as well as equipment purchases.

Advancing technology to improve healthcare sevices: Verizon Foundation

Applications accepted: Jan 1 through Nov 30
The mission of the Verizon Foundation is to improve education, literacy, family safety, and healthcare by addressing Verizon's commitment to deliver technology that touches life. The Foundation supports nonprofit organizations that benefit communities in the locations the company serves within the United States. One of the Foundation’s priority categories is Education and Literacy, with emphasis on innovative, technology-based approaches to literacy and K-12 education. In addition, through the Safety and Health category, the Foundation supports initiatives that contribute to the safety and well-being of families, with emphasis on domestic violence prevention and technology for healthcare and healthcare accessibility. 

  

The Humana Foundation
Proposals accepted: Nov 1-June 15

The Humana Foundation supports nonprofit organizations in communities where the company has facilities in states including Florida. The Foundation is committed to serving the needs of children, families, and seniors in their quest to build healthier lives and communities. Special consideration is given to proposals that focus on the following areas: health and fitness efforts that lead to better lifestyles; literacy activities that lead to improved health experiences; and the development of technology, tools, and resources that lead to healthy communities. 

 

Tobacco Policy Change: A Collaborative for Healthier Communities and States

Application deadline for implementation grants: March 14

Tobacco Policy Change: A Collaborative for Healthier Communities and States, a national initiative of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, provides resources for local, regional, and state-based organizations and tribal groups to advocate for effective policies that decrease tobacco use and exposure. This initiative is issuing a special solicitation that will build on previous success in attracting new partners whose constituencies are most directly affected by tobacco use and exposure. Grantees are expected to apply their advocacy skills and experience to advance tobacco and other public health policies in their communities. Organizations from Florida are able to apply.

 

Investigator Awards in Health Policy Research
Letters of Intent deadline: March 26
The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Investigator Awards in Health Policy Research program supports highly qualified individuals willing to pursue broad studies of America's most challenging policy issues in health and health care.  Grants are awarded to investigators from a variety of disciplines for innovative research projects that have national policy relevance. 

 

Research on Social Work Practice and Concepts in Health (R03)

Closing date for applications: May 7, 2009, Multiple deadlines

This funding opportunity announcement (FOA) issued by the Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research solicits Small Research Grant (R03) applications from organizations/institutions that propose to develop empirical research on social work practice, concepts, and theory as these relate to the NIH public health goal of improving health outcomes for persons with medical and behavioral disorders and conditions.

 

Planning Grant for Oral Health Promotion across the Life Span (R21)
Closing date for applications: May 7, 2010, Multiple deadlines
This funding opportunity announcement (FOA) is intended to encourage and support meritorious oral health promotion research directed at improving oral health and preventing diseases and/or their sequelae across the lifespan.

 

Community Participation Research Targeting the Medically Underserved (R01)
Expiration Date: May 15, 2010
The ultimate goal of this  Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) with a special review issued by the Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research (OBSSR), National Institutes of Health (NIH) is to solicit Research Project Grant (R01) applications that propose research on health promotion, disease prevention, and health disparities that is jointly conducted by communities and researchers and targets medically underserved areas (MUAs) and medically underserved populations (MUPs) as defined by the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA).

 

Community Participation Research Targeting the Medically Underserved (R21)
Expiration Date: May 15, 2010
The ultimate goal of this Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) issued by the Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research (OBSSR), National Institutes of Health (NIH) is to solicit Exploratory/Developmental (R21) grant applications that propose research on health promotion, disease prevention, and health disparities that is jointly conducted by communities and researchers and targets medically underserved areas (MUAs) and medically underserved populations (MUPs) as defined by the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA). 

 

American Foundation for Suicide Prevention

Deadlines: June 15

AFSP will now accept and review applications for all categories of one- or two-year research grants and fellowships two times a year. The grant amounts for Standard Research Grants are now: max. $60,000 to $75,000; Young Investigator Grants max. $70,000 to $85,000); Pilot Grants max. $20,000 to $30,000). Distinguished Investigator Grants and Postdoctoral Research Fellowships remain at $100,000.  AFSP research grants support studies that aim to increase understanding of the causes of suicide and factors related to suicide risk, or to test treatments and other interventions designed to prevent suicide. Investigators from all academic disciplines are eligible to apply, and both basic science and applied research projects will be considered.

 

Tobacco Prevention and Control
The National Association of County and City Health Officials is working to identify public health-related funding resources. October 2007’s guide features foundations that have listed Tobacco as a focus area. Click above to be directed to Florida's page. 

Structural Interventions, Alcohol Use, and Risk of HIV/AIDS (R21)
Multiple deadlines
This Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) issued by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), National Institutes of Health, solicits Exploratory/Developmental Research Grant (R21) applications from institutions/ organizations that propose to investigate the effectiveness of structural interventions that reduce the risk of HIV/AIDS transmission by changing the environment of alcohol use.

Johnson Foundation: Wingspread Conferences
Letters of inquiry accepted at any time.
The mission of the Johnson Foundation is to cultivate ideas that sustain community – people living in harmony with one another and their environment. The Foundation pursues this mission through Wingspread Conferences, small meetings of thoughtful inquiry convened in an atmosphere of candor and purpose. The Foundation co-sponsors conferences with nonprofit organizations, educational institutions, or government agencies that work in the following areas: education, media, family, democracy and community, and sustainable development and the environment. The conferences are held at Wingspread, the Foundation's headquarters and educational conference center located near Racine, WI.

Fulbright Scholar Award

Multiple deadlines
Applications continue to be accepted for some Fulbright Scholar awards for lecturing, research or combined lecturing/research awards in public health during the 2008-2009 academic year.  Faculty and professionals in public health may apply for awards specifically in their field, as well as one of the many "All Discipline" awards open to any field. 

Medical Care Enhancement Funded by United Health Foundation
The purpose of the United Health Foundation is to improve health outcomes for all Americans. Through the Foundation's responsive grantmaking, support is provided to nonprofit organizations that serve people and communities in the United States. The Foundation’s priorities include enhancing the quality of health and medical care services by providing reliable, scientifically-based information to support decisions made by health professionals, communities, and individuals. An additional priority is to expand access to medical care and health-related services for individuals and families who live in challenging circumstances. Letters of inquiry are accepted throughout the year.

United Healthcare Children's Foundation Helps Underinsured Children
The Foundation offers support for children nationwide with assistance grants for medical services not fully covered by health insurance. Parents and caretakers can apply for up to $5,000.00 for health care services that will help improve their children's health and quality of life.  Eligible children must be 16 or younger. Families must meet economic guidelines, live in the U.S. and be covered by a commercial health insurance plan.  Examples of the types of medical services covered by include speech therapy; physical therapy and psychotherapy; medical equipment such as wheelchairs, braces, hearing aids and eye-glasses, and orthodontic and dental treatments. The Foundation has helped more than 375 families and provided nearly $1 million in financial assistance    

Donors Forum of South Florida on-line database
The new online searchable Donors Forum of South Florida database has up-to-date information about funders in South Florida. This resource— which is also available in hard copy — presents continuously updated information about the giving interests and procedures of funders with a track record of investing in the South Florida area and working collaboratively with others. To order, email leot@donorsforumsf.org or call 305/371-7944. 

 

Directory Of Health Policy Fellowships

This Kaiser directory contains new listings for undergraduates, graduate students and professionals searching for summer, school-year, or post-doctoral positions.

March 6, 2008

Florida CHAIN Website Resources

Organizations and Services

     Florida

     Children's Health

     Medicare

     Prescription Medications

     Health Disparities

     Other

Manuals, Guides and Toolkits

     Children's Health

     Medicaid

     Medicare

     Uninsured

     Health Disparities

     Other

Technology and Audio Visual Materials

     Audioconferences and Webcasts

     Media Programming

     Web Sites, Web Features

          Florida

          Children's Health

          Medicaid

          Medicare

          Health Disparities

          Other

     Videos and Films

Periodicals and Books

Reports and Studies

     New Listings

        New Listings: Medicaid

        New Listings: Children's Health

        New Listings: Medicare

        New Listings: Federal/State Budget

        New: Health Insurance, Health Care Costs

        New: Health Disparities

        New: Other Health Issues

     Florida Reports

     Children's Health

     Medicaid

     Medicare

     Federal/State Budgets

     Health Insurance, Health Care Costs

     Health Disparities

     Other Health Issues

 

FLORIDA CHAIN WEBSITE RESOURCE UPDATE

 

ORGANIZATIONS AND SERVICES

 

Newly posted resources are at the top of each Topics List.

 

Florida

 

Florida Relay Service 711

The Florida Relay Service is the communications link for people who are Deaf, Hard of Hearing, Deaf/Blind, or Speech Impaired. Through the Florida Relay Service, people who use specialized telephone equipment can communicate with people who use standard telephone equipment. To call Florida Relay, dial 7-1-1, or use the appropriate toll free numbers: 800-955-8771 (TTY); 800-955-8770 (Voice); 800-955-1339 (ASCII); 877-955-8260 (VCO-Direct); 877-955-5334 (STS); 877-955-8773 (Spanish); 877-955-8707 (French Creole)  In emergencies, Relay users should call 9-1-1 directly or the emergency services center in their community. Note: 711 can't be accessed from many buildings with a switchboard system because the PBX system won't recognize it, and consumers need to dial 1-800-955-8771 from them. Florida Relay customer service is available 24 hours a day 365 days a year: 1-800-676-3777 (English); 1-800-676-4290 (Spanish)

 

Southeast Florida Cancer Control Collaborative (SFCCC) 

SFCCC works to reduce the cancer burden and cancer disparities in Southeast Florida, including Broward, Indian River, Martin, Miami-Dade, Monroe, Okeechobee, Palm Beach and St. Lucie counties. The SFCCC includes representatives from more than 60 public and private organizations, agencies and health care providers, as well as cancer survivor and advocacy groups. SFCCC aims to increase awareness about cancer prevention, early detection, and treatment among populations at high risk. The Collaborative meets quarterly at various locations in the region.

 

Children's Health

 

IPUT, Informed Parents United Together: Advocating for Universal Education and More!

This nonprofit agency works at an individual local network level to educate parents
and increase their advocacy for Inclusion of children and adults with disabilities in General Education environments. Check out the IEP Tool Box. 

 

Medicare

 

Medicare Rights Center (MRC) has an Rx Hotline for Nonprofit Professionals as one component of its comprehensive independent source of health care information and assistance for older adults and people with disabilities. It helps with understanding or explaining the Medicare prescription drug benefit to clients. Call RxHelp, a national hotline dedicated for nonprofit professionals serving the Medicare population, operated from 10 am to 6 pm EDT. Dial 877/RXHELP-0 (877/794-3570).Other services include: a telephone hotline; a database of case advice; education and training; public policy work; electronic newsletters; and communications with local and national media outlets. To help you understand your Medicare health plan choices, the Medicare Rights Center offers Medicare Interactive (MI), a web-based Medicare counseling tool.

 

Access to Benefits Coalition

The nonprofit ABC is dedicated to ensuring that Medicare beneficiaries with limited incomes know about and make the best use of all available resources for accessing prescription drugs and reducing their costs. ABC is working through local community coalitions to inform beneficiaries and their families, as well as the professionals who serve them, about Medicare Part-D. Extra Help is provided online or in person; find out if you or someone qualifies by going to BenefitsCheckUpRx?. Publications include: Applying for the Low-Income Subsidy: A Tool Kit for Advocates; and Pathways to Success: Meeting the Challenge of Enrolling Medicare Beneficiaries with Limited Incomes

 

A Healthier US Starts Here: CMS Prevention and Wellness Initiative

This spring and summer, as part of the "A Healthier US Starts Here" initiative the US Department of Health and Human Services and CMS will join with local officials and partners, to raise awareness of the importance of preventing chronic disease and illness, promote Medicare preventive benefits and provide information about how beneficiaries can take action to maintain and improve their health.

 

Prescription Medications

 

The AZ&Me? Prescription Savings

This new AstraZeneca program provides medicines free of charge to community free clinics, community health centers and hospitals that serve the uninsured.  AstraZeneca plans to provide medicines to hundreds of thousands of patients at approximately 150 facilities by the end of 2008.  The new program builds on current AstraZeneca patient assistance programs by extending prescription drug assistance directly to the sites where uninsured patients interact with healthcare providers, supporting patients at one central place where they can get the medicine and care they need. In light of the updates to their patient assistance programs in the last year, AstraZeneca has decided to no longer participate in the Together Rx Access program after January 31, 2008.  They offer AstraZeneca programs that provide medicines free of charge to those making up to $30,000 for an individual, or $60,000 for a family of four. More info: 1-866-325-8198

 

The Partnership for Prescription Assistance
is a service sponsored by the pharmaceutical industry that offers a single point of access to more than 475 patient prescription assistance programs, including more than 180 programs offered by pharmaceutical companies. Through referrals by organizations, more than 260,000 people in Florida have received assistance with their prescriptions medicines. They have launched a national campaign to raise awareness about the importance of SCHIP and its reauthorization, including a website and TV and print ads. They also have updated their FAQs and Fact Sheet to include SCHIP.

 

The Prescription Project

This project is led by Community Catalyst in partnership with the Institute on Medicine as a Profession.  Funded by the Pew Charitable Trusts, the Project seeks to eliminate conflicts of interest created by industry marketing by promoting policy change among academic medical centers, professional medical societies and public and private payers. In addition the Project will advance state and national level policy solutions. The Project will sponsor a wide range of activities to achieve its goals, including research and policy analysis; national and community-based forums; outreach to the media; and meetings with key decision-makers, including deans of medical schools, health care administrators, business leaders, policy makers and consumers. These include the Prescription Project Weekly Reader, a readable, relevant way to keep members and friends of the Project informed about what is happening at the intersection of medical conflict-of-interest issues and prescription drugs.

 

Together Rx Access

is a prescription savings program sponsored by 10 pharmaceutical companies, including Pfizer.  It provides savings on a wide range of prescription products at the pharmacy counter to eligible patients without prescription coverage.  For more information, call 1-800-444-4106

 

Health Disparities

 

National Health Law Program (NHeLP) Resources

Language access continues to be a significant barrier to health care for individuals with limited English proficiency. Over 23 million individuals—almost 9 percent of the population—speak English less than “very well” and likely need assistance communicating in the health care arena. In an attempt to provide tools for health care providers and others, NHeLP has released a series of reports outlining promising practices for providing language services in health care settings. In mid-April, the National Health Law Program and the American College of Physicians released Language Services for Patients with Limited English Proficiency: Results of a National Survey of Internal Medicine Physicians. Other resources include Providing Language Services in State and Local Health-Related Benefits Offices: Examples from the Field, which outlines how state and local benefit offices can provide language services and Language Services Resource Guide for Healthcare Providers which offers information on how to provide language services including translator agencies, training programs, and health care symbols. 

 

Refugee Health Information Network 

RHIN is a national collaborative partnership, managed by refugee health professionals, whose objective is to provide quality multilingual, health information resources for those providing care to resettled refugees and asylees. RHIN places its greatest emphasis on identifying, collecting, and making quality available materials that have been produced in refugee languages. Sources of these materials include federal, state and local public health agencies; national organizations; health care agencies; community-based organizations; academic institutions and international organizations. RHIN also strives to identify news and events, as well as other information resources useful to health providers serving refugees.

 

Training Alliance for Communities of Color
This website is from National Health Policy Training Alliance for Communities of Color, a partnership between Families USA, the Joint Center Health Policy Institute (HPI), the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials (NALEO) Educational Fund, and the National Medical Association (NMA). Their mission is to empower community leaders, elected officials, and journalists from communities of color with pertinent information about health policy developments in order to: expand their capacity to address and catalyze action on crucial health and health care issues; bolster the skills of leaders from communities of color to play a more influential role in shaping and creating health policies that are of relevance to their respective communities; and engage diverse leaders in national health policy development. 

The National Hispanic Resource Help-Line 1/800-473-3003 provides support for Latinos throughout the nation who need information about educational, health and human service providers. To become part of their database, click here.

 

Other

 

Partnership to Fight Chronic Disease (PFCD)

Any serious policy proposal that aims to improve health care in America and control rising health care expenditures must address chronic disease.  That’s why a broad group of patients, providers, community organizations, business and labor groups, and health policy experts has joined together to form the  – a national, bi-partisan coalition committed to raising awareness of the policies and practices that save lives and reduce health costs through more effective prevention and management of chronic disease.

MANUALS, GUIDES, TOOLKITS

 

Newly posted resources are at the top of each Topics List.

 

Children's Health

 

Alliance for Health Reform has developed an online toolkit on child health coverage. The toolkit provides links to resources that will improve the user’s understanding of how children get coverage in the U.S. and the importance of public programs and employer-sponsored health insurance to children.

 

Cover the Uninsured Storybook - The Success of SCHIP: How the State Children's Health Insurance Program Helps America's Working Families

This is a 15-page, downloadable booklet that shares the touching stories of 23 families that have benefited from coverage provided through SCHIP. Download it today to share with opinion leaders in your community. Order Free Materials: FREE English and Spanish promotional materials featuring the 1(877) KIDS-NOW hotline, which parents can call to find out if their uninsured kids are eligible for SCHIP or Medicaid, are available to augment your outreach efforts. Order fans, bookmarks, posters and more to distribute in your community while supplies last.

 

Helping Pediatric Practices Implement Parental Depression Screening
A new online manual helps pediatric clinicians successfully screen parents for depression, discuss with them the impact depression can have on their children, and refer parents for counseling. Rates of major depression peak during women's childbearing years. Research has shown that maternal and paternal depression can affect parenting behaviors and, ultimately, harm children's health and development. Because pediatricians have frequent contact with parents, they have opportunities to screen for depression and intervene when necessary. Accumulating data about the adverse effect of parental depression on child health, development, and behavior have provided an impetus among pediatric practices for changing clinical care.

 

Medicaid

 

The Basics of Medicare and Medicaid
The primers help explain Medicaid and Medicare, including an overview, how they work, who they serve and how they are funded. The Medicare primer is new, and the Medicaid primer has been updated with the most current information (Kaiser Family Foundation, "The Basics of Medicare and Medicaid," (3/19/07, Kaiser Family Foundation)

 

The Medicaid Matters web site is a resource for people working across the country to protect Medicaid, the health insurance that 50 million rely on. It stores a ready-to-use toolkit of messages, materials and dissemination ideas. Users are able to download, at no cost, tested messages emphasizing the importance of Medicaid and the threat now facing the program. Messages are enhanced by high quality, full color photography. One set of materials is designed to be ready to print. Once downloaded, they can be forwarded to any print house or copy shop without any further formatting. The second set of materials is designed so that components of the product can be adapted to suit the needs of that organization or constituency that wishes to use them.

 

Medicare

 

Toolkit: Medicare Private Fee-for-Service Plans

The toolkit contains links to resources on general information about Medicare private fee-for-service plans, advantages and incentives of using the plans and the difficulties that beneficiaries have faced with the plans, including enrollment fraud. The toolkit also includes a list of experts and Web sites for further information on the plans. (7/12/07, Alliance for Health Reform)

 

Medicare Advantage Tutorial on the basics of Medicare Advantage and types of MA plans, as well as trends in MA enrollment, characteristics of beneficiaries and the impact of MA plans on traditional Medicare. And an updated  Medicare Health and Prescription Drug Plan Tracker with MA plan enrollment data for June, containing local, regional and national data on MA plans and stand-alone Medicare prescription drug plans. (7/17/07, Kaiser Family Foundation)

 

The Basics of Medicare and Medicaid
The primers help explain Medicaid and Medicare, including an overview, how they work, who they serve and how they are funded. The Medicare primer is new, and the Medicaid primer has been updated with the most current information (Kaiser Family Foundation, "The Basics of Medicare and Medicaid," (3/19/07, Kaiser Family Foundation)

 

Medicare Rights Center Part D appeals manual
This free, comprehensive, easy-to-understand guide is for advocates who help people with Medicare get the drugs they need.This 25-page manual offers a complete overview of the entire appeals process, real-life case examples from MRC's Client Services department, a glossary of important Part D appeals terms, a sample appeals protocol for advocates, and links to important resources and documents. All in consumer-friendly language

 

New/Updated Resources Medicare Drug Plan Resources
In advance of the 2007 Medicare drug plans open enrollment period beginning Nov. 15, Kaiser Family Foundation has issued a series of new and updated resources based on ongoing research including consumer surveys:

Updated fact sheet providing state-specific data about Medicare drug plan options for 2007, including stand-alone drug plans and Medicare Advantage plans, and information on premiums, gap coverage, and availability to beneficiaries who qualify for full low-income assistance.

Updated Medicare Prescription Drug Benefit fact sheet, with a revised estimate that 4 million people will be affected by the coverage gap in 2006, as well as current enrollment and low-income subsidy participation and updated Medicare per capita drug spending.

Updated Talking About Medicare online consumer guide, reflecting 2007 benefit changes, to help people with Medicare and their families understand options and make decisions based on their personal situations; includes information about financial assistance for those with limited incomes, supplemental insurance options, and Medicare Advantage.

 

Uninsured

 

The Consumer Guide to State Health Reform

Community Catalyst and Families USA new Web-Based Guide to State Health Reform for Advocates. More and more states are prioritizing health care reform to address the coverage gaps that exist, the affordability crisis that continues to worsen, and the increasing costs of health care.  Community Catalyst and Families USA are pleased to announce the release of a unique web-based guide to state health reform for consumer advocates working to strengthen and expand health care coverage in their states.  A Consumer Guide to State Health Reform provides a detailed look at the building blocks of comprehensive health care coverage.

 

Fact Sheets and Primer on the Uninsured
The Kaiser Family Foundation has collected links to some resources on the topics of health coverage and the nation’s uninsured population to assist you in your work related to these issues:

The Uninsured and Their Access to Care

Covering the Uninsured: Growing Need, Strained Resources

Massachusetts’ New Law to Cover the Uninsured

Women's Health Insurance Coverage

The Uninsured: A Primer

 

Health Disparities

 

Disparities Toolkit for Collecting Patient Race, Ethnicity, and Primary Language Data

The updated version of this web-based toolkit is now available free of charge on the HRET Web site, thanks to HRET and AHA support. The new edition, which can be viewed online and downloaded as a PDF, is easy to navigate and offers important new material.

 

Women's Health Policy: Coverage and Access to Care Tutorial

The tutorial provides an overview of women's health care needs and concerns, and discusses important issues stemming from women's health coverage and access to care and reviews central policy challenges in improving women's access to care (Feb 2008, Kaiser Family Foundation)  

 

HRET Disparities Toolkit
The updated HRET Disparities Toolkit gives hospitals, health systems, clinics, and health plans the information and resources needed for collecting race, ethnicity, and primary language data from patients. In order to make this invaluable Toolkit more accessible to all health care providers, the Toolkit is now available free of charge.

 

Race Matters 

This toolkit was created to help advocates and leaders address race and power structures within their work to help create equitable opportunities for all.  (Voices for America's Children and The Annie E. Casey Foundation)

 

A Patient-Centered Guide to Implementing Language Access Services in Healthcare Organizations

The guide was created to assist health care organizations in better serving their clients with limited English proficiency and decrease disparities in access to health care. (DHHS Ofc. of Minority Health)

 

Amigos en Salud Online Disparities Toolkit
Pfizer has created a free toolkit to help community health centers reduce racial health disparities. The program, called Amigos en Salud/Friends in Health, involves training community health workers to be a bridge between minority communities and the healthcare system. 

 

Reducing Racial and Ethnic Disparities: A Quality Improvement Initiative in Medicaid Managed Care ToolkitCenter for Health Care Strategies
The toolkit examines the experiences of a workgroup - comprising 10 Medicaid health plans and a state primary care case management association - that adopted strategies to identify and address racial and ethnic health disparities in birth outcomes and immunizations, asthma care and diabetes care. (January 2007)

 

Families USA is offering Making Public Programs Work for Communities of Color: An Action Kit for Community Leaders, from its Minority Health Initiatives Department. The kit provides community leaders with information, tools, and resources to engage in health advocacy and improve the health and well being of their communities. Emphasizing the importance of public programs in reducing racial and ethnic health disparities, the kit contains: a summary and statistics of racial and ethnic health disparities and the role public programs can play in reducing them; an overview of Medicaid (and SCHIP) and Medicare, including their relationships to communities of color; fact sheets on improving health coverage for racial and ethnic minority groups; state and local case studies on health advocacy; advocacy tools including a powerpoint presentation, and lists of organizations and publications. Contact: 202/628-3030 or rpanares@familiesusa.org.

 

Other

GoingSmokeFree.org: A Toolkit for Implementing Smoke-Free Laws
The site is a clearinghouse for activities, events, and tools states and communities need to plan, implement and support new or expanded smoke-free laws. The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, in partnership with the Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids and Americans for Nonsmokers' Rights, has created this free online resource to help states and communities implement smoke-free laws.

 

New Web Tool Provides Samples of Report Cards on Health Care Quality

With rising interest in information about the quality of care delivered by health care providers, HHS' Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality has developed a new Web tool demonstrating a variety of approaches for health quality report cards. The new Health Care Report Card Compendium is a searchable directory of over 200 samples of report cards produced by a variety of organizations. The samples show formats and approaches for providing comparative information on the quality of health plans, hospitals, medical groups, individual physicians, nursing homes, and other providers of care.

 

ACHI's Community Health Assessment Toolkit

Built with funding from the American Hospital Association and expert guidance from a 35-member ACHI working group, this will be online in November 2007.  The Toolkit, a member service of the Association for Community Health Improvement, available to members of the American Hospital Association and the Society for Healthcare Strategy and Market Development, is a hands-on guide for both novice and experienced practitioners seeking to design, conduct and use assessments to improve the health of their communities.

 

Five Guidelines for Developing Customer-Friendly Websites
This new Covering Kids & Families publication is intended to help state agencies and other organizations do a

better job of helping people find information on the Web about Medicaid, SCHIP and other government services by producing a customer-friendly sites

TECHNOLOGY AND AUDIO/VIDEO RESOURCES

 

Audio Conferences and Webcasts

 

Dated events listed chronologically; standing webcasts listed last 

 

ACHI Audio-conference—Registration is now open

Show, Don’t Tell: The Power of Storytelling in Communicating Community Initiatives
March 18

Local Health Care Access Initiatives: Key Factors for Success

April 15

 

Unnatural Causes: Is Inequality Making Us Sick? 

Hosted by the Black Women’s Agenda, the workshop featured a panel discussion of this soon-to-be-released PBS documentary produced by California Newsreel. View the entire panel discussion online.

 

Partnerships to Achieve Health Equity 

This Society for Public Health Education summit featured a series of plenary sessions dealing with the elimination of racial and ethnic health disparities by focusing on health behavior dissemination, research, and implementation. Videos and transcripts available online.

Salud Para Todos: Expanding Access to Health Care

This a webcast of a Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute sponsored panel discussion on Oct 2, 2007, that examined the impact of health care expansion efforts on Latino populations.

 

Health and Civil Rights Symposium: Strategies for Solutions

This is a webcast of a National Center for Health Behavioral Change sponsored at Morgan State University in Baltimore on Oct 5, 2007. The forum brought together leaders from the NAACP, health coalitions, health policy organizations, and the civil rights field to discuss the intersection between health and civil rights.

 

Universal Health Care Coverage in the United States

Robin Cook (moderator), Best-selling author, physician, and Member of the Wilson Center's Board of Trustees; James Morone, Professor of Political Science and Urban Studies, Brown University; Michael Cannon, Director of Health Policy Studies, Cato Institute, and Paul Seltman, Counsel, Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP discuss the basic principles of the single payer, free market, and employer mandated approaches to expanding health coverage, respectively.  Archived October 3 webcast.

 

Media Programming

 

Unnatural Causes: Is Inequality Making Us Sick?

This seven-part series for PBS broadcast and DVD release will, for the first time on television, sound the alarm about our glaring socio-economic and racial disparities in health--and seek out root causes. While we pour more and more money into drugs, dietary supplements and new medical technologies, it turns out there is much more to our health than bad habits, health care or unlucky genes. The social conditions in which we are born, live and work profoundly affect our well-being and longevity. The series is part of an ambitious Public Impact Campaign conducted in partnership with leading public health, policy, and community-based organizations, pointing out that investing in our schools, improving housing, integrating neighborhoods, better jobs and wages, and giving people more control over their work, are as much health strategies as smoking diet and exercise.

  

Web Sites, Web Features & Databases

 

Newly posted resources are at the top of each Topics List.

 

Florida

 

Florida Medicaid Reform Evaluation Project 

The website provides information on the evaluation and access to key publications, talks, and presentations produced by the MRE team. The University of Florida (is conducting a five-year evaluation of the state’s Medicaid Reform Demonstration Project under a contract with AHCA, Florida’s  state agency for  health policy and planning. The evaluation will be conducted over the period of Florida’s Section 1115 Medicaid demonstration waiver (July 1, 2006 – June 30, 2010), as approved by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services by the Department of Health Services Research, Management and Policy at UF. The overall objective is to assess whether Florida's Medicaid Reform accomplishes its stated objectives of delivering quality healthcare services while achieving better health outcomes and enrollee satisfaction at a more predictable lower cost. For further information, contact (352) 273-6073 or mre@phhp.ufl.edu  

 

Florida's Community and Migrant Health Centers Brochure UPDATED 9/07

A low literacy brochure describing services offered at Florida's CHCs with a map of all CHC locations and phone numbers. English Brochure  Spanish Brochure  Haitian Creole Brochure

 

Annie E. Casey Foundation: 18th KIDS COUNT Data Book

This is the recently released new edition of this national and state-by-state effort to track the status of children in the United States. By providing policymakers and citizens with benchmarks of child well-being, the Foundation seeks to enrich local, state, and national discussions concerning ways to secure better futures for all children. Information is also available in an online database that enables users to generate custom graphs, maps, ranked lists, and state-by-state profiles. Both the book and the online database can be accessed on the website listed above.

First Steps: A Guide for Parents of Young Children with Developmental Disabilities

Florida Developmental Disabilities Council’s most popular publication ever has been revised and updated with critical info for any parent or family member of a young child with a developmental disability. The publication is a reliable source of info for parents at the beginning of a new journey. They will learn a new vocabulary, discover advocacy skills they never knew they had, and meet new people who will become important in their life as friends, teachers, doctors, therapists and caregivers. This is a valuable tool to help guide parents in the initial steps of their journey as well as a resource they can visit again and again as they, their child and their families grow through the coming years together. The publication is available in both English and Spanish, as well as in a full color version and a black and white version – both are in Acrobat Reader format (PDF) and available in two sections – Chapters 1 to 5 and Chapters 6 to 10 – for your convenience downloading the publications.

 

Summary of health-related bills passed by the 2007 Florida Legislature

 

Florida Health News, free online non-profit news service
The Florida Health Policy Center has announced the launch of an independent, free, non-profit news service:  Florida Health News Inc. FHN will post health-related stories reported around the state, highlight the Florida impact of national stories, and track state health legislation.  The news service also will feature original coverage of major health policy developments and a free Monday-through-Friday news service.  You can visit the site and subscribe to the e-mail news service by clicking on the link: www.FloridaHealthNews.org. To send your comments, story tips and news of conferences and other events, or get more information, contact pat.curtis@floridahealthnews.org or 850/556-1668.

 

Florida Health Insurance Coverage of Children 0-18 (2004-2005)
Kaiser Family Foundation has released information about this on-line resource.

 

Statehealthfacts.org Updates Data on Medicaid & SCHIP Coverage for Children
Statehealthfacts.org has updated information on eligibility levels for children in Medicaid and SCHIP and parents and pregnant women in Medicaid using survey data from the Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured (KCMU). The latest information on Medicaid and SCHIP enrollment practices for pregnant women and children and renewal practices is also now available. Overall SCHIP spending for FY 2006 and Federal SCHIP spending data from FY 1998 through FY 2006 are also now available. Recent additions to the site include new information on children's demographics and health insurance status from analysis of the Census Bureau's March 2005 and 2006 Current Population Surveys. These additions include the distribution of children by race/ethnicity, the distribution of children by citizenship status, and health insurance coverage among low-income children living near poverty.

 

Florida Association of Community Health Centers (FACHC)

The following resources have recently been added to the FACHC web site:

Short Assessment of Health Literacy for Spanish-speaking Adults (SAHLSA-50) A new health literacy test than can be used to screen for low health literacy among Spanish speakers. 

Health Coverage and Access to Care for Hispanics in "New Growth Communities" and "Major Hispanic Centers" A 2006 Report from the Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured 

Spanish Language Mental Health Manual for Health Promoters Developed by the California- Mexico Bi-National Health Initiative. 

 

Florida Health Care Website for Consumers
A new Web site for Florida health-care consumers officially launches today, courtesy of the Florida Hospital Association. The site offers links to information on doctors, hospitals and health-care plans as well as checklists to help consumers ask the right questions. It is intended largely as a portal to other, established sites. There are links to sites for Florida's Agency for Health Care Administration, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, and the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations, among others.

  

State of Florida Health Care Consumer Websites
The recently expanded FloridaCompareCare.gov aims to improve care and reduce costs by giving citizens the tools to compare outcomes and prices between health care providers and medical services.  Through this website one can see data on certain conditions and procedures related to quality of care, pricing and performance at the state’s hospitals and ambulatory (outpatient) surgery centers. In 2005, Florida became the first state to publicly report infection and mortality rates in each hospital.  In July 2006, Florida became the first state to publicly report separate pediatric quality of care data. In addition, adult data can now be broken out specific to ages 65 and over. Additional new breakdowns include types of facilities.
FloridaHealthStat.com provides health care information to assist consumers, health care professionals, and researchers in making well-informed health care decisions and in researching the status of health care in Florida. MyFloridaRx.com provides consumers with the retail prices of the most commonly used prescribed drugs by pharmacy across Florida. For questions or comments regarding any of Florida’s consumer websites, contact 850/922-7036.

 

Medicaid Applications Online 24/7 and in Neighborhoods
Local partners can direct families to their area sites or online to apply for Medicaid and other benefits. The Web Application is generally preferable as the data makes it into the Florida system more quickly and there is a reduced chance of data entry errors.

 

Florida KidCare Applications can be completed online

 

Website Offers Free 24 Hour Health Information to Floridians to address concerns and inquiries 

The Florida Department of Health (DOH) Secretary encourages health care consumers to visit www.FLHealthSource.com whenever they need information about a licensed health care professional. DOH’s Division of Medical Quality Assurance (MQA) maintains FLHealthSource.com. The site provides health care consumers with a host of information, including license status, office address, and disciplinary information for all health care professionals licensed in Florida. The site also provides additional information for the five profiled professions –medical doctors, osteopathic physicians, chiropractic physicians, podiatric physicians and advanced registered nurse practitioners (ARNPs).

 

Statehealthfacts.org provides free, up-to-date, and easy-to-use health data on all 50 states, covering more than 500 health topics. 

 

Florida Progressive Information Network (FLPIN)

offers a nonpartisan communication system designed to link progressive organizers with progressive activists.  Individuals may sign up free of charge to receive alerts on a variety of progressive issues from other organizations participating in the Network. In order to make FLPIN work, it must be used on a regular basis. The more information put in, the more valuable it is as a tool. Link FLPIN to organization websites. A training manual is at www.flpin.net/alert.pdf.  For more information or assistance, contact jen@floridahumanist.org

 

Children's Health
 

Data Resource Center for Child and Adolescent Health
The Child and Adolescent Health Measurement Initiative (CAHMI) presents the Data Resource Center for Child and Adolescent Health. This resource is a no-cost, easy-to-use website that puts national, state, and regional survey findings right at your fingertips. You'll find: interactive data search tools; personalized technical help by email or telephone and information and examples to help you use data more effectively.

 

Online Parent SCHIP Information
To assist in the growing problem of America's uninsured children, medical insurance hub HealthInsuranceFinders has added information to assist parents in finding and understanding all of their health insurance options: a State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) section with an overview of State Children Health Insurance Programs for each state.


State By State National Survey of Children’s Health Data Resource Center Dataset
The DRC Child Health Indicators version of the 2003 NSCH Dataset is now available. Added to the data sets are the 65 Child Health Indicators for the DRC online data query and the National Chartbook. Also included are Healthy People 2010 relevant indicators and key socio-demographic variables.

 

Medicaid

 

Fact Sheets on Medicare, Long-Term Care Spending; Medicaid; Long-Term Spending Data
Fact sheets, Georgetown University Long-Term Care Financing Project: The Georgetown University Long-Term Care Financing Project has released two new fact sheets on Medicare and long-term care and Medicaid policy that aims to protect the incomes and resources of spouses of nursing home residents who are trying to enroll in Medicaid. The project also has updated its 2005 national long-term care spending estimates.  (February 2007, Georgetown University Long-Term Care Financing Project)

 

Medicaid Fact Sheets Tool

Compare your state's Medicaid program and the population it serves to other states and the nation by visiting Kaiser's new interactive online State Medicaid Fact Sheets tool.

 

Interactive Tools on Medicaid

The Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured presents the State Medicaid Fact Sheets and the Medicaid Benefits Online Database, two interactive tools featuring the latest key data, information and services provided for each state’s Medicaid program. Both tools allow for easy access to the data which can then be printed, saved and emailed.

 

Medicare

 

CMS Updates Web Site to Help Medicare Beneficiaries Better Compare Drug Plans Price, Coverage, Quality

CMS has launched a revised version of the Medicare Drug Plan Finder Web site that allows beneficiaries to sort plans offered in their communities by annual costs based on prescriptions, monthly premiums, coverage levels in the so-called "doughnut hole" and other factors and view the information in one chart. (October 2007, CMS)

 

Online Interactive Medicare Advantage Comparison Tools
Before making the switch to Medicare Advantage, beneficiaries can compare plans to determine their needs. Then they can review each plan using the “Guidelines for Considering Medicare Advantage”  from the Center for Medicare Advocacy. More information about Medicare Advantage managed care plans is online at Medicare.gov. More recent FAQs on private fee-for-service plans is available through CMS.

 

Fact Sheets on Medicare, Long-Term Care Spending; Medicaid; Long-Term Spending Data
Fact sheets, Georgetown University Long-Term Care Financing Project: The Georgetown University Long-Term Care Financing Project has released two new fact sheets on Medicare and long-term care and Medicaid policy that aims to protect the incomes and resources of spouses of nursing home residents who are trying to enroll in Medicaid. The project also has updated its 2005 national long-term care spending estimates.  (February 2007, Georgetown University Long-Term Care Financing Project)

 

Uninsured

 

Interactive Online Side-by-Side Comparisons of Presidential Candidate Health Care Proposals
The online tool allows users to customize side-by-side comparisons by selecting as many as four candidates for comparison that can then be formatted into a printer-friendly format. [Kaiser Family Foundation]  

 

Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured Updates Medicaid Benefits: Online Database with 2006 Data

Using this tool, Medicaid benefits can be compared across the 50 states, the District of Columbia and the US Territories or by specific service. The online tool contains Medicaid benefits survey data from 2003, 2004 and 2006 with information about benefits covered, limits, co-payments and reimbursement. It includes an interactive map, an expandable list of benefits, and the ability to compare data across the three survey periods.

 

Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured Updates Medicaid Benefits: Online Database with 2006 Data

Using this tool, Medicaid benefits can be compared across the 50 states, the District of Columbia and the US Territories or by specific service. The online tool contains Medicaid benefits survey data from 2003, 2004 and 2006 with information about benefits covered, limits, co-payments and reimbursement. It includes an interactive map, an expandable list of benefits, and the ability to compare data across the three survey periods.

 

Families USA’s State Coverage Expansions Resource Center

Many states are taking steps — expanding public programs, launching new state programs, and reforming private insurance — to make it possible for more people to get coverage. This new Resource Center will help you find out what the states are doing. Click here. The State Coverage Expansions map guides you to information on key state expansions, with fact sheets, links to legislation, and links to state advocacy groups. Comparing State Expansions is a series of tables that show you the key elements of these new proposals/laws state-by-state. How are states financing their expansions? Who is covered? What benefits do they get? Will small businesses be helped? All this and more is covered in the tables. If your state is doing similar efforts that are not yet on our map, click here to call or send Families USA an e-mail.

 

Health08.Org, A Hub for Information about Health Care and The Presidential Campaign 

With health care emerging as one of the hot topics in the 2008 presidential election, this new ad-free Kaiser Family Foundation Web site will provide analysis of health policy issues, the results of regular public opinion surveys, and news and video coverage from the campaign trail. It will feature original content produced by Kaiser as well as health-related resources from various campaigns, other organizations, and news outlets. The site will offer summaries of candidates' health reform proposals, basic facts and information about the health system, the results of Kaiser tracking surveys examining the public's views on health issues and their perceptions of the candidates' views on health care, syntheses of health news coverage, podcasts and video from the campaign trail, and interviews with candidates and other key players in the health reform debate.

 

Uninsured Tutorial, Module, and Reference Library

This KaiserEDU.org page contains comprehensive resources including links to key research, policy analysis, and the latest data and statistics on the uninsured. 

  

Health Care Coverage in America: Understanding the Issues and Proposed Solutions includes a corresponding PowerPoint presentation.  (Cover the Uninsured)

 

Healthcare Coverage Options Database: Assistance for Obtaining Health Coverage

This Web site provides information on health insurance options for low-income U.S. residents. The site includes comprehensive information on large-scale programs like Medicaid, the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), and the federal Health Care Tax Credit Program, as well as hundreds of smaller state, federal, and private programs.

 

Health Disparities

 

Unified Health Communication 101: Addressing Health Literacy, Cultural Competency, and Limited English Proficiency

is a free online learning experience designed to help health professionals improve their patient-communication skills, increase their awareness and knowledge of factors that affect their communication with patients, and implement patient-centered communication practices. The course, developed by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), comprises five modules and is estimated to take a total of 5 hours to complete. The course may be completed at the user's own pace and may be taken for credit (CEU/CE, CHES, CME, and CNE) or not for credit.

 

Guide to Health Programs (Guia de Programas de Salud)

This easy-to-use bilingual guide in Spanish and English is available for free to anyone looking for basic information on health insurance, nutrition, and other public programs. (California HealthCare Foundation, October 2007)

 

“Race, Ethnicity and Health Care” tutorial

Online from Kaiser Family Foundation.

 

Systematic Review of Current Disparities Research Interventions Identifies Successful Strategies for Reducing Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Health Care

Complete body of reviewed research available through new interactive tool. (10/11/07, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation)

The Context of Health: What Are We Really Doing To Change It?
Healthy People 2010 recognizes that communities, States, and national organizations will need to take a multidisciplinary approach to achieving health equity—an approach that involves improving health, education, housing, labor, justice, transportation, agriculture, and the environment. [95-slide ppt]

Think Cultural Health is a new web page that provides a wealth of resources and information on the issues of cultural competence in health care and health care disparities. (DHHS Office of Minority Health)

 

Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's new disparities Web page includes publications and information listed according to racial/ ethnic group, as well as by topic area.

 

National Cancer Institute Spanish Web Site

The National Cancer Institute (NCI) has launched a new Web site, cancer.gov en español tailored to the needs of the U.S. Hispanic/Latino community. The Web site is completely in Spanish and is one of the latest tools developed by the NCI in its efforts to address cancer health disparities. It is intended to meet the needs of Hispanic/Latino cancer patients, their families and health care providers, who are either Hispanic/Latino or serve such patients.

 

Facing Race 2007

The Applied Research Center (ARC) and COLORLINES Magazine have made various resources from their conference available on the ARC Web site, the ARC blog, and on the Facing Race wiki

US Racial Disparities Update

Kaiser Family Foundation issued a new data update that shows the percentage of whites, African Americans, and Hispanics in all 50 states and the District of Columbia that are uninsured, enrolled in Medicaid, and living in poverty. The data also provide a quick glance at disparities in rates of infant mortality, diabetes-related mortality, and AIDS cases between these racial and ethnic groups.

 

Faith Based Efforts and Resources 

Families USA has posted a new page on the Minority Health Initiatives section of the Web

site with links to various to encourage faith leaders to become involved in health care advocacy.

 

Factline: Tracking Health in Underserved Communities
This website is sponsored by the National Library of Medicine and Meharry Medical College that highlights health disparities in underserved communities. Factline presents information about health disparities faced by women, members of minority groups, the elderly and others.  The focus of the website is two-fold: presenting significant findings from scholarly research in public health on the subject of health disparities and providing bibliographic references to the literature in which these findings are established.  The framework for the research is Healthy People 2010.

 

New Database for Medical Language Access
The Medical Leadership Council on Cultural Proficiency has unveiled a first-of-its-kind database designed to assist physicians and others in providing improved language access and culturally competent health care. With more than 350 initial entries, the searchable, internet-based, free-to-the-public database includes contact information for interpreters, nonprofit organizations, hospitals, public health departments and others that provide health information and services in languages other than English. Users, including physicians, nurses, social service workers, patients and the general public, can search for listings by county, by language, or by type of service.

 

2007 Federal Poverty Guidelines Now Available
The Southern Institute on Children and Families has made available the 2007 Federal Poverty Guidelines. Compiled from the 2007 HHS Poverty Guidelines, these guidelines provide income levels for families at 50%, 100%, 125%, 133%, 150%, 185% and 200% of the Federal Poverty Level. Information is provided for the continental United States and separately for Alaska and Hawaii.

 

Women's Health Insurance Coverage Fact Sheet
As the cost of health insurance continues to rise, women in particular may face difficult challenges affording coverage because they are disproportionately low-income and can have poorer access to employer-based insurance. This fact sheet describes the major sources of health insurance coverage for women ages 18-64, including employer-sponsored insurance and Medicaid. It provides information on the more than 17 million women who are uninsured and summarizes the major policy challenges facing women in the health insurance sector. (Feb 2007, Kaiser Family Foundation)

 

Comprehensive source of Hispanic data
Recent release from the Census Bureau with data and linkage to sources covering many areas. 

Rural Communities Statistics and Information
The Rural Assistance Center has added to its Web site a new resource providing continuously updated demographics and statistics, documents and resources and contacts for all 50 states. RAC said the federally funded "State Resources" addition is designed to help health care providers and human services representatives in rural communities with activities such as locating and competing for funding opportunities and networking.

 

Immigrant Health Policy Reference Library
This new compendium summarizes data and research on immigrants’ health coverage and access to care. The library also includes a list of organizations that conduct analysis on the impact of major health policies on immigrants and presents research on specific populations, including Latino, African and Asian immigrants.

 

Other

 

Tracking the Presidential Candidates on Health Care
The Kaiser Family Foundation's health08.org website offers resources for following health care developments during campaign season. The website serves as a hub of information about health and the election, including original content produced by Kaiser and easy access to health-related resources from the campaigns, other organizations and news outlets.

 

Consumer Health Information for You and Your Family
Keeping up with the latest consumer health information from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) just got easier. FDA has a new Web page to provides comprehensive and timely consumer information. A free monthly e-newsletter, FDA Consumer Health Information  will alert consumers to content contained on the page.

 

Metropolitan Quality of Life Data
Diversitydata.org allows visitors to explore how metropolitan areas throughout the U.S. perform on a diverse range of social measures via a dataset of socioeconomic indicators in the form of tables, thematic maps, and customizable reports. The data cover various racial/ethnic, income and nativity groups. Multiple data sources have been used to show data for numerous domains such as housing opportunities, economic opportunities, residential integration, and health.

 

New Online Medical Dictionary Reference Tool

MediLexicon International Limited, corporate owners of Medical News Today, was pleased to announce on Nov. 11 the launch of a new medical dictionary tool. This dictionary search is a joint collaboration between MediLexicon and Lippincott Williams and Wilkins, who have provided the data.

American Community Census Data Online
The new poverty, income, and health insurance data from the U.S. Census Bureau released on August 29, 2006 is available online. This year, it has more state and local data than in previous annual surveys.

     

State Level Data on Health Coverage & the Uninsured

Kaiser Family Foundation's interactive web tool includes the health insurance status of the state’s population (those with various types of health coverage or who are uninsured), and demographic information (such as income, race/ethnicity, age, gender) for those who are uninsured, have employer-based insurance, or Medicaid. Information about Medicaid and Medicare beneficiaries can be found in those respective categories. Find data from other categories on the website that relate to Health Coverage & Uninsured.

 

The Johns Hopkins INFO Project's OneSource Database

This provides one-stop access to over 360,000 resources and six separate databases with a single mouse click or search term. OneSource users can quickly search for reports, articles, documents, posters and pamphlets, photos, web sites, Q&As and news articles through a single interface. An enhanced search and browse capability makes finding global family planning, reproductive health and population information faster and more simple than ever.  Enter your terms in the search box. Select the resource type you want to look for, or search all six databases at once, and click Search.

 

Videos and Films

 

Unnatural Causes: Is Inequality Making Us Sick?

This seven-part series for PBS broadcast and DVD release will, for the first time on television, sound the alarm about our glaring socio-economic and racial disparities in health--and seek out root causes. While we pour more and more money into drugs, dietary supplements and new medical technologies, it turns out there is much more to our health than bad habits, health care or unlucky genes. The social conditions in which we are born, live and work profoundly affect our well-being and longevity. The series is part of an ambitious Public Impact Campaign conducted in partnership with leading public health, policy, and community-based organizations, pointing out that investing in our schools, improving housing, integrating neighborhoods, better jobs and wages, and giving people more control over their work, are as much health strategies as smoking diet and exercise.

 

PERIODICALS AND BOOKS

 

Florida Dept of Health Women’s Health Newsletter

The FL Dept of Health website has a Women’s Health page with a new quarterly Women’s Health Newsletter.

 

Pathways: A Magazine on Poverty, Inequality, and Social Policy

Inaugural cover story: How might a new war on poverty be fought? Featuring essays by Hillary Clinton, John Edwards, Barack Obama, Rebecca Blank, Robert Frank, and Charles Murray (Winter 2008)

 

Journal of Health Care for the Poor and Underserved

The annual Black History Month issue of the Journal is now available online with subscription. Some titles include: The Need for Diversity in the Environmental Health Workforce, Changing Corporate Practices to Reduce Cancer Disparities, The Effects of Perceived Discrimination on Diabetes Management and Project HEAL: Peer Education Leads to Weight Loss in Harlem. (Vol. 19, No. 1 – Feb 2008)

 

Black Pain: It Just Looks Like We're Not Hurting

The author, who has experienced depression writes that in the African-American community, there's a tendency to hide or ignore symptoms of depression, which include sadness, energy loss, feelings of worthlessness, thoughts of death or suicide, change in weight, and oversleeping or difficulty sleeping. That tendency means missed opportunities to hit the disorder with effective treatments, including talk therapy, antidepressant medication, or both. 

REPORTS AND STUDIES

New Listings

New Listings: Medicaid

Administration’s Medicaid Regulations will Weaken Coverage, Harm States, and Strain Health Care System
Over the last year, the Administration has issued a series of Medicaid regulations and an interim final rule, which implements a provision of the 2006 Deficit Reduction Act.  Taken together these changes will reduce federal Medicaid spending by close to $15 billion over the next five years. Unless Congress acts to block them, the regulations will detrimentally impact children and people with disabilities, educational services, the foster care system, and health care services such as trauma care and neonatal intensive care, upon which entire communities rely. (2/13/08, CBPP)

HHS Failed To Show Budget Neutrality Before Approving Florida, Vermont Medicaid Waivers
HHS did not ensure that two Medicaid pilot projects in Florida and Vermont would be budget neutral before approving them. Under federal law, states can obtain a federal waiver for pilot programs to test new ways of delivering care under Medicaid if they can show that spending would not rise faster than it normally would. However, in approving the Florida and Vermont programs, "HHS approved spending limits that were higher than the limits that would have been granted if HHS had held the states to limits based on benchmark growth rates," the report found. In addition, "HHS' basis for approving the higher spending limits was not fully supported by documentation," according to GAO. (March 2008, GAO)

Rules Would Give State Medicaid Programs More Flexibility

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services today published a proposed rule allowing states to change premiums and cost-sharing structures for certain Medicaid recipients, and impose higher cost-sharing for certain drugs and non-emergency care provided in a hospital emergency department. (2/20/08, AHA News Now)

 

Market-Based Failure - A Second Opinion on U.S. Health Care Costs

U.S. health care expenditures rose 6.7% in 2006, the government recently reported. According to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, total health care expenditures exceeded $2.1 trillion, or more than $7,000 for every American man, woman, and child. Medicare costs jumped a record 18.7%, driven by the new privatized drug benefit. (2/7/07, NEJM)

New Listings: Children's Health

Should Children with Special Health Care Needs Have Separate Preventive Care Visits?
Writing in the, Schor argues that children with special health care needs--and, indeed, all children--need a tailored health care plan that combines preventive care with individualized services to meet unique needs. Because of the extra time that pediatricians spend caring for these children's ongoing and sometimes life-threatening chronic health conditions, an individualized plan is essential for ensuring that routine well-child care, like immunizations, doesn't fall by the wayside. (Feb 2008, Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine)

New Listings: Medicare

 

Higher Spending Relative to Medicare Fee-for-Service May Not Ensure Lower Out-of-Pocket Costs for Beneficiaries
Medicare Advantage plans can cost beneficiaries more than traditional Medicare for home health care, nursing homes and certain hospital stays. However, CMS "protested GAO's approach to the report, saying it did not focus on the advantages" of enrollment in MA plans. (2/28/08, GAO)

Cost of Benefits to Seniors, Especially Health Care, Skyrocketed in 2007
"The cost of government benefits for seniors soared to a record $27,289 per senior in 2007," which is an increase of 24 percent above the rate of inflation since 2000, according to an analysis. (2/14/08, USA Today) 

Group Touts New Health Care Model As Cure-All

Some policy experts want a new health care model that combines elements of the employer-based system and the Medicare program, thus creating big savings and providing coverage for nearly every American. Health Care for America, developed for the Economic Policy Institute by Yale political scientist Jacob S. Hacker, would cover 99.6% of Americans and save more than $1 trillion in health care costs over the next 10 years[.] [(2/21/08, Employee Benefit News)

 

Statehealthfacts.org
recently added new and updated data on Medicare including CMS data on total Medicare enrollment and prescription drug coverage as of January for all states and the nation. The updated drug coverage data include the total number of beneficiaries with creditable drug coverage, the number of beneficiaries by drug coverage type and the distribution of beneficiaries by coverage type. (2/2/8/08, KFF) 

Baby Boomers Confused About Medicare 

The first waves of baby boomers turn 62 this year and begin claiming Social Security benefits. And, according to new research from the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC), many are confused about their post-retirement health insurance options, including their Medicare eligibility. (Feb 2008, NAIC)

Majority Of American Voters Oppose Bush Administration's Proposed Cuts To Medicare 
As Congress prepares to begin debate on the Bush Administration's proposed FY 2009 budget containing five-year, $24 billion cuts to Medicare's nursing home benefit, a new national survey conducted by Zogby International for the American Health Care Association (AHCA) finds 63 percent of likely voters oppose the cut while nearly half "strongly oppose" the Administration proposal. (Feb 2008, American Health Care Assn)

 

How Disease Burden Influences Medication Patterns for Medicare Beneficiaries: Implications for Policy

This issue brief provides benchmarks, based on empirical analyses of 2002 data, for evaluating the quality of pharmaceutical care under the Medicare Part D prescription drug benefit. The analyses cover all major classes of pharmaceuticals used by beneficiaries with one of eight chronic conditions. Common patterns observed include: 1) a mounting disease burden is associated with increasingly complex medication regimens in every group, and 2) the intensity and persistence of drug use tend to rise with disease burden up to a point, before declining for beneficiaries with the greatest morbidity. (2/21/08, Commonwealth Fund)

 

Medicare Part D: Plan Sponsors' Processing and CMS Monitoring of Drug Coverage Requests Could Be Improved

The report reviews the processes and criteria that Medicare prescription drug benefit plans use to make coverage decisions, as well as the processes for appealing coverage denials and the approval rates of those appeals. In addition, GAO examines CMS' efforts to inform the public about plans' performance and oversee plans' processes (Jan 2008, GAO)

 

CMS Program Identifies 371.5 Million Dollars In Improper Medicare Payments In Three States

CMS has announced that $371.5 million in improper Medicare payments has been collected from or repaid to health care providers and suppliers as part of a demonstration program using recovery audit contractors (RACs) in California, Florida and New York in 2007. Nearly $440 million has been collected since the program began in 2005. (2/28/08, CMS)

Insurers Support Strengthened Federal Regulation and Oversight for Marketing to Beneficiaries

The proposal calls for a prohibition of door-to-door marketing, cross-selling, cold calls, and any inducements for beneficiaries to enroll. In addition, the statement calls for strengthening consumer disclosures, verifying that beneficiaries intended to enroll, additional agent and broker training and other protections. Karen Ignagni, President and CEO of AHIP, said that the AHIP Board wanted to send a strong message to Medicare beneficiaries that health insurance plans are calling for more government regulation to enhance consumer protections for every senior who is considering Medicare Advantage or Medicare prescription drug plans.” (2/4/08, America's Health Insurance Plans)

New Listings: Federal Budget

27 States Need Fiscal Relief; Economic Data Can Be Used to Target Aid to States

Twenty-seven states need federal fiscal relief now, according to an examination of three indicators of economic distress — employment, poverty, and housing foreclosures. Well-targeted fiscal relief based on these indicators can reduce the need for states to raise taxes or cut services such as health care or education. (3/3/08, CBPP)

 

Dealing with Deficits: State Tax Cuts Are Not Economic Stimulus; Fiscal Stimulus at the State Level?
Policymakers in many states are proposing tax cuts or rebates that they hope will “stimulate” their state economies, often citing the federal stimulus bill as both a model and a reason to support such a plan.  Leaders have issued such proposals in Alabama, Arizona, Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, among others. But state tax cuts would do little or nothing to boost a state’s economy. In fact, they reflect a misunderstanding of how state governments can best respond to a recession. (2/29/08, CBPP)

Involved Patients Not Always The Healthiest

Patients who say they want to take an active role in their health care could be unhealthier in some respects than patients who prefer to let their doctors lead the way, according to new research. In a study of 189 patients treated at two Veterans Affairs Medical Centers and four community clinics, those who said patients and doctors should be on a more equal footing when it came to treatment decisions had higher blood pressure and cholesterol scores than their peers. (Feb 2008, Annals of Behavioral Medicine)

 

New Federal Law Could Worsen State Budget Problems: States Can Protect Revenues by "Decoupling"
The bonus depreciation provision of the new federal stimulus law threatens to reduce many states' tax revenue this year and next year. To avoid this revenue loss, states can enact laws to "decouple" their business depreciation rules from the part of the federal tax code that allows bonus depreciation. This is the first report in the series. (2/13/08, CBPP)

New Listings: Health Insurance, Health Care Costs  

  

Aspen Institute Health Reform Principles

An Aspen Institute project today proposed 10 principles to make the U.S. health care system more accessible, affordable and efficient and improve the quality of care. "Access is not enough," said former New Jersey Gov. Christine Todd Whitman, co-chair of the Health Stewardship Project. (2/13/08, AHA News Now)

 

The Future of Employment-Based Health Benefits: Will Employers Reach a Tipping Point?
This article summarizes discussion at the Employee Benefit Research Institute's December 2007 policy forum, which sought to assess reports that the US employment-based health benefits systems has reached a "tipping point" because of ever-rising costs, with employers entering a period of fundamental change in providing health benefits to workers. (Feb 2008, EBRI Notes)

Poll Shows Americans Back Democratic Health Care Proposals
A poll conducted by NPR, the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Harvard School of Public Health found that most Americans support key elements of Democratic presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama’s health care proposals and want to do "something about the problem of 50 million Americans being uninsured." (2/29/08, NPR)

Health Policy Reform: The 2008 Elections and Beyond

A new Commonwealth Fund supplement outlines the problems plaguing our health system, as well as policy options to address them. The supplement draws on the work of The Commonwealth Fund Commission on a High Performance Health System and other research as it addresses 10 key questions facing the nation. (March/April 2008, Columbia Journalism Review)

 

States Redefine Family Health Policies

In the past two years, 17 states have passed laws that let young adults stay on the family policy until their mid-20s. New age limits range from 24 in Delaware, Indiana and South Dakota, to 30 in New Jersey. Eleven states settled on age 25, according to the Commonwealth Fund, which conducts health research. (2/21/08, AP)

 

Snapshots: States Moving Ahead on Coverage Expansion

Despite the threat of an economic downturn, some states are moving forward with coverage expansions. In this issue, we highlight three states that have taken different approaches to reduce the number of uninsured in environments with limited public funds. (2/27/08, Commonwealth Fund)

Americans Are Falling Into Credit Card Debt To Pay For Health Care
Nearly two out of three Americans (62 percent) say they or their family could face hard financial times if they experience a serious illness, a new national poll finds. (2/5/08, Creditcards.com)

State of the States 2008: Rising to the Challenge

This report outlines 2007 efforts to expand health insurance coverage and find new tools to address health care reform at the state level. While many states made progress, key contributors to uninsurance remain unchecked and historically difficult policy questions remain unanswered. According to the report, steady increase in the number of uninsured has been a hallmark of the last decade, precipitated by unprecedented declines in employer-based coverage. In 2007 the trend continued and, like last year, was exacerbated when public program funding remained flat, failing yet again to offset new losses. This one-two punch hits children particularly hard, swelling the ranks of uninsured kids by 700,000 in 2006 and accounting for more than one-quarter of the growth in uninsured. (Feb 2008, RWJF)

 

Does Preventive Care Save Money? Health Economics and the Presidential Candidates

This report discusses the 2008 presidential candidates' health care proposals and preventive health measures included in the plans. According to the authors, while some preventive measures do save money, "broad generalizations made by many presidential candidates can be misleading" given that the majority of measures reviewed in the health economic literature do not generate savings. (2/14/08, NEJM)

State Legislative Health Care and Insurance Issues Report  

The report examines state lawmakers' efforts to expand access to care in 2007 through SCHIP, employer and individual premium subsidy programs, insurance market reforms and improvement in the transparency of quality and cost data. Based on 2007 health care debates, BCBSA predicts that lawmakers will continue their efforts and explore other ways to expand coverage, including increasing employer contributions and assisting lower-income employees and individuals in purchasing private insurance (2/13/08, BCBSA)

Uninsured and Medicaid Beneficiaries Often Receive Late Cancer Diagnoses
"The uninsured and those covered by Medicaid are more likely than those with private insurance to receive a diagnosis of cancer in late stages, often diminishing their chances of survival" according to a study by the American Cancer Society.  (2/18/08, New York Time)

The U.S. Economy And Changes In Health Insurance Coverage, 2000–2006

The number of uninsured Americans increased by 3.4 million between 2004 and 2006, despite improving economic conditions. In the first four years of the decade, during a period of economic recession, the number increased by 6.0 million. The dominant factor in both periods was a decline in employer-sponsored insurance coverage.” (2/20/08, Health Affairs)

 

America Will Be Spending One Fifth Of GDP On Healthcare By 2017
A new US government analysis estimates that the country's spending on national health will continue to grow steadily and reach nearly 20 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP) by 2017, outpacing economic growth and inflation. (2/25/08, CMS, in Health Affairs)

New Listings: Health Disparities 

 

The Fall and Rise of US Inequities in Premature Mortality: 1960-2002

Between 1960 and 2002, as US premature mortality and infant death rates declined in all county income quintiles, socioeconomic and racial/ethnic inequities in premature mortality and infant death (both relative and absolute) shrank between 1966 and 1980, especially for US populations of color; thereafter, the relative health inequities widened and the absolute differences barely changed in magnitude. (PLoS Med)

Increasingly Urban AI/AN Population Faces Poverty, Barriers to Health Care

A new report released in November by the Urban Indian Health Commission and funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation illuminated concerns over rising health disparities in American Indians and Alaska Natives (AI/AN) living in urban areas. Entitled "Invisible Tribes: Urban Indians and Their Health in A Changing World," the report details how nearly 67 per cent of the country's 4.1 million self-identified AI/AN now live in metropolitan areas and how many are poor with high rates of chronic ailments but lack the means to access health care. (2/25/08, US Medicine)

 

Hospitals Create Programs to Help Minority, Immigrant Populations Navigate Health System 

Hospitals are creating education programs that focus on the challenges minority and immigrant populations face in navigating the U.S. health system. The Holy Cross Hospital Ethnic Health Promotion Program, which uses community leaders -- including foreign-trained physicians who cannot practice medicine in the U.S. -- and "laymen to teach prevention in the immigrants' languages and in the context of their various cultures." The goal of the program is to reduce "costly emergency room admissions," according to the Post. Each culture has a different way of interacting with health providers, and the "concept of going to a doctor for checkups is novel to many minorities and immigrants," the Post reports. Many immigrants delay seeking care for conditions that would have been treatable through office visits, and sometimes patients are unaware that their condition is treatable because it would not have been in their home country (Feb 2008, Washington Post)

 

Recent Trend Of Growing US Disparities In Health Not Inevitable 

In the most comprehensive study to date addressing this debate, researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) found that, as overall health improved (as measured by a decline in mortality rates), inequities in health both shrank and widened between 1960 and 2002. The study demonstrates that the recent trend of growing U.S. disparities in health status is not inevitable. (2/26/08, PLoS Medicine)

The Fall and Rise of U.S. Inequities in Premature Mortality: 1960-2002
Heath inequities between rich and poor, as well as between different racial and ethnic groups, shrank in the U.S. from 1966 to 1980, then widened from 1980 to 2002, as measured in rates death in the young and in infants. Additionally, according to the study, if all people in the US had experienced similar health gains to the most advantaged groups (namely, whites in the highest income groups) between 1960 and 2002, 14% of premature deaths among whites and 30% of premature deaths among people of color would not have occurred. (Feb 2008, PLoS Medicine)

 

Business Group Wants To Reduce Health Disparities

The National Business Group on Health and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services are teaming up to help employers become aware of racial and ethnic inequities in health care delivery.  Health disparities are defined as persistent gaps between the health status of minorities and non-minorities in the United States. (2/12/08, Employee Benefit News)

 

New Listings: Other Health Issues  


The Effects of Childhood Stress on Health across the Lifespan

[T]he beneficial aspects of stress diminish when it is severe enough to over­whelm a child's ability to cope effectively. Intensive and prolonged stress can lead to a variety of short- and long-term negative health effects. It can disrupt early brain development and compromise functioning of the nervous and immune systems. In addition, childhood stress can lead to health problems later in life including alcoholism, depression, eating disorders, heart disease, cancer, and other chronic diseases. (CDC)

 

Primary Care Professionals: Recent Supply Trends, Projections, and Valuation of Services

The number of American doctors specializing in primary care in U.S. residency programs has decreased from 23,801 in 1995 to 22,146 in 2006, according to a recent report by the GAO.  Senator Bernie Sanders suggested the report reflects an increasing dependence on international providers for primary care and recommended Congress offer more scholarships to American students interested in specializing in primary care. (2/11/08, GAO)

 

2008 Federal Poverty Guidelines 
HHS has released its updated guidelines. (1/23/08, Federal Register)

 

Florida Reports

 

State of Breast Cancer Report Names Florida as One of the "Most Restrictive" for State Assisted Breast Cancer Treatment
Florida is part of a minority of states that still determines a woman ineligible for Medicaid-funded treatment unless she was screened through the state program, restricting access to care for those diagnosed elsewhere. The Florida Suncoast Affiliate of Susan G. Komen for the Cure is on a mission to lobby the state legislature to change laws affecting women seeking Medicaid-funded treatment for breast cancer. The affiliate also encourages survivors, their families and the Tampa Bay community to contact their local and state representatives, urging them to revisit the laws governing breast cancer treatment. The Report provides information on advancements in diagnosis, treatment and research that have made breast cancer a survivable disease for more than 2 million people in the United States. The report also explores cultural, social, educational and financial barriers – or disparities – that prevent many people from getting screening and receiving life-saving breast cancer care. (11/26/07, Susan Komen Fdn)

 

Florida Funding For Safety-Net Hospitals Could Be Affected By Proposed Property Tax Cuts 

Proposed cuts to Florida property taxes could reduce funding for safety-net hospitals in fiscal year 2009. The "low-income pool" of local and state tax dollars, which receives federal matching funds to reimburse hospitals that provide care to low-income and uninsured residents not covered by Medicaid, is mostly funded by ad valorem property tax revenue. Gov. Charlie Crist (R) and state lawmakers have proposed cutting those taxes this year. (1/3/08, Tampa Tribune) 

 

Too Great a Burden: Florida Families at Risk A Report on the Impact of Healthcare Costs on Florida Families

Over the past eight years, relentless growth in health insurance premiums and out-of-pocket costs has made spending on health care an increasing burden. For many Floridians, this means that health care is consuming an ever-growing share of their budgets, forcing them to make difficult sacrifices in other areas so they can make ends meet. And for many hard-working families, the burden of these health care costs has become too great to bear. (Dec 2007, Families USA)

 

Miami-Dade Health Profiles 2007

The Health Council of South Florida released the South Miami-Dade 2007 Health Profile in fall 2007. The South-Miami Dade Health Profile is the second in a series of area Health Profiles prepared for Miami-Dade County's Office of Countywide Healthcare Planning as part of the Building Better Communities General Obligations Bond Program which seeks to improve access to primary care throughout Miami-Dade County. A Health Profile of the Miami Beach Service Area was released in July, and one focusing on the North Miami-Dade Service Area will be released in December. Comparative data is included for Miami-Dade as a whole. The profiles provide a general overview of the population, health needs and resources available in the Service Areas.

 

(Florida) AHCA's Annual Report on Medicaid Reform

(delivered 10/1/07)

 

Annie E. Casey Foundation: 18th KIDS COUNT Data Book

This is the recently released new edition of this national and state-by-state effort to track the status of children in the United States. By providing policymakers and citizens with benchmarks of child well-being, the Foundation seeks to enrich local, state, and national discussions concerning ways to secure better futures for all children. Information is also available in an online database that enables users to generate custom graphs, maps, ranked lists, and state-by-state profiles. Both the book and the online database can be accessed on the website listed above.

 

2007 Miami-Dade County Community Health Report Card: Health improvement through benchmarking, priority setting and leadership engagement

Intended as a “call to action” for area health care advocates and policy makers, the report assesses how well systems and institutions are meeting residents’ needs. It analyzes and synthesizes 93 health indicators, examines pervasive continuing racial and ethnic disparities, and sets targets for ten priority need areas including access to health care and coverage.  

  

Florida Children’s Action Agenda 2007/2008 Available Online
Florida state Senators Nan Rich and Durell Peaden and Representatives Loranne Ausley and J.C. Planas have released the final recommendations of the 2006 Florida Children’s Summit.  The Summit participants learned a lot, and the next Summit in Fall 2008 will reflect that.  In 2008 they will spend substantially more time in workshops hashing out recommendations and will secure experienced workshop facilitators who are knowledgeable about the topics they are facilitating.  Also, they will institute a process to ensure that when leaving the 2008 Summit - or very shortly thereafter - all will know the Summit recommendations. 

 

Report looks at uninsured in Florida
This report from the Research Institute on Social and Economic Policy at FIU documents and breaks down Florida's uninsured figures, finding 18.5% of the total Florida population uninsured. The report looks at employment and industry data related to lack of coverage, and proposes a partial solution.

 

Medicaid

Providing Language Services in State and Local Health-Related Benefits Offices: Examples From the Field

Changing demographics, along with federal and state policies, have increased the need for effective models of providing language services to people with limited English proficiency. Many benefits offices, which help people apply for Medicaid and other public programs, lack knowledge and resources, creating barriers to access and care. To assess this environment, the National Health Law Program visited benefits offices and conducted telephone interviews and surveys. Certain strategies emerged as promising practices, defined as creative, effective methods replicable by others. These include written language access plans; recruiting bilingual staff for dual roles (e.g., front desk and interpreter positions); interpreter competency testing; training for interpreter staff; telephone language lines; community resources such as universities, local advocates, legal aid organizations, and refugee resettlement organizations; and tapping into underused funding sources. (1/18/08, Commonwealth Fund)

 

Medicaid Managed Care and the Distribution of Societal Costs for Persons With Severe Mental Illness

Managed care health plans for Medicaid patients with schizophrenia and other severe mental illnesses may result in lower costs to the Medicaid system, but lead to greater personal expenditures and higher caregiver burden for patients and their families, new research indicates. This cost pattern was revealed in an analysis of total societal costs for 628 patients in the Tampa Bay area. (1/15/08, The American Journal of Psychiatry)

 

Children's Health

Push by States To Expand SCHIP Coverage 
New reports describe aggressive efforts by states in the past year and a half to expand coverage to low-income children and their families, but the actions may be curtailed due a failure to reauthorize the State Children's Health Insurance Program and a deteriorating economic climate. (1/28/08, Kaiser Family Foundation)

 

Dental Decay: The Hidden Health Crisis
According to Maryland Senator Ben Cardin's staff, dental decay is now the most common chronic childhood disease in the US, affecting twenty percent of children aged 2 to 4, fifty percent of those aged 6 to 8, and nearly sixty percent of fifteen year olds. It is five times more common than asthma among school age children...Improper hygiene can increase a child's adult risk of having low birth-weight babies, developing heart disease, or suffering a stroke. (1/18/08,The Nation)  

Medicare 

First Rigorous Analysis Defines Impact Of Medicare Part D

The most thorough study to date of the impact of the Medicare Prescription Drug Benefit (Part D) found that this benefit led to a 13.1 percent decrease in out-of-pocket expenses for patients and a 5.9 percent increase in prescription use. (2/5/08, released early online, Annals of Internal Medicine)

 

Early retirees try to fill gap in health coverage

An article explored the difficulties of early retirees in getting access to health care coverage. U.S. residents are eligible for Social Security benefits at age 62. According to the American Academy of Actuaries, the median age for retirement in 2006 was 64 for men and 61.9 for women. However, unless they qualify for Medicare because of a disability, U.S. residents are not eligible for Medicare until they turn 65. While in previous decades early retirees relied on employer-sponsored health coverage, in 2007 only one-third of large employers provided retiree health benefits. Worse still, only 5 percent of employers with fewer than 200 employees provided health coverage to their retirees. According to AARP, about 16 percent of people ages 50 to 64 are uninsured. (1/14/08, USA Today)

 

Do We Know If Medicare Advantage Special Needs Plans Are Special

This report describes the history of special needs plans, how they fit into the larger Medicare Advantage marketplace, and what information could help assess whether these plans are performing differently from other Medicare Advantage plans. (1/23/08, Kaiser Family Foundation)

 

The Value of Extra Benefits Offered by Medicare Advantage Plans in 2006 Kaiser Family Foundation

compares the value of extra benefits provided by private fee-for-service and other types of Medicare Advantage plans, as MA enrollment continues to increase. The analysis confirms that MA plans on average provided extra benefits above what traditional Medicare covered in 2006. The analysis also finds that the value of extra benefits were lower for private fee-for-service plans than for other MA plans in the same year (1/30/08, Kaiser Family Foundation)

Federal Budget/Health Care
 

The Dubious Priorities of the President’s Budget

"The President's budget would provide more tax cuts heavily skewed to the most well-off while cutting vital services for low- and moderate-income Americans, generating large deficits, and increasing the strain on states already confronting budget problems as a result of the economic downturn. The budget reflects misguided priorities that would leave the American people more vulnerable in a number of ways...." (2/4/08, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities)

 

20 States (including Florida) Face Total Budget Shortfall of at Least $34 Billion in 2009; Eight Others Expect Budget Problems

More than half of states anticipate budget problems, according to this updated analysis of state fiscal conditions.  (1/15/08, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities)

Health Insurance, Health Care Costs

 

Envisioning the Future: The 2008 Presidential Candidates' Health Reform Proposals
This report analyzes the health care proposals of eight Democratic and Republican 2008 presidential candidates. Their approaches to health insurance reform fall into three categories: 1) proposals that emphasize tax incentives for obtaining insurance through the individual market; 2) proposals that build on existing private and public group insurance with shared responsibility for financing coverage; and 3) proposals that aim to cover everyone through publicly sponsored insurance systems like Medicare. The report examines differences among the proposals, and evaluates them against key principles like affordability, provision of essential services, financial protection, streamlined administration, and fair financing. (1/15/08, Commonwealth Fund)

 

A Progress Report On State Health Access Reform

identify thirty-nine states that have enacted laws in at least one access category since 2006. At least thirteen states have begun processes to enact comprehensive reforms to cover at least half of their uninsured residents. Key activities involve coverage expansions for uninsured children and for uninsured adults; regulatory changes in small-group and individual insurance markets; and individual and employer mandates. The future extent and durability of this wave are uncertain. (1/29/08, Health Affairs)


Commonwealth Fund/Modern Healthcare Health Care Opinion Leaders Survey
When asked to consider the health reform proposals of the 2008 presidential candidates, most leaders in the fields of health care and health policy favor plans that build on the nation's current mixed system of public and private group insurance. Key elements of the mixed private-public proposals--which have been put forward by senators Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama and former Senator John Edwards--received widespread support from the survey respondents, who represent a diverse range of professional and ideological perspectives. More than four of five, for example, said they favor a requirement that all individuals obtain health insurance, with premium assistance available for low- and moderate-income Americans. Most respondents also support requiring employers to either offer coverage to employees or pay a percentage of their payroll to help finance expanded coverage. (1/28/08, Commonwealth Fund)

 

The Amazing Noncollapsing U.S. Health Care System — Is Reform Finally at Hand?

Amid the myriad social transformations, corporate reorganizations, and policy innovations that have shaken the U.S. health care system, one great, puzzling constant endures. For roughly 40 years, health care professionals, policymakers, politicians, and the public have concurred that the system is careening toward collapse because it is indefensible and unsustainable, a study in crisis and chaos. This forecast appeared soon after Medicare and Medicaid were enacted and has never retreated. Such disquieting continuity amid change raises an intriguing question: If the consensus is so incontestable, why has the system not already collapsed? Though deeply dysfunctional by most standards, the U.S. health care system remains disturbingly stable. That no one really likes it does not translate into the inevitability of real change. (1/24/08, NEJM)

 

Do Individual Mandates Matter?
In this brief we conclude that, absent a single payer system, it is not possible to achieve universal coverage without an individual mandate. The evidence is strong that voluntary measures alone would leave large numbers of people uninsured. (1/29/08, Urban Institute)

 

Economic Costs of Diabetes in the U.S. in 2007
The national cost of diabetes in the U.S. in 2007 exceeds $174 billion. This estimate includes $116 billion in excess medical expenditures attributed to diabetes, as well as $58 billion in reduced national productivity. People with diagnosed diabetes, on average, have medical expenditures that are approximately 2.3 times higher than the expenditures would be in the absence of diabetes.(1/23/08, American Diabetes Association)

 

Uninsured and Dying Because of It: Updating the Institute of Medicine Analysis on the Impact of Uninsurance on Mortality

In 2002, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) estimated that 18,000 Americans died in 2000 because they were uninsured. Since then, the number of uninsured has grown. Based on the IOM’s methodology and subsequent Census Bureau estimates of insurance coverage, 137,000 people died from 2000 through 2006 because they lacked health insurance, including 22,000 people in 2006” (Jan 2008, Urban Institute)

 

Financial Burden of Health Care, 2001-2004

Analysis of data from the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS) shows that rising out-of-pocket expenses and stagnant incomes increased health spending's financial burden for families in 2001-2004, especially for the privately insured. (January/February 2008, Health Affairs)

     

Community Health Centers Feeling Pinch of Serving a Growing Uninsured Population

Despite record-setting federal funding for community health centers--which provide care largely for underserved people--the nation's 1,100 centers are feeling the strain of providing quality care for the growing uninsured patient population.  (1/3/08, Commonwealth Fund)

   

Health Disparities

 

Unequal Health Outcomes in the United States

A broad coalition of over 25 national health advocacy and civil rights organizations released a report to the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, describing racial inequality in health care, health outcomes, and environmental health in the U.S. Through extensive research, this comprehensive report demonstrates that inequity in the health care infrastructure and in social and environmental conditions is the cause behind health disparities. (January 2008, report to the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination)

   

Report: Black, Hispanic children making gains 

Black and Hispanic children have made significant gains in health, safety and income over the past two decades, narrowing gaps between them and white children, according to a pioneering report. They still fare worse overall than whites, but they're catching up in several areas. This recent study found that health care disparities between white and minority children have narrowed. Researchers looked at data records of children from 1985 to 2004 that were based on 28 measures, including health, income and education. According to the report, the number of white, black and Hispanic children with health insurance has increased since 1985. The growth in health insurance coverage is attributed to the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), a federal government program that began in 1997.But health insurance coverage is not the only disparity affecting minority children. The study found that black children in 2004 faced a 49 percent disadvantage to white children in overall health, down from 56 percent in 1985. Hispanic children faced a 1 percent disadvantage to whites in 2004, compared with 14 percent in 1985. (January 2008)

 

Health Characteristics of the Asian Adult Population: United States, 2004-2006
In general, non-Hispanic Asian adults were least likely to be current smokers, be obese, have hypertension, delay or not receive medical care because of cost, be tested for HIV, or be in fair or poor health compared with non-Hispanic white, non-Hispanic black, non-Hispanic AIAN, or Hispanic adults. (1/22/08, CDC)

 

Neighborhood Deprivation and Preterm Birth Among Non-Hispanic Women in the US
A significant association was found between neighborhood deprivation and risk of preterm birth. (January 2008, American Journal of Epidemiology) 

 

Waits To See an Emergency Department Physician: U.S. Trends And Predictors, 1997-2004
Increases in wait times of 4.1 percent per year occurred for all patients but were especially pronounced for patients with AMI[ acute myocardial infarction], for whom waits increased 11.2 percent per year. Blacks, Hispanics, women, and patients seen in urban EDs waited longer than other patients did. (1/15/08, Health Affairs)

Health, United States, 2007

is a compilation of more than 150 health tables. Nearly one in five U.S. adults - more than 40 million people - report they do not have adequate access to the health care they need, according to the annual report on the nation's health released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The report also contains a special section focusing on access to care, which shows that nearly 20 percent of adults reported that they needed and did not receive one or more key services in the past year including medical care

 

America's Health Rankings: A Call to Action for People and Their Communities
This report ranked states' overall health based on 20 well-being factors, including poverty levels for children, violent crime, obesity, and racial and ethnic health disparities. The report indicated that health disparities remain between minorities and whites. In addition, the report shows that Hispanics have the lowest percentage of access to routine dental care and colon cancer screenings. (November, 2007, United Health Fdn., American Public Health Assn., Partnership for Prevention)

 

Other Health Issues 

 

Waits to See an Emergency Department Physician: U.S. Trends and Predictors, 1997-2004

The average wait time for heart attack patients at American emergency rooms rose 150 percent, from 8 to 20 minutes, between 1997 and 2004, according to a recent study Researchers attributed the increase to an overall rise in emergency room visits, emergency room closures and barriers to routine or outpatient care (1/15/08, Health Affairs)

 

Health Literacy Practices in Primary Care Settings: Examples from the Field

Low health literacy is widespread among U.S. patients, yet limited research has been done to assess the effects of health literacy practices designed to combat the problem, particularly among safety-net providers in primary care settings. This report presents findings from a 2005 study in which the Association of Clinicians for the Underserved first did an online survey of health care facilities across the country and then followed it up with visits to five selected sites for staff and patient interviews. The study identified five health literacy practices that staff considered especially valuable for their group's patients and potentially applicable to other clinics: a team effort, beginning at the front desk; use of standardized communication tools; use of plain language, face-to-face communication, pictorials, and educational materials; clinicians partner with patients to achieve goals; and organizational commitment to create an environment where health literacy is not assumed. (1/11/08, Commonwealth Fund)

 

6th Annual HealthGrades Hospital Quality and Clinical Excellence Study

identifies hospitals in the top five percent nationally in terms of mortality and complication rates for 27 procedures and diagnoses. Patients treated at top-rated hospitals nationwide are nearly one-third less likely to die, on average, than those admitted to all other hospitals, according to a study released today by HealthGrades, the leading independent healthcare ratings organization. Patients who undergo surgery at these high-performing hospitals also have an average five percent lower risk of complications during their stay, researchers found. (Jan 2008, HealthGrades)  
 
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