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NHMA NET APRIL 2009

Submitted by Elena Rios MD on Wed, 04/01/2009 - 01:00

  

NATIONAL HISPANIC MEDICAL ASSOCIATION - NHMA NET - April 2009
 
WASHINGTON DC UPDATE
 
HEALTH CARE REFORM 2009 – CONGRESS AND SENATE MOMENTUM
 
House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Henry Waxman declared at the Families USA Conference in January - the need to build a system of universal coverage on the existing system of employer-sponsored health insurance, as well as Medicare, Medicaid and the State Children's Health Insurance Programs. He called the principles espoused by President Obama for a health overhaul exactly the right approach. Obama would build on the existing system, allowing those with employer coverage to keep what they have while also having the alternative of a public program of coverage.
"If we're going to succeed we've got to find common ground. We have to recognize that any successful approach has to reject the false dichotomy of everyone in a government plan, or everyone left to the mercies of a market-based approach. I believe that we must have a significant role for private insurance. But I believe that it's critically important that we have a public program alternative."
Senator Kennedy’s Office and Appointed Senate Working Committees Report out to 200 Stakeholders 2nd week of March – Sen. Harkin – Prevention; Sen. McCulsky – Quality and Sen. Bingamon – Health Delivery –their staff reported on their call for input, hearings and strategies for health care reform over the spring with the hope of legislation for July. Working groups also reported on the workforce needed for primary care, insurance reforms to decrease cost and increase outreach/access to new insured persons, quality measures, comparative effectiveness research needed for evidence based medicine.
NHMA president & CEO has been meeting with Racial/Ethnic Health Disparities Coalition and Senate staff writing the bill about Health Disparities priorities
WHITE HOUSE HEALTH CARE REFORM MOMENTUM
NHMA Members have provided regular input to the White House ---we provided the White House input from over 50 physicians and colleagues on the Community Priorities Report (on the White House website) and the Nominations for Administration leadership positions in health to the Transition Team in December and to the Presidential Personnel Office, CHC and NHLA and our partner minority health coalitions to increase our Latino numbers in public service to serve our communities. 
Physician Meeting at the White House March 25th --- over 50 medical associations and deans -- consensus for quality guidelines, payment incentives, primary care workforce, evidence based medicine ---NHMA brought up diversity in the workforce and leadership diversity in our institutions.
NHMA Health Reform Input – from the National Summit we did last year with OMH and we will develop new strategies from our members and colleagues and partners through our portal online forum during April. These will be presented at the Hispanic Health Reform Capitol Hill Briefing being planned for Congressional Hispanic Caucus Health Care Task Force new Chairwoman, Congresswoman Lucille Roybal Allard on May 5th .
CHILDREN’S HEALTH INSURANCE PROGRAM LAW SIGNED IN FEBRUARY
NHMA invited to the White House to see the historic law signed to pass CHIP, established in 1997, for the second decade. The law eliminated the 5 year waiting time for legal immigrants to apply for the insurance, which was a ten year advocacy victory. The law provides coverage for 11 million children from working families and for 7 million Americans who've lost their jobs in this downturn and a childhood obesity demonstration project.
 
WHITE HOUSE HEALTH CARE REFORM SUMMIT, Mar. 5, 2009 
President Obama invited 175 Congressmen and Senators and Key Stakeholers, including NHMA, NCLR presidents to the White House to begin the discussion on health care reform priorities. He said “But I'm here today, and I believe you are here today, because this time is different. This time, the call for reform is coming from the bottom up and from all across the spectrum, from doctors, from nurses, from patients, from unions, from businesses, from hospitals, health care providers, community groups. It's coming from mayors and governors, from legislatures. Democrats. Republicans. All who are racing ahead of Washington to pass bold health care initiatives on their own. This time, there is no debate about whether all Americans should have quality affordable health care. The only question is how.
And the purpose of this forum is to start answering that question. To determine how we lower costs for everyone, improve quality for everyone and expand coverage to all Americans.
Now, as we work to determine the details of health care reform, we won't always see eye to eye. We may disagree and disagree strongly about particular measures. But we know that there are plenty of areas of agreement as well, and that should serve as the starting points for our work.
We can all agree that if we want to bring down skyrocketing costs, we'll need to modernize our system and invest in prevention. We can agree that if we want greater accountability and responsibility we have to ensure that people aren't overcharged for prescription drugs or discriminated against for preexisting conditions, and we need to eliminate fraud, waste and abuse in government programs. I think most of us would agree that, if we want to cover all Americans, we can't make the mistake of trying to fix what isn't broken.
Congressman Becerra called for all Americans to be included, including immigrants. Congresswoman Lucille Roybal Allard called for diversity in the workforce. Elena Rios recognized one of the greatest changes since the Clinton reform effort was the expansion of the melting pot of America to all regions of the US, and the need to include culturally responsive prevention and treatment programs in this reform effort.
(see health reform.gov for the White House Summit Report and the subsequent forums across the country and to provide input directly to the White House)
AMERICAN RECOVERY AND REINVESTMENT ACT - COMPREHENSIVE HEALTH CARE REFORM DOWN PAYMENT OF $600 billion PLUS THE FOLLOWING:
$19.5 billion - Health IT, $1 billion - Prevention Programs, $2.7 billion - Community Health Center Expansion to 1.9 million, $1.1 billion -Comparative Effectiveness Research – AHRQ and NIH, $1 billion primary care training and diversity (HCOP and COE each received $20 million), $150 million health insurance coverage for the States, $4.1 billion to Indian Health Service.
 
FIRST OBAMA BUDGET CALLS FOR MAJOR HEALTH PROGRAMS - moving to Conference Committee over next week after being approved in both the Congress and the Senate in March.
New Administration Leadership:
 
Mary Wakefield, PhD, RN, Associate Dean for Rural Health, Univ. of North Dakota School of Medicine, Director of the Center for Rural Health at the UND, will be the next Administrator of HRSA
Chief of Staff for United States Senator Kent Conrad and as Legislative Assistant and Chief of Staff to Senator Quentin Burdick. Dr. Wakefield has served as a member of the Medicare Payment Advisory
Commission and the Department of Veterans Affairs' Special Medical Advisory Group. She served as Chair of the Institute of Medicine (IOM) Committee on Health Care Quality for Rural America.

Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis, former Congresswoman and Chair, Health Task Force of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus has a commitment to working families and health care and issues that will be key to improving their future health and lifestyle.
 
 
NHMA PROGRAM REPORT
NICHD Health Education Update

The National Institutes of Health Invites Medical and Scientific Societies to Join New Child and Maternal Health Education Program (including NHMA)

The Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) is launching a new National Child and Maternal Health Education Program (NCMHEP) in an effort to address the challenges and opportunities of applying new knowledge from evidence based research into practice.

Recently, the NICHD invited representatives from more than 25 organizations in the field of maternal and child health to preview and comment on the new education program. At a meeting in Washington, D.C., these leaders provided insights and guidance that will inform the structure and operations of the NCMHEP during its initial planning stages.

The NICHD’s education program will provide a forum to review, translate and disseminate new knowledge on maternal and child health gleaned from evidence-based research.  Healthcare providers, at-risk patient groups and strategic publics are the key audiences.  The program will identify significant unresolved challenges in the maternal-child health arena and develop novel ways of applying the new knowledge to the issue.  One significant topic will be addressed at a time, over the course of 18-24 months.  The topics will be identified based on their prominence in the field, identifiable knowledge gaps and associated scientific advances.   Preterm birth and the health problems associated with low birth weight will be the first topic to be addressed by the program.

Prospective topics include: pediatric obesity; infant mortality; and environmental influences on child health and development.

“We look forward to collaborating with key stakeholders in creating inventive ways to translate and communicate new knowledge that can improve the health of mothers and their children,” said Dr. Duane Alexander, Director of the NICHD. “The impact of this program lies in the collaboration of the stakeholders.  Inviting leading organizations in the field of maternal and child health to help shape the program in these initial stages is the first step in fostering that relationship.”

The formal launch of the NCMHEP is planned for the summer of 2009.   Initially, the NCMHEP will convene a Coordinating Committee of representatives from professional medical and scientific societies and federal agencies   Committee members will work to address key challenges in the field using new knowledge gained from current research findings.  They will then work to effectively communicate this new knowledge to various audiences by creating and disseminating educational products.

All questions about the program or requests for more information can be directed to nmchep@mail.nih.gov.

NHMA CONFERENCE “Building a Health Care Workforce for the Hispanic Community – BROOKLYN, NYC – MAR. 19-22

Huge success with expert speakers and
State and Federal officials opened up the conference –Dr. Daines, NYS Commissioner message about the importance of prevention shift needed; Dr. Hughes from the White House and HHS discussing the importance of NHMA and participating in health reform, diversity in the workforce drumbeat need; Dr. Boufford and panelists discussed the importance of workforce needs – aging, cultural competence training and diversity in the pipeline, nursing and integrative care.
 
J.Macy Foundation president addressed the history and advancement of diversity programs from the foundation and the current and future opportunities as the expansion of the workforce occurs ….
 
NCMHD - Dr. Ruffin and OMH - Dr. Graham addressed the key health disparities research and strategies needed for Hispanic workforce for the future working with their offices and NHMA
 
Dr. Sullivan, Keynote at the Awards Dinner ---challenged us to continuing to build regional alliances that are held accountable to the public’s needs for health workforce. Dr. Clancy, Keynote also challenged us to participate with AHRQ in health research in comparative effectiveness to develop new evidence that works for our communities.
 
Awardees inspired us all ----starting with the Career Story of Barriers that did not hold down a medical doctor dream come true from Dr. Ben Medina; Larry Lucas and our Fellow and our presidents ---all inspired the doctors and students to pursue the best we can become ---LEADERS for Health of Hispanics.


CMS HISPANIC RESEARCH GRANTS 2009 -  The purpose of the Hispanic grant program is to implement Hispanic American health services research activities to meet the needs of diverse CMS beneficiary populations. The grant program is designed to: 1) Encourage health services and health disparities researchers to pursue research issues which impact Hispanic Medicare, Medicaid, and State Children's Health Insurance Program health services issues, 2) conduct outreach activities to apprise Hispanic researchers of funding availability to conduct research-related issues affecting Hispanic American communities to expand the pool of applicants applying for such grants, 3) assist CMS in implementing its mission focusing on health care quality and improvement for its beneficiaries, 4) support extramural research in health care capacity development activities for the Hispanic American communities, 5) promote research that will be aimed at developing a better understanding of health care services issues pertaining to Hispanic Americans, and 6) foster an network for communication and collaboration regarding Hispanic health care issues. Eligible researchers may request $100,000 per year for up to two (2) years for these grants.
 
SAVE THE DATE: NHMA 14th ANNUAL CONFERNCE: MARRIOTT WARDMAN HOTEL, WASHINGTON, DC - MARCH 25-28, 2010
 JOIN THE NHMA ---we need to build our networks to advance health of our communities as well as to advance the careers of our members!
See www.nhmamd.org for more information.
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