Committee Mission
Enhance the health and well being of Hispanics living in the state of Maryland by developing, implementing, and/or monitoring strategies that respond to the health-related needs of Hispanics in Maryland through the establishment of partnerships with key stakeholders including public administrators, service providers, policy makers, legislators, and Hispanic community leaders.
2009 Goals
- Ensure the availability of culturally and linguistically competent health services by working with the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene to guarantee the provision and access to quality Limited English Proficient Hispanics.
- Improve current processes in place for enrollment of eligible individuals to the Maryland Health Insurance Program and increase the use of medical services under this program.
- Enhance the collection, analysis, and reporting of health data for Hispanics by the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, local health departments and managed care organizations.
2008 Accomplishments
- Partnered with Bienvenidos a Delmarva, a network of agencies providing social services to Eastern Shore immigrants, in furtherance of the Committee’s goal of improving Limited English Proficiency (LEP) services.
- Co-Sponsored the 4th Annual Ama Tu Vida Health Festival at the Wheaton Regional Park in September, 2008, an event that drew more than 3,000 participants for health education services, health screenings and referrals to health-related services.
- Co-Sponsored a Statewide Workshop on Latino Health which provided capacity building activities for providers in the areas of data collection, access to health care, cultural and linguistic competency, health promotion, and community organizing and leadership.
- Collaborated with the Latino Health Initiative at the Montgomery County Department of Health and Human Services to provide a best-practices model to the Governor’s New Americans Council for the incorporation of foreign-trained health professionals into the health workforce.
- Began exploring policy options for the provision of portable Medicaid coverage for eligible Maryland migrant farm workers’ children.
Overview
A leading challenge highlighted in the Commission’s 2007 Annual Report was the community’s lack of access to continuous, culturally and linguistically competent health care due to the combination of a high rate of Hispanics lacking health insurance and the prohibitively costly, complex medical system. The solution to this challenge requires a bilateral approach that encompasses both government reform and community effort.
Governor Martin O’Malley, based on the federal government’s health care reforms, has taken steps to increase the number of insured Marylanders. In July 2008, the Governor signed the Working Families and Small Business Health Coverage Act, expanding healthcare access to small businesses with less than ten employees and parents at 116 percent of the federal poverty level. To expand coverage to the most vulnerable populations, the Governor signed legislation to expand dental benefits to children, and to help close the coverage gap in the Federal government’s Medicare Part D Prescription Drug Program (better known as the “Donut Hole”), funded an expansion of prescription drug assistance for seniors. The Commission’s Health Committee, in an effort to provide recommendations to further expand coverage where currently possible, has also begun to explore policy options for portability of Medicaid coverage for children of migrant farm workers.
The central objective of the Commission’s Health Committee has been to increase access and improve the healthcare system for Hispanics in Maryland. The Committee determined that the most comprehensive approach to achieve this goal was to facilitate navigation of the system for individuals, and increase the cultural and linguistic competency of service providers. Another key finding in the course of its first year was the array of healthcare service needs by Hispanic communities across the state. The variety of service needs ranged from maximizing cultural competency where a large, established Hispanic community is served, to building capacity and understanding of the state's Limited English Proficiency policy for providers serving a burgeoning Hispanic immigrant community. Given this range of healthcare service needs, the Health Committee has engaged and solidified its partnership with the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene and identified technical advisors and other service providers statewide to increase access and continuity of quality care.