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Medicare News
National Effort to Improve Health of Hispanic
Elderly Begins in Eight Cities
More Medicare participation and diabetes care are
major targets
 Aug. 24, 2007 Eight communities mostly large
metropolitan markets have been selected to participate in a Health and
Human Services pilot initiative aimed at improving the health and
quality of life for Hispanic senior citizens.
The metropolitan areas of Chicago, Ill., Houston,
Texas; Los Angeles, Calif., McAllen, Texas; Miami, Fla.; New York, NY;
San Antonio, Texas; and San Diego, Calif., have been selected to take
part in the pilot project, according to Carolyn Clancy, Director of the
Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, and Josefina G. Carbonell,
HHS Assistant Secretary for Aging.
The initiative is based on findings from the
National Healthcare Disparities Report 2006 prepared by the AHRQ. The
report said persistent and growing health disparities exist among
Hispanic/Latino elders compared to the majority, non-Hispanic white
elderly population.
Hispanics comprise the largest minority group in
the United States and the number of older Hispanics is growing rapidly.
By 2050, Hispanics will be the fastest growing population in the 65 and
over age group, reaching 15 million.
Historically, there have been a number of
financial, organizational, cultural and linguistic barriers to providing
appropriate health and social services to Hispanic elders which
exacerbate their growing health disparities, according to the report.
This project is a collaboration designed to help
communities work together to develop coordinated strategies for
improving Hispanic elders access to important benefits. It was named
Improving Hispanic Elders Health: Community Partnerships for
Evidence-Based Solutions, when launched earlier this year by HHS
Secretary Mike Leavitt.
Some of these benefits include the new Medicare
prescription drug and prevention benefits as well as low-cost
evidence-based prevention programs such as the Stanford University
Chronic Disease Self-Management Program and other initiatives that can
reduce health disparities.
We are very enthusiastic about the level of
commitment already being generated by these eight communities. Each
brings a wealth of information and experience in addressing health
disparities for elders in their communities and a strong desire to make
a difference, said Carbonell.
What we learn through this partnership will be
shared with other communities across the nation.
Diabetes a Major Target
Each community team will be developing and
implementing a plan for addressing one or more health disparity. In
their applications, most of the communities identified diabetes as a
primary issue of concern for their population.
Hispanic elders have a higher incidence of certain
chronic diseases such as diabetes, heart disease and arthritis, than the
rest of the U.S. population. Twenty-one percent of Hispanic elders have
diabetes compared to 14.3 percent of non-Hispanic whites.
Hispanic elders are much more likely to be
hospitalized for diabetes due to poor diabetes control, and they are far
less likely to receive pneumonia or flu shots or participate in cancer
screening services.
The eight teams will participate in a workshop
scheduled for Oct. 23-25, 2007, at the Renaissance Houston Hotel
Greenway Plaza in Houston. This is the kick-off event to a year-long
learning network that will help them to share strategies, tactics and
data with each other and with leading researchers and other experts in
the field.
The community teams will consist of representatives
from the local area agency on aging, Hispanic community organizations,
local public health agency, aging service providers, the medical
community, and health services research organizations.
This pilot project will help these communities
enhance the health and well-being of their Hispanic elderly population
by encouraging the use of evidence-based information and the new
benefits available under Medicare, said Clancy.
Our ultimate goal is to eliminate health care
disparities for Hispanic elders and other vulnerable populations.
The five agencies participating in this HHS
initiative are the Administration on Aging, AHRQ, Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and
Health Resources and Services Administration. Each agency is lending
its support and expertise to this important initiative in order to
improve the quality of life for Americas Hispanic elders.
For more details about Improving Hispanic Elders
Health: Community Partnerships for Evidence-Based Solutions, visit
http://www.academyhealth.org/ahrq/elders.
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