Second National
Conference on
Quality Health Care for Culturally Diverse Populations:
Strategy and Action for Communities, Providers, and a Changing Health
System
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Second National
Conference on |
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| October 11-14, 2000 |
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Wed., October 11 | Th., October 12 | Fr., October 13 | Sat., October 14 | Poster Presentations | ||||||||
V-A: Advocacy And Policy Development For Assuring Cultural Competence In Health Care, Part IThe current administration is taking important steps towards improving access for all federally run agencies and federally funded organizations for limited English speaking individuals and creating opportunities for advocates to take advantage of the supportive climate. This session will provide an introduction and overview of the various federal tools, such as Title VI, including the new Limited English Proficiency Guidance issued by the Office of Civil Right of the US Department of Health and Human Services (OCR) and other federal statutes such as the Hill-Burton Act, which advocates can use to assure that health care services meet the needs of culturally diverse populations. Presenters will provide basic information about the administrative enforcement of Title VI, as well as litigation strategies related to federal statutes and regulations. Participants will then have the opportunity to use the information provided to work through hypotheticals using the various advocacy tools discussed. Several models of enforcing Title VI to ensure language access assistance will be presented, including recent OCR settlements involving the Maine Medical Center in Maine and Rancho Los Amigos Rehabilitation Hospital in Los Angeles, CA. Both OCR and community based advocates hope that the language assistance program negotiated in the Maine Medical Center Agreement will become a model for other health care facilities throughout the country. A survey of other regions who have filed OCR Title VI complaints on behalf of limited English speaking patients will also be discussed. Challenges that will be discussed include the roles of patients or clients, community based organizations, and legal advocates in filing administrative Title VI complaints with the OCR and Title VI litigation, and the issues which may arise during the negotiation process between advocates, health care facilities and OCR. We hope that by the end of the session, participants will be able to identify problems facing their local limited English speaking (LEP) population and understand how to use the federal statutes and regulations to enforce LEP patients' rights for language assistance in health care. Heng L. Foong received the BA in Communication Arts in New York. She's been serving as Program Director of PALS for Health (Pacific Asian Language Services) since 1995, when the program's focus was HIV/AIDS related medical interpretations In Los Angeles County. PALS currently has offices in Los Angeles and Orange counties, provides interpretation in all areas of health care, offers in-language breast health and consumer health education, and advocates for language rights in health care. Heng offers cultural training to health care providers and has presented at national conferences, health care and academic institutions. She is also active on various committees including Coalition Against Tuberculosis Los Angeles County, Northeast Cluster Diversity Council, Partnered for Progress - API Task Force and is also a member of the API Advisory Council to the Outreach/Public Education Subcommittee of Breast and Cervical Advisory Council, California Department of Health Services.
Deeana Jang, JD is a Policy Analyst at the Asian and Pacific Islander American Health Forum, a national policy and advocacy organization working to improve the health status of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders. She has worked primarily on California health policy issues including access to care. This past year, she coordinated APIAHF's Health Interpretation and Linguistic Access Project, a project funded by The California Endowment to develop a public policy agenda to support health interpretation and language rights for limited English-proficient health care consumers. Through this project, she is working with the California Pan-Ethnic Health Network, the National Health Law Program, the California Primary Care Association and the Latino Coalition for a Healthy California on federal and state policy initiatives to improve linguistic access to health care. She recently started working as a Senior Civil Rights Analyst at the Office for Civil Rights at the US Department of Health and Human Services. She received her BA from Oberlin College and her JD from King Hall School of Law, University of California at Davis.
Jane Perkins, JD, MPH is the Director of Legal Affairs at the National Health Law Program, a public interest law firm working to improve health care for low income people, minorities, children, the elderly, and individuals with disabilities. She is also an Adjunct Associate Professor at the University of North Carolina School of Social Work in Chapel Hill, where she teaches health policy. Ms. Perkins focuses on health care for poor children, managed care, Medicaid, and discrimination in the delivery of health care. She has authored and co-authored numerous articles on the legal aspects of these issues and has engaged in extensive policy and litigation advocacy. She also provides legal assistance and training to consumer advocates and health care consumers. Ms. Perkins was the primary author of the Kaiser Family Foundation Report: Ensuring Linguistic Access in Heath Care Settings: Legal Rights and responsibilities.
Karin Wang, JD is a Staff Attorney at the Asian Pacific American Legal Center (APALC) in Los Angeles, where she directs APALC's Immigrant Welfare Project. Her work involves state and local policy advocacy around immigrant welfare and health issues; monitoring of local welfare and health programs; and training and assisting Asian/Pacific Islander organizations on immigrant welfare and health issues. Prior to joining APALC, Karin graduated from UC-Berkeley's Boalt Hall School of Law and practiced with the law firm of Morrison & Foerster in San Francisco. Currently, Karin is Co-Chair of the Asian Pacific Policy and Planning Council Health Committee and a member of the Los Angeles County health department Cultural & Linguistic Standards Working Group and the state welfare department Civil Rights Task Force. Karin is also a co-counsel to a 1999 Title VI civil rights complaint filed against the Los Angeles County welfare department, regarding the county's failure to provide equal access to the county's welfare-to-work and other programs for limited-English speaking recipients.
Doreena Wong is a staff attorney at the National Health Law Program, a non-profit, civil rights legal organization working for justice in health care on behalf of low-income individuals and families to promote access to quality health care and an accountable health care system that serves the needs of low-income children, women, people of color, immigrants, the elderly, and people with disabilities. She provides support to the Health Consumer Alliance Project in California, as well as advocates for improved health care access for immigrants and the uninsured, and for culturally and linguistically appropriate health care for limited English proficient populations. She has participated on the National Advisory Committee for the Development of Culturally and Linguistically Appropriate Services in Health Care and the Policy and Research Committee of the National Council on Interpretation in Health Care. Before coming to NHeLP, she worked in the areas of civil rights for a number of public interest organizations.
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essentials | models
and practices | policy |
legal issues | networking |
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Diversity Rx is sponsored by: |
 The National Conference of State Legislatures |
 Resources for Cross Cultural Health Care |
 Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation |
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