Healthcare Equality and Accountability Act

Bill: 108-s-1833
Sponsor: Sen. Daschle, Thomas A. [D-SD]
Introduced: 2003-11-06 in the Senate
Policy area: Health
Subjects: AIDS (Disease)
Access to health care
Accident prevention
Agricultural labor
Agriculture and Food
Aid to dependent children
Alaska
Alcoholism
Ambulatory care
American Samoa
Asthma
Authorization
Autoimmune diseases
Block grants
Boundaries
Building construction
Cancer
Cardiovascular diseases
Cash welfare block grants
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
Child health
Chronically ill
Clinics
Community health services
Congress
Congressional investigations
Congressional oversight
Congressional reporting requirements
Construction industries
Construction workers
Continuing education
Cost effectiveness
Cost of living adjustments
Dental care
Department of Health and Human Services
Diabetes
Drug abuse
Drug abuse treatment
Drugs
Economics and Public Finance
Education
Education of the disadvantaged
Elementary and secondary education
Emergency Management
Emergency medicine
Environmental Protection
Environmental justice
Environmental research
Executive reorganization
Families
Federal advisory bodies
Federal aid to child health services
Federal aid to education
Federal aid to health facilities
Federal aid to research
Federal employees
Federally-guaranteed loans
Fetal alcohol syndrome
Food and Drug Administration (FDA)
Food stamps
Genetic research
Genetics
Government Operations and Politics
Government paperwork
Government publicity
Guam
Hawaii
Hawaiians
Health education
Health facilities
Health insurance
Higher education
Hispanic Americans
Home care services
Homeless
Hospital care
Hospitals
Housing and Community Development
Human immunodeficiency viruses
Immigrant health
Immigration
Indian medical care
Indigenous peoples
Infant mortality
Infrastructure
Intergovernmental fiscal relations
Labor and Employment
Latin America
Law
Licenses
Long-term care
Mammography
Maternal health services
Medicaid
Medical education
Medical personnel
Medical research
Medical screening
Medical statistics
Medical tests
Medically uninsured
Medicare
Mental health services
Mexico
Migrant labor
Minimum wages
Minorities
Minority education
Minority health
Northern Mariana Islands
Nurse practitioners
Obesity
Pacific Islanders
Parents
Physicians' assistants
Poor children
Pregnant women
Preventive medicine
Public health personnel
Puerto Rico
Quality of care
Research centers
Rural health
Scholarships
School health programs
School lunch program
Science, Technology, Communications
Sexually transmitted diseases
Sickle cell anemia
Social Welfare
State laws
Strategic planning
Stroke
Student loan funds
Territories (U.S.)
Tuberculosis
Vaccination
Virgin Islands
Wages
Welfare eligibility
Welfare work participation
Women
Women's health

Summary:
action_date: 2003-11-06
text: 
Healthcare Equality and Accountability Act - States that the purpose of this Act is to improve minority health and healthcare and to eliminate racial and ethnic disparities in health and healthcare.
 
FamilyCare Act of 2003 - Amends the Social Security Act respecting: (1) family care; (2) Medicaid coverage for all residents with poverty level incomes; and (3) funding for the territories.
 
Amends the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 to provide for optional coverage of legal immigrants under Medicaid and SCHIP (State children's health insurance program).
 
Amends the Indian Health Care Improvement Act to revise provisions respecting program operations and funding.
 
Directs the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) to establish a demonstration project to strengthen Medicaid and SCHIP coverage for migrant workers and farmworkers.
 
Establishes the National Commission for Expanded Access to Health Care.
 
Amends the Public Service Health Act to improve limited English speakers' access to health care. Directs the Secretary to establish a Center for Cultural and Linguistic Competence in Healthcare.
 
Provides for health workforce diversity, including provisions respecting: (1) career training and support; (2) data collection; (3) cultural training; (4) Hispanic-serving health professions schools; (5) student assistance, including online degree programs; (6) the Louis Stokes public health scholars program; (7) the Patsy Mink health and gender research fellowship program; (8) the Paul David Wellstone international health fellowship program; and (9) the Edward R. Roybal Healthcare scholar program.
 
 Environmental Justice Act of 2003 - Establishes: (1) the Interagency Working Group on Environmental Justice which shall provide guidance to Federal agencies for identifying disproportionately high and adverse health and environmental effects on minority, low-income, and Native American populations; and (2) the Federal Environmental Justice Advisory Committee which shall advise the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Working Group on areas environmental justice.
 
Border Health Security Act of 2003 - Directs the Secretary, through the United States members of the United States-Mexico Border Health Commission, to award grants to eligible entities to improve the health of border area residents that are established by: (1) the United States members of the United States-Mexico Border Health Commission; (2) the State border health offices; and (3) the Secretary.
 
Amends the United States-Mexico Border Health Commission Act to make permanent authorizations of appropriations for activities under such Act.
 
Patient Navigator, Outreach, and Chronic Disease Prevention Act of 2003 - Authorizes the Secretary to make grants to public and nonprofit private health centers (including Indian Health Service Centers, tribal governments, urban Indian organizations, tribal organizations, clinics serving Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders and Alaska Natives, and rural health clinics) for model programs that provide health disparity populations with: (1) cancer and chronic disease prevention and treatment; (2) patient navigators to manage the care of individuals within such groups; and (3) outreach services. Authorizes similar grant programs through: (1) the National Cancer Institute; and (2) the Indian Health Service.
 
Community Health Workers Act of 2003 - Authorizes the Secretary to make grants to States or local or tribal units to promote positive health behaviors for women in target populations, especially racial and ethnic minority women in medically underserved communities. 
 
Extends funding for breast and cervical cancer preventive health measures.
 
Authorizes the Secretary to make grants to qualifying health centers, nonprofit organizations, and public institutions for cancer treatment and prevention programs for underserved minority and other populations, with consideration given to such population's language and cultural context.
 
Provides for grants and activities respecting: (1) health empowerment zone programs in health disparity communities; (2) the Minority HIV/AIDS Initiative; (3) infant mortality and sudden infant death syndrome rates in minority communities; (4) fetal alcohol syndrome treatment and diagnosis; (5) diabetes prevention and treatment activities with Indian tribes, Pacific Islanders, and Native Hawaiians; (6) diabetes programs, including youth and children's programs; (7) heart disease; (8) a national stroke education campaign; and (9) obesity treatment and prevention in underserved minority populations; (10) tuberculosis control and prevention; (11) asthma; (12) sickle cell disease; (13) autoimmune disease in minority populations; (14) sexually transmitted diseases; (15) children's dental disease coverage under Medicaid or SCHIP, and dental health services in underserved areas; (16) demonstration projects to reduce violence; (17) uterine fibroid research and education; (18) disease screening; (19) community outreach; (20) immunizations; (21) chronic disease management; and (22) racial and ethnic approaches to community health. 
 
Requires HHS funded or operated programs to collect race, ethnicity, and language data to detect ethnic and racial health care disparities. Authorizes demonstration program grants for health plan, health center, and hospital data collection. Amends the Social Security Act to require the Social Security Administration to collect similar data.
 
Directs the Secretary to fund epidemiology centers in Indian health areas lacking such centers.
 
Extends funding for the National Center for Health Statistics.
 
Minority Health and Genomics Act of 2003 - Establishes the Minority Health and Genomics Commission, which shall conduct a study of, and develop recommendations on, issues relating to genomic research as applied to minority groups. 
 
Directs the Secretary to establish: (1) civil rights compliance offices within each HHS agency that administers a health program; and (2) an Office of Minority Health within the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
 
Establishes the Indian Health Service as an agency of the Public Health Service.
 
Amends the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act to establish an Office of Minority Affairs within the Office of the Commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
 
Amends the Public Health Service Act to direct the Secretary to make grants for demonstration programs to improve minority healthcare access and quality.
 
Directs the Secretary to: (1) designate centers of excellence at hospitals and other health systems serving large numbers of minority patients; (2) provide financial assistance to designated healthcare providers and community health centers for facility and service improvements in American Samoa, Guam, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, the United States Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, and Hawaii; and (3) provide grants and loan guarantees from the Health Safety Net Infrastructure Trust Fund (established by this Act) for capital financing assistance to eligible healthcare facilities.


Legislative actions:
action_date: 2004-04-08
text: Sponsor introductory remarks on measure. (CR S3967-3968)
action_date: 2003-11-06
text: Read twice and referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions.
action_date: 2003-11-06
text: Introduced in Senate