Community Health Workers Act of 2006

Bill: 109-s-3975
Sponsor: Sen. Bingaman, Jeff [D-NM]
Introduced: 2006-09-28 in the Senate
Policy area: Health
Subjects: Access to health care
Agriculture and Food
Alcoholism
Arizona
Boundaries
California
Communication in medicine
Community health services
Congress
Congressional reporting requirements
Cost effectiveness
Crime and Law Enforcement
Drug abuse
Economics and Public Finance
Exercise
Families
Federal aid to child health services
Finance and Financial Sector
Government Operations and Politics
Government publicity
Grants-in-aid
Health education
Health insurance
Hispanic Americans
Indian medical care
Indian women
Labor and Employment
Latin America
Medicaid
Medical personnel
Medically uninsured
Medicare
Mental health
Mental health services
Mexico
Minorities
Minority health
Native Americans
New Mexico
Nutrition
Obesity
Performance measurement
Poor children
Preventive medicine
Sexually transmitted diseases
Smoking
Social Welfare
Sports and Recreation
Texas
Translating and interpreting
Transportation and Public Works
Travel costs
Violence
Welfare eligibility
Women
Women's health

Summary:
action_date: 2006-09-28
text: 
Community Health Workers Act of 2006 - Amends the Public Health Service Act to authorize the Secretary of Health and Human Services to award grants to promote positive health behaviors for women in target populations, especially racial and ethnic minority women in medically underserved communities.
 
Permits such funds to be used to support community health workers to: (1) educate, guide, and provide outreach regarding health problems among women and especially among racial and ethnic minority women; (2) educate, guide, and provide experiential learning opportunities that target behavioral risk factors, including poor nutrition and tobacco use; (3) educate and guide regarding effective strategies to promote positive health behaviors within the family; (4) educate and provide outreach regarding enrollment in health insurance; (5) promote community wellness and awareness; and (6) educate and refer target populations to appropriate health care agencies and community based programs and organizations.
 
Requires the Secretary to give priority to experienced applicants who propose to target geographic areas: (1) with a high percentage of uninsured or underinsured residents who are eligible for health insurance; (2) with a high percentage of families for whom English is not their primary language; and (3) that encompass the United States-Mexico border region.
 
Requires the Secretary to: (1) encourage community health worker programs to collaborate with academic institutions; and (2) establish guidelines for assuring the quality of the training and supervision of community health workers under programs funded under this Act and for assuring the cost-effectiveness of such programs.


Legislative actions:
action_date: 2006-09-28
text: Read twice and referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions. (text of measure as introduced: CR S10474-10475)
action_date: 2006-09-28
text: Sponsor introductory remarks on measure. (CR S10473-10474)
action_date: 2006-09-28
text: Introduced in Senate