Health Insurance Literacy Resource Hub

Enroll American has compiled an online clearinghouse of health insurance literacy resources from a wide array of organizations. Don't miss the new Health Insurance Literacy Resource Hub, a one-stop-shop chock-full of digital tools, fact sheets, handouts, and videos that empower consumers to get covered, stay covered, and use their coverage.

Salt Lake County Resource List 2014

Salt Lake County Human Rights Resource List – 2014

Right to Secure Food

Department of Workforce Services (DWS) - www.jobs.utah.gov , 801-526-9675; Provides application assistance and administration of the Food Stamp program (SNAP). 
United Way 2-1-1 – www.211ut.org, 2-1-1 or 1-888-826-9790; Provides information on food resources including emergency food pantries, soup kitchens, and other food programs.
Utahns Against Hunger – www.uah.org, 801-328-2561; Provides information and assistance to low income people regarding nutritional programs, rights, and benefits of program/participants.

Right to Housing

Homeless Shelters – homelessshelterdirectory.org, 1-877-864-4937; Provides a di-rectory of homeless shelters and other homeless service organizations nationwide.
Salt Lake Community Action Program - www.slcap.org/index.php, 801-359-2444; Provides HUD counseling, home owner programs, and rental assistance.

Right to Health Services

Comunidades Unidas - www.cuutah.org, 801-487-4143; Provides health and well-being programs to members of the immigrant and refugee communities.
Consulado de México – 801-521-8502; Provides health care information and referral as well as free health screenings.
Department of Workforce Services (DWS) - www.jobs.utah.gov, 801-526-9675; Provides application assistance for Medicaid, CHIP, and other local health insurance programs.
Take Care Utah - www.takecareutah.org, 2-1-1; Access to affordable, quality, health insurance and care.

Right to Personal Safety 

Child Abuse and Neglect Reporting Line - www.hsdcfs.utah.gov, 1-855-323-3237; 24-hour hotline to report suspected abuse or neglect of a child.
Prevent Child Abuse Utah - www.preventchildabuseutah.org, 801-393-3366; Works to prevent child abuse through education and training programs.
Unified Police Department - updsl.org, 385-468-9669; Provides victim advocate services in domestic violence situations. 
Utah Domestic Violence Coalition, www.udvc.org, 1-800-897-LINK (5465); Provides expertise concerning issues of domestic and sexual violence throughout Utah.

Right to Legal Justice 

American Civil Liberties Union of Utah - www.acluutah.org, 801-521-9862; Pro-vides legal assistance specific to constitutional violations such as free speech, free-dom of religion, jail/prison conditions, or police force cases.
Disability Law Center - disabilitylawcenter.org, 801-363-1347; Provides statewide advocacy and litigation services to protect the rights of people with disabilities. 
Division of Consumer Protection - www.dcp.utah.gov, 801-530-6601; Responds to consumer complaints of unfair and deceptive business practices. 
Utah Legal Services - 801-328-8891, www.utahlegalservices.org; Provides representation in civil (non-criminal) legal matters for low-income persons, victims of domestic violence, senior citizens, farm workers, and Native Americans. 
Worker’s Rights Utah Antidiscrimination and Labor Division - www.laborcommission.utah.gov, 801-530-6800; Investigates and resolves employment and housing discrimination complaints and enforces Utah’s minimum wage, wage payment requirements, and laws which protect youth in employment. 
Workers’ Compensation Fund, www.wcfgroup.com, 385-351-8000; Information and referral specific to workplace safety and injury.

Comprehensive Information 

United Way 2-1-1, www.211ut.org, 2-1-1 or 1-888-826-9790; Utah’s statewide information and referral system, providing data on the most critical needs

7-1-1 -phone relay service for the deaf and hard of hearing

Multicultural Youth Leadership Summit - Registration is Now Open

It is the start of a new school year and the Utah Office of Multicultural Affairs is excited to announce that registration for the third annual Multicultural Youth Leadership Summit is now open. The Summit will be held on Wednesday, October 29, 2014 at the Calvin L. Rampton Salt Palace Convention Center in Salt Lake City from 7:00 A.M. to 3:00 P.M.

To register, please visit our website at mca.utah.gov/myls. Registration closes on Friday, October 3, 2014. We strongly encourage attendees to register as early as possible to reserve a spot at the Summit. 

We suggest this year our target audience be 7th, 8th, 9th and 10th grade students. 

For more information, visit us at mca.utah.gov or contact Jenny Hor at jhor@utah.gov or (801) 245-7214

CDC Study Projects 40 Percent of Americans Will Get Diabetes

Forty percent of Americans born between 2000 and 2011 will develop diabetes in their lifetimes, a sharp increase compared to previous generations, according to a study led by researchers with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and published in The Lancet.  The study found that the risk is even higher for certain populations, including 45 percent of Black men and more than half of all Hispanics and Black women.  

How To Make Sense Of Health Insurance Alphabet Soup

The lines that distinguish HMOs, PPOs, EPOs and POS plans from one another have blurred, making it hard to know what you're buying by name alone, assuming you're one of the few people who know what an EPO is in the first place.

"Now, there's a lot of gray out there," says Sabrina Corlette, project director at Georgetown University's Center on Health Insurance Reforms.

Ideally, the plan name provides a shorthand way to determine the sort of access members have to hospitals and doctors, including cost-sharing for such treatment. But since there are of plan types and state standards vary, individual insurers often have leeway to market similar plans under different names.
In general:

• Health maintenance organizations cover only care provided by doctors and hospitals inside the HMO's network. HMOs often require people to get a referral from their primary care physician in order to see a specialist.
• Preferred provider organizations, or PPOs, cover care provided both inside and outside the plan's network. Patients typically pay a higher percentage of the cost for out-of-network care.
• Exclusive provider organizations are a lot like HMOs: They generally don't cover care outside the plan's provider network. People in EPOs, however, may not need a referral to see a specialist.
• Point of Service, or POS, plans vary, but they're often a sort of . Patients may need a referral to see a specialist, but they may also have coverage for out-of-network care, though with higher cost sharing.

Although insurers identify plans by type in the coverage summaries they're required to provide under the health law, one PPO may offer very different out-of-network coverage than another. 

"You have PPOs with really high cost sharing for out-of-network services, which from a consumer perspective seem a lot like HMOs," says Corlette. Some plans labeled as PPOs don't offer out-of-network services at all. On the other hand, some HMOs have an out-of-network option that makes them seem similar to PPOs.

Higher premiums didn't necessarily correlate with better out-of-network coverage, says , vice president at Avalere Health, a research and consulting firm.

Since you can't rely on plan type to provide clear guidance on out-of-network coverage, there are three basic questions to investigate when evaluating a plan, says Pearson:

1. Is there out-of-network coverage?
2. Does that out-of-network spending accrue toward your out-of-pocket maximum? Legally it doesn't have to, but some plans include it.
3. Do you need a primary care physician gatekeeper?

That's only the beginning. Once you figure out whether a plan covers out-of-network care, it can be difficult to find out whether your doctor is even in that plan. You can check with you doctor's office, but sometimes they don't know.

You can also look at provider directories to see who is and isn't in a plan's network, however, that information frequently proved inadequate or inaccurate during the last open enrollment period. But understanding the alphabet soup of plan types is an important first step.
Read more at Kaiser Health News at http://www.kaiserhealthnews.org/

More than 50% of hospitals are using electronic health records

Adopting EHRs is the first step in a long and complex journey to an IT-enabled health care system in which technology is effectively leveraged to address ongoing cost and quality challenges. Read the story >

CDC: Children Eating More Fruit

Total fruit consumption increased by 12 percent among children ages 2-18 between 2003 and 2010, though vegetable consumption remained unchanged, according to a study released last week by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The study analyzed data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys; researchers concluded that no demographic group within this age range is meeting the Healthy People 2020 target for vegetables, while only children ages 2-5 are meeting the goal for fruit.
RWJF.org

Healthy Resources for Walking & Biking to School

Even though the Safe Routes to School movement has gained
momentum nationwide, many communities still face challenges implementing these programs. Four new publications from ChangeLab Solutions are now available to help districts, parents, and active transportation advocates develop policies for walking or bicycling to school.
On the Move and Get Out & Get Moving are geared toward rural areas that face unique challenges around implementing Safe Routes to School programs. On the Move breaks down approaches and tools of particular interest to rural school districts, including highlights of the online Safe Routes to School Policy Workbook tool.Get Out & Get Moving explores the legal implications of remote drop-off programs, and includes a cost-benefit worksheet for assessing risk.
Incorporating Safe Routes to School into Local School Wellness Policies and Model General Plan Language Supporting Safe Routes to Schools provide model language that communities can adapt to their specific needs.
These publications—in conjunction with the Safe Routes to School Policy Workbook and our other Safe Routes to School resources—can help create environments that will improve health outcomes for children. For more information on implementing Safe Routes to School policies in your community, please contact us.

Interval Training While Walking Helps Control Blood Sugar

Lots of high-performance athletes use interval training to maximize their fitness. From runners to cyclists to boot-camp fanatics the strategy involves alternating between periods of high intensity and lower intensity aerobic training.

Now, a study published in the journal finds that may help the millions of people with Type 2 diabetes and prediabetes who are trying to control their blood sugar.

Taking an hour-long walk each day outdoors or on a treadmill. As part of the study, researchers enrolled about 30 volunteers with Type 2 diabetes who were in their late 50s and early 60s.
The volunteers were divided into groups. One group was instructed to walk three minutes briskly, followed by three minutes at a more restful pace, and repeat that process for an hour.
Another group walked at a continuous pace for the same amount of time.
A third group, a control group, kept up their normal routines, which didn't include daily exercise.
"What we expected to see ... was that both exercising groups would have an improvement in their glucose [or blood sugar] control," says study author , an associate professor at the University of Copenhagen who studies how exercise affects glycemic control.
But that's not what happened.
The interval walkers did improve. Their glucose disposal — the ability to move sugar out of the circulating blood stream and into parts of the body where it can be used as fuel — improved by 20 percent compared to the non-exercising group. And their hemoglobin , a longer-term measure of blood sugar, dipped slightly too.
But the steady paced walkers saw no improvement at all.
"This was somewhat surprising considering, that they were doing one hour of exercising a day for four months" says Solomon.
So what explains the benefits of interval walking? It's not exactly clear, but there's a leading theory.
"It's this switch between the intensities that we think is critical here," says Solomon. "You're able to work hard, and then rest hard ... rather than just walking at a fixed pace."  And during the high-intensity bursts, your muscles need more fuel in the form of glucose.
"It makes sense that intervals would help people with blood sugar control," says , a professor of preventative medicine at the Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Baton Rouge, La. He explains that our muscles are the No.1 consumer of blood sugar in our bodies.
So, when we do things, such as short bursts of high-impact aerobic activity , "you're pulling excess sugar out of the blood, which results in healtier blood sugar levels," Church says.
This study is small, but the findings match other research on intervals, which find benefits that seem to go beyond better blood sugar.
"There are a number of studies that have shown that when you increase the intensity [of aerobic exercise] in the form of doing intervals, there's additional benefits beyond just the calories burned," Solomon says.
There are still unanswered questions, he adds, such as can interval walking cut the risk of strokes or other health problems that are associated with diabetes?
"We really need to understand how this has an impact on the long-term health of these patients with diabetes," Solomon says.

npr health blog 

Funding Opportunity: Capacity Building Grant for Native Communities

The Notah Begay III Foundation's Native Strong: Healthy Kids, Healthy Futures has announced a new Capacity Building Grant Opportunity.  "The purpose of Native Strong and the Capacity Building Grant is to address childhood obesity and type 2 diabetes in Native communities. These grants {up to $20,000} support Community Health Assessments to better understand the root causes of childhood obesity and type 2 diabetes resulting in strategies and an action plan to address this issue, and/or Community Planning and Capacity Building to create a community-driven action plan to address childhood obesity and type 2 diabetes."  Deadline for applications is Friday, September 12th.  An informational webinar is scheduled for Wednesday, August 13, 1:00  2:00 (EDT). 

CODA (Council on Diversity Affairs) is looking for NEW members for the CODA Human Rights subcommittees

Goal - To Produce and support Actions/Strategies that support Human Rights  and “Inclusion”

Meets the 1^st Tuesday 12:00-1:00

North Building – 2^nd Floor, N-2100 – Mayor’s Conference Room

The CODA Human Rights subcommittee meets one hour a month.  As a subcommittee member you will be expected to participate in the subcommittee projects/events which could be an additional 5-8 hours every year.  This is a volunteer subcommittee.

The Council on Diversity Affairs (CODA), created June 2005 by Salt Lake County Mayor Peter Corroon has inspired awareness and pride in the uniqueness and diversity possessed by the residents of Salt Lake County.  We are not a county of “this” group and “that” group but rather a community that embraces and welcomes all of us as one community.  A familiar phrase in CODA is “Diversity, It’s about ALL of us

If you are interested please send an email to  Rebecca Sanchez, RLSanchez@slco.org stating your experience and why you would like to join the subcommittee.

Multicultural Youth Leadership Summit

In support of Governor Herbert’s ’66 by 2020’ education initiative, a state goal that 66% of all working-age Utahns will hold a post-secondary degree or certificate by 2020, the Utah Office of Multicultural Affairs (MCA) announces its 3rd Annual Multicultural Youth Leadership Summit will be held at the Salt Palace Convention Center on Wednesday, October 29, 2014.

This one-day program will bring together 1,500 students along with parents, educators, community and government leaders for a series of presentations and break-out sessions to encourage youth to become leaders in their communities and to keep themselves and their peers on track to reach their educational goals.

Join us in working together to engage, support and invest in our youth!

More information will be provided in the coming weeks. If you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact us at (801) 245-7214 or jhor@utah.gov.

CDC Releases Breastfeeding Report Card 2014

Breastfeeding rates continue to rise in the United States. In 2011, 79% of newborn infants started to breastfeed. Yet breastfeeding did not continue for as long as recommended. Of infants born in 2011, 49% were breastfeeding at 6 months and 27% at 12 months. Professional lactation support can help mothers initiate and continue breastfeeding. The Report Card has been used to track the number of International Board Certified Lactation Consultants (IBCLCs) per 1,000 live births since 2006. This year’s Report Card also includes the number of Certified Lactation Counselors (CLCs) per 1,000 live births. 

Breastfeeding, with its many known health benefits for infants, children, and mothers, is a key strategy to accomplish this goal. There are many ways that communities can support breastfeeding mothers and babies, and everyone plays a role. The CDC Breastfeeding Report Card provides information on breastfeeding practices and supports in all states. Public health practitioners can use the Report Card to monitor progress, celebrate success, and identify opportunities to work with health professionals and community members.

Read entire report at 2014 Breastfeeding Report Card