Addressing Health Disparities through Enabling Services at Community Health Centers Serving Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Other Pacific Islanders

Background/ Significance Gaps in Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Other Pacific Islander (AA&NHOPI) health data make it difficult to measure progress toward Healthy People 2010 objectives or initiatives to reduce health disparities. Only 0.2% of federally funded health research and 0.01% of Medline-indexed studies mention AA&NHOPIs. There continues to be very little research conducted and much work to do to address such disparities and the systematic barriers to healthcare faced by this culturally and linguistically diverse, rapidly growing population. Objective/ Purpose We will examine racial/ethnic disparities in enabling services and health data collected at the CHCs. Methods This project is a collaborative effort between the Association of Asian Pacific Community Health Organizations (AAPCHO) and four community health centers (CHCs) serving primarily AA&NHOPIs. Enabling services are defined as non-clinical services including interpretation and case management that facilitate access and delivery of quality health care to medically underserved patients. The presentation will include analyses by race/ethnicity on enabling services and their impact on diabetes health outcomes. Results Preliminary results suggest that enabling services play a critical role in improving health outcomes and reducing disparities. Discussion/ Conclusions The information is useful for CHCs in their efforts to document enabling services utilization, guide effective resource allocation, as well as to support advocacy efforts for appropriate reimbursement and funding. Overall, the documentation and examination of enabling services supports national efforts to improve cultural and linguistic appropriate health care delivery and reduce and eliminate health disparities for underserved AA&NHOPI populations.