Yesterday, the National Rural Health
Association participated in the Texas
Medical Association’s 9th annual
Border Health Caucus Conference on Capitol Hill.
This year’s theme was “Disease Knows no Borders” and
included presentations by the Veterans Administration, members
of Congress and physicians working along the United States-Mexico border. The
conference was geared toward legislative staff, researchers and other border health
stakeholders.
As part of a panel alongside Rep.
Ruben Hinojosa, D-Texas, and Juan Escobar,
MD, president of the El Paso County Medical Society, I was able to
discuss current issues impacting the rural health care
workforce and efforts being made to help improve access and quality of care for
those living along the border.
NRHA began a Border Health Initiative in 2008 to help
address issues impacting this area of the country through education, policy,
communications and research. To date, NRHA has helped to highlight best
practices occurring in each of the four border
states, hosted meetings on the border to
draw more policy stakeholders to the area, established Rural Community Health
Worker trainings and developed official policy
to further shed light on the specific health and access issues in this
area.
It is estimated that of the United States border counties, 73
percent are federally designated Medically
Underserved Areas, and 63 percent are Health Professional Shortage Areas
for primary medical care. As such, NRHA continues to work toward providing
leadership in this region. To learn more
about the NRHA’s Border Health Initiative, click here: http://www.ruralhealthweb.org/go/left/networking-and-programs/nrha-programs-overview
