Press Releases: 2006

Passport Health Plan offers Cultural & Linguistic Competency in Healthcare Conference May 11-12 at Louisville Marriott Downtown

A conference, Achieving Cultural and Linguistic Competency in Healthcare:  Tools to Reduce Health Disparities in Clinical Practice will be held May 11 and 12 at the Louisville Marriott Downtown.  More than 150 health care providers, advocates and persons with limited English proficiency are expected to attend the conference put on by Passport Health Plan.

The faces of our communities are changing.  The Hispanic population in Kentucky grew 173 percent between 1990 and 2000.  In 2001 Jefferson County Public Schools reported 75 languages represented in their English as a Second Language Program.

"Our mission is to improve the health and quality of life of our members," said Larry N. Cook, MD, Chairman of the Board for University of Health Care, Inc. dba Passport Health Plan.  "We go above and beyond what is required to meet the changing needs of our membership, which is becoming increasingly diverse.  We hope this conference will give health care providers the tools they need to serve members with language and other cultural barriers."

The conference will include local, regional and national experts, who will discuss Kentucky's rapidly growing immigrant population and the unique challenges and opportunities it presents to health and human service providers.

Keynote speakers include Secretary of the Cabinet for Health and Family Services for the Commonwealth of Kentucky, Mark D. Birdwhistell, MPA, Guadalupe Pacheco, MSW, Office of Minority Health/Office of Public Health & Science, and Ann Kenny MPH, BSN, RN, Science Applications International Corp.

The conference will also address issues such as federal regulations from the Office of Civil Rights and what they mean to agencies and consumers, how service providers can achieve compliance and how to facilitate services for individuals with special communication needs.

Here’s the conference agenda:

Thurs. May 11th

• Three morning workshops from 9 -10:15 AM: Interpreter Certification Process of Oklahoma State by Demetrio (J.R.) Gutierrez EdD, CHE, Office of Minority Health; Climbing the Ivory Tower:  How Can Medical Education Address Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Health Care by Crystal Cash, MD of Loyola University Chicago; Cultural Issues in a Clinical Program by Jenny Illescas of Kaiser Permanente
• Keynote address Portrait of the Common Health in Kentucky at noon by Secretary Mark Birdwhistell, Secretary for Health & Family Services
• Afternoon session:   1:45 – 3 PM The Training is Done Now What?  Sustaining CLAS with a Statewide Support System is What! by national trainer/speaker Ira SenGupta, MA of Cross Cultural Health Care Program
• Panel discussion In Our Own Backyard with Lucy Ricketts, Passport Health Plan; Bill Wagner, MSSW, Family Health Centers, Inc.; Adewale Troutman, MD MPH, Louisville Metro Health Dept., 3:15 – 4:30 PM

Fri. May 12th

• Legislator Panel Discussion:  Health Disparities in the Commonwealth with Sen. Gerald Neal and Rep. Thomas Burch, 8:45 AM
• Three morning workshops:  Moving Towards Cultural Competency:  Lessons Learned from the Indiana Access Project by Larry Humbert, MSSW, PgDip (Indiana Access); Impact of Culture/Spirituality on End of Life Decisions by Peggy Payne of SCAN Health Plan; World Travelling:  Learning How to Do It and Why It is Important to the Health Professions by Nancy Potter, Ph.D of the University of Louisville
• Keynote speaker at 11:30 AM Think Cultural Health:  Bridging the Health Care Gap through Cultural Competency Continuing Education Programs by Guadalupe Pacheco MSW of the Office of Minority Health/Office of Public Health & Science and Ann S. Kenny, MPH, BSN, RN of Science Applications International Corp.
• Afternoon session:  Where Do We Go from Here? by Robert Slaton, EdD of University Health Care, Inc. at 3 p.m.

University Health Care, Inc. dba Passport Health Plan provides Medicaid managed care services for more than 137,000 members in Jefferson and surrounding counties.  Counties of service are:  Breckinridge, Bullitt, Carroll, Grayson, Hardin, Henry, Jefferson, Larue, Marion, Meade, Nelson, Oldham, Shelby, Spencer, Trimble and Washington.  The National Committee for Quality Assurance designated Passport as receiving excellent accreditation.  University Health Care contracts with AmeriHealth Mercy and its affiliated health plans comprise the largest multi-state Medicaid managed care organization in the US. Through its ownership, affiliating or management, AmeriHealth Mercy touches the lives of nearly one million Medicaid and State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) members in six states including Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Kentucky, South Carolina, Virginia and California.  AmeriHealth Mercy Health Plan is a healthcare ministry of the Sisters of Mercy in affiliation with AmeriHealth HMO, Inc.