SACRAMENTO, CA – Today, Senator Melissa Hurtado (D-Sanger) introduced legislation to expand asthma preventive services to low-income families.

SB 207 would allow Medi-Cal reimbursement for asthma education and home trigger assessments that are provided by qualified, non-licensed professionals including community health workers. Moreover, the bill would increase financial support for environmental asthma trigger remediation in the home.

“Today, communities in the Central Valley are facing limited access to health care and preventive care. Holding the highest level of asthma rates in the nation, one in 6 children in the Central Valley are suffering from asthma,” said Senator Hurtado. “With many Medi-Cal recipients residing in the Valley, this legislation is critical to providing at-risk families with the care and tools they need to reduce triggers that could lead to a life-threatening asthma attack,” continued Senator Hurtado.

Currently, almost 90 percent of all pediatric asthma emergency department visits in California were children covered by Medi-Cal - up from less than 50 percent in 2012. Shouldering a significant portion of the asthma burden, more than 265,000 Californians enrolled in Medi-Cal have poorly controlled asthma and have reported an emergency room or urgent care visit for it.

“In many asthma patients, the home environment can be a significant contributor to their poorly controlled asthma,” says Heidi He, DNP, FNP-C, Nurse Practitioner, Nursing Program Professor and member of the Asthma Coalition of Kern County. He continued by stating that “a home visit can help patients and health care providers identify the asthma triggers, find ways of avoiding those triggers and allow the patients to be active participants in their own care. Patients with poorly controlled asthma will benefit significantly from asthma education home visits and home trigger environmental assessments.” 

“Managing asthma extends far beyond medication, but addressing the social and environmental factors that impact asthma is very challenging for numerous reasons,” stated Christine Mayor, MSN, RN, CPNP, Pediatric Nurse Practitioner of Zuckerberg San Francisco General. “The hours of care our asthma educators provide is just as important as the time patients spend with me in the clinic. Working together, we have seen better results and lasting outcomes for our asthma patients,” continued Mayor.

“There is robust evidence showing that asthma education and in-home trigger assessments and remediation improve the lives of people with asthma and reduce costly visits to the emergency room,” said Anne Kelsey Lamb, Director of Regional Asthma Management and Prevention. “This legislation will make sure that these services are available to the people who need these services the most.”

About Senator Melissa Hurtado

Senator Melissa Hurtado is an advocate for expanding access to health care and clean water, growing educational opportunities and creating more quality jobs. She represents the 14th Senate District in California, which includes cities in Fresno, Kern, Kings and Tulare counties. Senator Hurtado was born in Fresno, California and was raised in the City of Sanger, where she still resides with her family.

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