Other Health Care Provider

Sponsoring Programs:

Healthy Homes, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development

State Tobacco Education and Prevention Partnership, Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment

This document provides codes used to bill Medicaid within states for asthma care services, including descriptions of services covered. The information can be used to advocate for expanded Medicaid and private payer reimbursement in your state.

With more states exploring reimbursement for asthma interventions – for home-based asthma education, home assessments, and/or products that support environmental management of asthma triggers – this document will be updated frequently to reflect new policy changes.

"Trends in Racial Disparities for Asthma Outcomes among Children 0 to 17 Years, 2001-2010."

Authors: Akinbami, Lara J., MD, Jeanne E. Moorman, MS, Alan E. Simon, MD, and Kenneth C. Schoendorf, MD

Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, Volume 134.3 (2014), 547-553

View the full article here: http://www.jacionline.org/article/S0091-6749(14)00798-2/fulltext

Abstract:
Background –
Racial disparities in childhood asthma have been a long-standing target for intervention, especially disparities in hospitalization and mortality.

Objectives –
Describe trends in racial disparities in asthma outcomes using both traditional population-based rates and at-risk rates (based on the estimated number of children with asthma) to account for prevalence differences between race groups.

Methods –
Estimates of asthma prevalence and outcomes (emergency department [ED] visits, hospitalizations, and deaths) were calculated from national data for 2001 to 2010 for black and white children. Trends were calculated using weighted loglinear regression, and changes in racial disparities over time were assessed using Joinpoint.

Results –
Disparities in asthma prevalence between black and white children increased from 2001 to 2010; at the end of this period, black children were twice as likely as white children to have asthma. Population-based rates showed that disparities in asthma outcomes remained stable (ED visits and hospitalizations) or increased (asthma attack prevalence, deaths). In contrast, analysis with at-risk rates, which account for differences in asthma prevalence, showed that disparities in asthma outcomes remained stable (deaths), decreased (ED visits, hospitalizations), or did not exist (asthma attack prevalence).

Conclusions –
Using at-risk rates to assess racial disparities in asthma outcomes accounts for prevalence differences between black and white children, and adds another perspective to the population-based examination of asthma disparities. An at-risk rate analysis shows that among children with asthma, there is no disparity for asthma attack prevalence and that progress has been made in decreasing disparities in asthma ED visit and hospitalization rates.

In recent years, defilement of the air has significantly impacted the health and hygiene of the population at large. In order to address this issue properly, information is needed on the particulates responsible for affecting the quality of air both outdoor as well as indoors. Pollutants vary greatly in their composition, as well as from place to place. Data is required to interpret a correlation between particulates with that of health and hygiene. This information may signify an overall idea about the air that composes an environment and its quality.

Therefore it is essential to have data available to properly manage the local air quality. It is in this context that EDLab has decided to provide Pollen grains and Mold count in the ambient air on a daily basis, available for the general public and professionals interested in this endeavor.

Pure Air Control Services through its AIHA accredited laboratory will be publish the Allergen & Asthma Alert www.pureaircontrols.com on a daily basis Monday through Friday.  A team of aerobiologists, under the supervision of Dr. Rajiv Sahay, FIAS, CIAQP (Laboratory Director of EDLab at Pure Air Control Services), will collect and analyze samples with cutting age technology from an air sampling station located at Clearwater, Florida (Tampa Bay Area 27.97° N and 82.76°W)

Each day the Pollengrains and Mold counts will be compared to the normal indoor environmental quality (IEQ) guideline. The groupings of the trap Pollen grains and Mold/Fungi are rated on a scale ranging from high, medium or low. High counts of these outdoor air quality pollutants correlate to an elevated rating, while low counts suggest reduced exposure to such allergens.

These same counts can be measured indoors. Subsequently, viewers, doctors, patients and allergy sufferers can determine the level of air quality and the corresponding effects upon their individual allergy symptoms.

“The EDLab staff is pleased to make this valuable and important aero-allergen information available to the public in the Tampa Bay area. It is important to raise our awareness to outdoor and indoor air quality issues, which affect our health and well-being, and the AAA is contributing to that awareness,” states Dr. Sahay.