The Connecticut watchdog agency tasked with enforcing the state’s anti-discrimination laws on Monday will lay out the role segregation is playing to disproportionately kill Black and Latino residents during the pandemic.

“Connecticut is one of the most racially segregated states in the nation,” is how the Commission on Human Rights and Opportunities begins its 51-page report. “Segregation born of zoning policies has had a particularly deadly effect during the COVID-19 pandemic. … The effects of segregation cannot only be measured in municipal demographics or statistics of income inequality, but in lives lost.”

A watershed change in healthcare documentation occurred on January 1, 2021. For the first time in 24 years, the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMMS) created the opportunity to recognize and get paid for documenting the presence of health disparities into the national healthcare billing system.

Specifically, the acknowledgement of “diagnosis or treatment significantly limited by social determinants of health” is now official!

What are the social determinants of health? The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) definition of the social determinants of health (SDoH) is “life enhancing resources, such as food supply, housing, economic and social relationships, transportation, education, and health care whose distribution across populations effectively determines length and quality of life.”  The addition of SDoH into the payment revisions for 2021 can have a big impact on the health of specific population groups, disease management and every person’s well- being. A  zip code’s influence on the health of those living there is multifold.

Connecticut Looks At Tackling Housing Issues To Treat Asthma

Nicole Leonard, WNPR, May 29, 2019. Article and Audio Interview Available Here.

America's Most Polluting Incinerators Disproportionately Affect Low-Income Neighborhoods and Communities of Color

For decades, the federal government has attempted to better prioritize equity in environmental initiatives. A new report highlights one area in which those efforts have fallen short.

Leah Dunlevy, Pacific Standard, May 21, 2019. Available Here

Childhood Asthma: A Lingering Effect of Redlining

New research shows that disparities in housing contribute to disparities in one of the most common chronic diseases afflicting children.

Kriston Capps, City Lab, May 23, 2019. Available here

Air Pollution Disproportionately Impacts Minorities, According To A Daunting New Study, Sarah Friedmann, Bustle, March 12, 2019, available here

AMA calls for alleviating racial housing segregation, Medical Press, August 2, 2018, available here

Assisted Housing May Lead to Health Benefits for Low-Income Renters, How Housing Matters, March 21, 2018, available here

Giving poor families more choices in where to live can greatly improve health, Sarah Varney, PBS, December 20, 2017, available here

Leaving Segregated Neighborhoods Lowers Blacks' Blood Pressure, NPR, May 15, 2017, available here