SECTIONS 102900-102925 - California Statutes

HEALTH AND SAFETY CODE

SECTION 102900-102925

102900. The Legislature finds and declares all of the following:
(a) Birth and death certificate-linking studies done by the
department in 1974 and repeated in 1984, show unacceptably high rates
of error in the completion of death certificate information
recording ethnicity for American Indian infants.
(b) Official vital data on deaths for American Indians in the
State of California indicate an implausible death rate equal to
one-half of the United States rate for all races and one-quarter of
the rate for American Indians in all states.
(c) Good demographic data on the American Indian people within the
state does not exist and the data that does exist is fragmented and
difficult to access and compile.
(d) The lack of accurate vital data on American Indians in
California results in a significant loss of federal funds for the
provision of health care and promotion services to American Indian
people residing in 37 rural counties within the state.

102905. (a) The Rural Health Division of the department shall cause
to be undertaken a three-year study for the purpose of establishing
more valid statistics regarding American Indian death rates,
including rates for the 10 leading causes of death for American
Indians within the 37 designated rural Indian counties as follows:
Humboldt, Shasta, Siskiyou, Modoc, Del Norte, Mendocino, Lake,
Sonoma, Glenn, Butte, Colusa, Plumas, Yuba, Yolo, Tehama, Sutter, El
Dorado, Nevada, Placer, Sierra, Tulare, Tuolumne, Amador, Mariposa,
Calaveras, Fresno, Kings, Madera, Mono, Inyo, Riverside, San
Bernardino, Imperial, Lassen, Santa Barbara, Trinity, and San Diego.
(b) This study shall enlist the fullest possible participation of
the Indian community and specifically the Indian clinics currently
providing health care services to rural Indians of the state. This
project shall be administered in a manner that allows for input from,
and consultation with, concerned tribes and tribal organizations and
American Indian-controlled health care corporations.
(c) This study shall identify methods to improve the quality of
official state data on Indian mortality and carry out activities to
achieve that goal, including the provision of training and the
development of educational materials for morticians and coroners
operating within the state.

102910. For the purpose of conducting the three-year study required
pursuant to Section 102905, the department is hereby encouraged to
contract with a federally recognized tribe or tribal organization or
an American Indian-controlled health care corporation or research
institution having a record of good standing with the Department of
Managed Health Care and the Indian Health program within the
department, and established competence in the area of records
management.

102915. The study shall be conducted in three phases, as follows:
(a) Phase one of the study shall include research design and data
acquisition, including funds for the purchase of data from tribal,
federal, state, and county sources and the encoding of this data to a
computer-readable form.
(b) Phase two of the study shall include a computerized matching
of the American Indian-specific data with the officially known deaths
within the state for a selected two-year period, and all necessary
statistical analysis and validation of any findings.
(c) Phase three shall include the dissemination of the findings
from the study, including efforts to improve the collection of vital
event data on the American Indian population within the state.

102920. The department shall report to the Legislature on or before
January 1, 1994, on the implementation of this article. The
department also shall report to the Legislature, on or before four
years after the date that the initial funding is received to
implement this article, on the results of the study required by this
article.

102925. The state department shall begin to implement the
activities referred to in Sections 102905, 102910, 102915, and 102920
only upon an appropriation for the specific purpose of funding the
activities.