PART 2 Farmworker Eligibility Verification

1. PART 2 Farmworker Eligibility Verification

2. This section willprovide youwith the information needed to verify a farmworker’s eligibility to receive health care services in health centers that receive funding under Section g of the Public Health Act. Part 2. Farmworker Eligibility Verification

3. Describe why it is important for health centers to identify and document the farmworkers they are serving Learn the definitions of Migrant & Seasonal Farmworkers (MSFW) Customize the intake questions that will help identify MSFWs, including elderly & disabled Identify MSFW status from case studies Objectives

4. Can You Identify the Farmworkers? Look at the following pictures and identify who would classify as a farmworker.

5. Smith Perez Miguel Santos Jones Johnson Bastien Can You Identify the Farmworkers? Based on the following list of last names, please identify who you would classify as a farmworker? • Gutierrez • Valenzuela • Dominguez • Zarate • Robles • Rodriguez • Gonzales

6. It’s not possible to verify a person’s eligibility by looking at faces or names, or by stereotyping. Although most farmworkers are Hispanic, many are Jamaican, Haitian, Asian, and White. Unless you ask, you will not know. Answer:

7. Improved use of the Uniform Data System for documentation & reimbursement Increased accountability to funding agency Provides data needed to target migrant population Justifies need to recruit and retain culturally competent staff Increases justification for program expansion → increased health care access for FW’s Why do Migrant Health Centers Need to Verify Farmworker Eligibility?

8. The classifications of farmworkers The definition of agriculture What types of industries and tasks in agriculture are included and excluded under HRSA rules In Order to Determine Eligibility You Need to Know…

9. Classification of Farmworkers Farmworker • Principal employment is in agriculture • Been so employed within the last 24 months Seasonal Agricultural Worker • Does not need to establish a temporary abode for purposes of such employment Migratory Agricultural Worker • Establishes a temporary abode for purposes of such employment Aged or Disabled Farmworkers • Applies to individuals who were previously agricultural workers but no longer meet the requirements due to age or disability Source: (Health Center Consolidation Act of 1996, Section 330(g) –Public Law 104-299)

10. Farming in All of Its Branches Including: A) Cultivation and tilling of the soil B) Production, cultivation, growing & harvesting of any commodity grown on, in or as adjunct to or part of a commodity grown in or on the land C) Any practice including: Preparation & processing for market and delivery to storage, or market, to carriers for transportation to market (performed by a farmer or on a farm (incident to or in conjunction with any activity as described in B) Definition of Agriculture/Farmwork

11. Sec. 2.001.  DEFINITIONS  "agriculture" means: (1)  the cultivation of the soil to produce crops; (2)  horticulture, floriculture, or viticulture; (3)  forestry; or (4)  the raising or keeping of livestock or poultry. Added by Acts 1999, 76th Leg., ch. 301, Sec. 2, eff. May 29, 1999. Texas Department of Agriculture

12. Definitions Vary From One Federal Agency to Another

13. Qualifying Tasks Hired laborers performing tasks related to farming of the land including: Preparation Planting

14. Growing Irrigating Detasseling Harvesting

15. Harvesting

16. Transporting Storing Distributing

17. Preparation Processing Canning Production

18. Preserving

19. Qualifying Industries

20. Vegetables

21. Grains and Nuts

22. Fruit

23. Nursery

24. Other Commodities Tobacco Cotton Hops Christmas Trees Grains

25. Processing/Packing Processing canneries & packing plants on or next to farms

26. Excluded Industries

27. Animal Farms

28. Dairy Farms

29. Poultry

30. Aquaculture

31. Lumber and Forestry

32. Canneries off the farm Processing plants operating off the farm

33. Meat Processing

34. Eligibility Tools

35. Farmworker Identification According to Public Law 104-299 1. Has the principal source of employment for you or a member of your family ever been farm work? Stop, this person is not a farmworker. Yes No 2. In the past two years, did you or a member of your family move here or somewhere else to do farm work? Stop, this person is a migrant farmworker Yes No 3. Have you or a member of your family ever moved somewhere to do farm work? Yes No 4. Is the reason that you or a family member are not doing farm work because you (or he/she) were disabled or got too old to do it? 5. Do you or a family member do farm work on a seasonal basis? Yes No Yes No This person is a seasonal farmworker This person is a migrant farmworker (Aged or Disabled) Developed NCMHC (2004)

36. How Farmworkers Identify Themselves Compiled by Hilda Ochoa Bogue (2000)

37. Key questions for verifying migrant or seasonal farmworker status Have you or a member of your family, as a primary source of income… NCFH 2003

38. Read the following eight case studies and determine the family’s eligibility status While reading the case studies, ask yourself the following questions. In the last two years did this person/family work in agriculture? In the last two years did this person/family move to other areas to work in agriculture? Can this person/family be classified as a migrant or seasonal farmworker? Is this person no longer working in agriculture because they are too old or they are disabled? Who, in each case, qualifies as the dependent of a migrant, seasonal, disabled or retired farmworker? How is this documented in your C/MHC’s data base? Case Studies :Let’s Put into Practice What We Have Learned

39. A family of 8 from Michigan travels to Washington State to harvest asparagus from April – June; at the end of June, the family goes to Illinois to work harvesting tomatoes. In early September, the family returns home to Michigan. Today, the family is at your health center because their children need physicals. The father is presently working in construction in Grand Rapids, MI. Case Study # 1

40. Tony is the oldest son of the Garcia family. For the last 4 months, he has been harvesting tomatoes in North Florida, but will be returning to his home in South Texas in two months. Tony’s economic contribution supports the family. Tony’s father, Mr. Garcia is very sick and unable to work and his wife is a homemaker. Their youngest son is at your health center for an ear infection. Case Study # 2

41. Ms. Lopez is 55 years old. She worked for 30 years planting onions and peppers in Colorado and Indiana. Seven years ago, she was planting onions and the machine cut her hand. She suffered a terrible infection and her hand was amputated. Now she is disabled. She covers her and her mother’s living expenses, with a small pension check. Today, she is at your health center because her mother is sick. Case Study # 3

42. Ms. Lopez-Smith and her family have lived in Iowa since 1990. She works processing meat and her husband works in construction. Ms. Smith is in your health center, she needs to see her doctor because her diabetes is out of control. (not eligible) Case Study # 4

43. Mr. Sanchez, works every year thinning garlic from April to May in South Texas. He then works on a goat farm in Michigan from June-August. After that he travels to North Texas to work driving a cotton harvesting machine from September-November. He is in your clinic today because he has an infected cut on his hand. Case Study # 5

44. Pedro Gonzales has settled in Reidsville, Georgia since November 2006 when he moved from Oregon. In Oregon, he worked for several years planting apple trees. Last year, he spent one season harvesting peanuts in Georgia and then became so ill that he was no longer able to work. His wife, Lupita, is at the health center today because she needs a mammogram. Case Study # 6

45. Mr. Winston is a 42 year-old Jamaican that arrived in MA last year. He lived in a migrant camp with other workers, worked in a tobacco farm for about 8 months, and then he went back to Jamaica. A month ago, he returned to MA with a contract to work at the same tobacco farm. Last night he called your clinic to ask if he can see a doctor because he is out of his blood pressure medication. Case Study # 7

46. The Jones family is from rural New Mexico. Ms. Jones works every year harvesting green paper and Mr. Jones works only three hours a day in a gas station. Today, Ms. Jones is at a community/migrant health center because she has abdominal pain. Case Study # 8

47. Dependent of a migratory farmworker Dependent of a migratory farmworker Disabled farmworker Not a Farmworker Migrant farmworker Disable farmworker Migratory farmworker (International) Seasonal workers Answers: