Article 5. American Indians of California Health And Safety Code >> Division 102. >> Part 1. >> Chapter 6. >> Article 5.

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.

(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.

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.

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.

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.