Nonprofit helps make receiving care a little less overwhelming for Hispanic, Latino immigrants

It’s a difficult time to be an immigrant seeking care in the US.

Though hospitals are typically considered safe spaces from potential Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids, the Department of Homeland Security at the beginning of the year removed protections against these “sensitive” areas. As a result, 21% of lawfully present immigrants have said they or a family member have avoided some activities outside their home since January, including seeking medical care, according to research from KFF.

Providers have reported seeing an increase in patients delaying or canceling care due to fear of deportation. Health systems and facilities have made adjustments to accommodate scared patients, such as offering more telehealth services and providing training to staff on what to do if they encounter an ICE officer.

Hit the road. Another option is providing mobile care, which is something Brooklyn-based Mixteca does. Twice a month, providers offer gynecological checkups and prenatal care to those with and without insurance, according to Ana Galeana, a health advocate with the community-based nonprofit.

“The community is scared,” she told us.

Created in 2000, the organization serves primarily Hispanic, Latino, and Mexican immigrants, offering programs like English and computer classes, resources about immigrant rights, mental health services, and health and wellness services. It was created by Gabriel Rincón, who was running a dental practice in Brooklyn’s Sunset Park neighborhood during the height of the HIV/AIDS epidemic and wanted to provide Spanish-language resources and assistance for disproportionately impacted immigrant populations.

At the office, patients can receive HIV and glucose testing, flu shots, and offer enrollment assistance through NYC Care, an access program in New York that provides low-cost and no-cost healthcare to those who can’t afford or don’t qualify for health insurance. This year, Mixteca has enrolled 779 community members in the program so far, according to Galeana.

And while translation and interpreting services are available at the NYC Health + Hospitals system’s 11 public hospitals and community health centers, which are the facilities that accept NYC Care coverage, it’s not always clear to patients what they need to do. Sometimes they think they can only receive emergency care at these facilities or are confused about what coverage they’re eligible for, Galeana said.

“They prefer to come to the office and have the process with us,” she said. “It’s very intimidating for them to do all this in the hospital.”

But it’s more than just being able to speak the same language, Gilbert Burgos, an internal medicine provider and chairman of the National Hispanic Medical Association (NHMA), told us.

“The people that are in [Mixteca’s mobile unit] not only speak Spanish but understand the culture, understand the issues that are occurring,” he said. “They probably are people from their own community,” he added, which can be “very valuable.”

Helping Hispanics. As of 2023, over 19% of the US population is Hispanic and/or Latino. But according to a 2022 Pew Research study, only about half of uninsured Hispanic adults had a primary care doctor, suggesting this demographic may be less likely to receive preventative care.

“If you don’t have access to it or you don’t even have an understanding of why you should be doing that, then you could be walking around for a long time with [an illness like] diabetes,” Burgos said.

And by the time it becomes clear there’s something wrong, he added, patients will end up going to the emergency room. Hispanic patients have the most avoidable ER visits and were more likely to have three or more visits in a six-month period, according to an October research article in the Journal of Primary Care and Community Health.

One of Mixteca’s goals is to encourage people to follow up with doctors and establish preventative care.

“We’re trying to implement these testings so the community can see how they are doing [health-wise], and based on that, they can seek more help,” Galeana said.

Another way to build upon this is to train the next generation of Hispanic providers who can relate to this growing patient demographic, which is a part of NHMA’s mission. For instance, Burgos pointed to a fellowship program NHMA offers to cultivate “better leaders and advocates for their community” as well as campaigns to increase Hispanic and Latino enrollment in medical school.

Only 9% of all healthcare practitioners and 7% of physicians and surgeons are Hispanic, according to Pew’s research.

“Healthcare in general is incredibly confusing,” Burgos said. “So imagine, then, taking that to a level where you don’t know the culture, you don’t know the language, you’re new to it. It’s extremely difficult to navigate.”