Study: 'Investments in Community Health Centers Have Paid off for Patients'
Investments in Community Health Centers are paying off in terms of providing cost-effective access to quality care for the nation's uninsured, according to research published in the February 2010 issue of Health Affairs. The public radio program Marketplace reports on the study in a piece that is expected to air tonight and appears on the show's website now.
According to a Health Affairs press release,
Based on their study, the authors predict that a $500,000 increase in grant support for all centers would provide treatment for an additional 500,000 uninsured patients.
The authors say that these findings bode well for effective use of the more than $2 billion in funds provided to Community Health Centers under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. The stimulus funding was the largest one-time investment in the centers in their history - and this study shows that in previous years, the centers used such investments to increase the care provided to low-income or underserved patients.
Researchers examined effects on care of investments in 1996-2006 from federal, state and local or private sources to so-called Federally Qualified Community Health Centers. These are "safety net" providers such as community health centers, public housing centers, outpatient health programs funded by the Indian Health Service, and programs serving migrants and the homeless that meet federal criteria for receiving funding. Federal grants to federally qualified community health centers, for example, have grown from roughly $550 million in 1990 to nearly $2 billion in 2007.
The study authors found that these and other public dollars helped increase virtually all services, especially mental health and substance abuse treatment and counseling.
on-site 24-hour services.
The authors predict that an additional $500,000 in federal grants to federally qualified health clinics would help provide $135,000 worth of free or discounted care and could translate into 540 more uninsured patients who receive treatment. If Federally Qualified Health Centers leveraged their federal grant support to gain additional state, local, and private grant dollars, this could lead to higher levels of service and more care for the uninsured, the researchers conclude.
View the full press release. The study is available free only to registered Health Affairs subscribers/users, but the abstract can be found here.
Marketplace health reporter Gregory Warner filed a piece on the study, focusing on Esperanza Health Center in North Philadelphia.
Centers reduce expensive hospital visits by focusing on preventative care and community outreach. A new study published today reports that community centers are also more effective than many hospitals at channeling federal money to the uninsured. Professor Anthony Lo Sasso at the University of Illinois authored the study.
Anthony Lo Sasso: For every dollar that they receive in federal grants, a little over 25 cents of that dollar actually goes to uncompensated care.
Doctor [Tim] Leaman [at Esperanza] says that uninsured patients can feel so stigmatized that they don't seek care until the last minute, and it's often in a hospital emergency room. He says it takes a familiar face to gain people's trust.
