Community healthcare centers provide high-quality care, support economic activity in communities and generate a positive return on investment, according to the National Association of Community Health Centers.
Those conclusions were included in a policy brief, titled “Community Health Centers: The Local Prescription for Better Quality and Lower Costs,” that was released Tuesday by the NACHC.
The NACHC is scheduled to host a discussion about the new policy brief from 10:30 a.m. to noon Tuesday on Capitol Hill with Ron Yee, MD, chief medical officer of the United Health Centers of San Joaquin Valley, Calif.; Rod Manifold, executive director of Central Virginia Health Services; Michelle Proser, MPP, director of research for the NACHC; and Kaitlin McColgan, director of federal affairs for the NACHC.
The brief and Tuesday’s discussion are designed to highlight the cost-effectiveness of community healthcare centers and their importance in their communities.
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According to the NACHC, community healthcare centers save $24 billion annually – $1,263 per person – and that savings is expected to increase an additional $122 billion by 2015 as community healthcare centers expand into new, underserved areas. An estimated $55 billion of that projected savings would come from Medicaid, with $32 billion saved for the federal government and the rest of the savings for the states.
Community healthcare centers operate in more than 8,000 locations, serving 23 million patients and providing one-quarter of all primary care visits for the nation’s low-income population. The services they offer range from preventative and primary care to dental, behavioral health, pharmacy and chronic illness management.
The average per-patient per-day cost for community healthcare centers is $1.67, according to the NACHC, which is nearly a dollar lower than for physician settings ($2.64) and significantly lower than in-hospital visits ($41.36).
Community healthcare centers can achieve these lower costs, says the NACHC, because they are efficient providers of preventive and primary care services, which results in a reduction in “unnecessary, avoidable, and wasteful use of health resources and a reduction in the rate of preventable hospitalizations, inpatient days, and emergency department use.”
The brief explains that the centers use a team approach – with physicians, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, nurses, social workers, case managers, behavioral health specialists, dental providers, health educators, outreach workers and others working together to improve patient outcomes and reduce health disparities.
Community healthcare centers are economic drivers in their communities, the NACHC says. A federal government investment of $2.2 billion in community healthcare centers in 2009 resulted in the creation of 189,158 jobs in some of the country’s poorest areas. That same investment created $20 billion in total economic benefits to poor, rural and urban communities.
If the federal government continues to invest in community healthcare centers through 2015, says the NACHC, economic activity from the centers is predicted to balloon to $53.9 billion and 284,323 new jobs will be created.
"Health centers by nature exemplify the basic tenets of a patient-centered medical home," the NACHC brief concluded. "They serve as a place and a relationship in which patients can receive preventive and primary care, make sense of their conditions, integrate their care and be coached on changing their behaviors to improve their overall health."
"... health centers continue to go beyond the basic definition of a medical home," the brief added. "Their broad population health focus, scope of services and team-based care classify health centers more appropriately as 'healthcare homes.'"