Expanding health centers to reach an additional 20 million patients would result in overall healthcare savings of $212 billion over the 10-year period from 2010 to 2019, including federal Medicaid savings of $59 billion.
These findings are contained in a new study titled "Using Primary Care to Bend the Curve: Estimating the Impact of a Health Center Expansion on Health Care Costs," conducted by faculty at The George Washington University School of Public Health and Health Services.
Leighton Ku, director of the Center for Health Policy Research at GW, said it is widely acknowledged that health centers provide better primary care in an efficient way. Particularly, community health centers have been shown to help diabetics and asthmatics manage and control their diseases well.
“This is something that saves money for the federal government and saves money for the health system overall,” Ku said. “Indeed, it does look as though it bends the curve.”
The dollar value of the expected savings far exceeds the cost of the health center investment of $38.8 billion called for in the July 14 version of the House health reform bill, the study reveals.
"These estimates underscore the importance of simultaneous investments in both health insurance reform and health center expansion funding to create sustainable primary care for medically underserved communities," said Sara Rosenbaum, chairwoman of the Department of Health Policy at GW.
The study is the third in a series examining the link between national health reform proposals and community health centers. It estimates the cost savings that would be realized by making important investments in non-profit health centers as an element of national health reform.
Rosenbaum said health centers would serve 19 million patients in 2009, generating health system savings of $24 billion because of the lower overall medical expenditures associated with health center patients.
She said the study also found that coupling insurance reforms with a 20-million patient increase in health center capacity over the next 10 years would generate an additional $35.6 billion in savings in the year 2019. From 2010 to 2019, cumulative health system savings would reach an estimated $212 billion.
"The direct federal investment in health centers needs to go hand-in-hand with insurance expansion for low income patients," said Julio Bellber, president and CEO of the RCHN Community Health Foundation. "Together they can create an economic engine that will allow us to extend the high quality, primary healthcare home model to all communities."
Belber said the savings projected under the study reinforce the premise that health insurance coverage expansions, coupled with investments in the nation's primary healthcare infrastructure, can spur high-quality, sustainable primary care in medically underserved communities.
He noted that if payments to health centers by insurers operating in a health insurance exchange are set at Medicaid's prospective payment rate, the number of new patients served would rise from 20 million to 22 million, with more than 41 million patients served. This would raise the cumulative healthcare savings to $251 billion from 2010-2019.
The study also found that, at 20 million additional patients served, Medicaid savings would reach $59 billion over the 10-year time frame. If the number of additional patients served by health centers rose to 22 million, federal Medicaid savings would exceed $70 billion over 10 years.