Health Centers

"Hello, I am Eli Adashi, professor of medical science at Brown University and host of Medscape One-on-One. Joining me today is Dr. Mary Wakefield, administrator of the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA). An agency of the Department of Health and Human Services, HRSA is committed to improving access to healthcare services for some of our nation's most vulnerable citizens. Welcome."

"After receiving a significant amount of feedback about the initial proposed rules for Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) under the Medicare Shared Savings Program (MSSP) – along the lines of 1200 comments and hours of testimony in dozens of listening sessions – the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) decided to make many concessions to the wishes of health care providers and potential ACOs."

"With medical costs spiraling upward and state-paid insurance coverage evaporating, you might think hospitals would discourage patients with sprains and cuts from coming to their emergency rooms for care that would cost much less in clinics or urgent-care centers. But you'd be wrong."

"In-store medical clinics like those at Walmart – having established a beachhead with relatively healthy patients looking for convenient, low-cost care for simple problems – are eyeing a bigger prize, the millions of Americans with costly illnesses such as diabetes and heart disease."

"The nation's largest retailer is planning to offer medical services ranging from the management of diabetes to HIV infections, NPR and Kaiser Health News have learned. In the same week in late October that Wal-Mart said it would stop offering health insurance benefits to new part-time employees, the retailer sent out a request for partners to help it 'dramatically ... lower the cost of healthcare ... by becoming the largest provider of primary healthcare services in the nation.'"

"On October 24, 2011, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services announced that 500 Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHC) have been selected for the FQHC Advanced Primary Care Practice (APCP) demonstration project from over 800 applicants.  The initiative is designed to evaluate the impact of the advanced primary care practice model, also known as the patient-centered medical home, on improving health, improving quality of care, and lowering the cost of care provided to Medicare beneficiaries served by FQHCs."