Community Healthcare Newsletter

As our nation’s leaders continue to forge forward and progress toward healthcare reform in an effort to make quality health care affordable and accessible to everyone, the health care crisis and the economy continue to impact the most vulnerable populations. OHI can see the impact to our patient population, as our patient encounters have grown 17% to date over the 71,000 encounters we serviced last year.

Currently, a growing number of New Jersey residents go without health insurance and others are faced with decreasing access to affordable healthcare. They can turn to what is known as the “safety net” for their healthcare needs—those healthcare providers who maintain an open door to patients regardless of their ability to pay. At the core of our state and our nation is the “safety net” - the Federally Qualified Health Centers or FQHCs.

FQHCs play a critical role in maintaining the healthcare safety net in New Jersey and across the nation. They follow a community-based, comprehensive primary healthcare model which focuses on outreach, disease prevention, and patient education activities.

They provide quality and affordable care for people who are underserved by America’s healthcare system: the poor, uninsured, and homeless; minorities; migrant and seasonal workers; public housing residents; and people with limited English proficiency. The FQHC model provides the highest level of quality care which is now attracting the insured populations as well, further enforcing the dedication an FQHC provides.
Multiple studies document the efficacy of health centers in reducing the delivery of low birth weight babies, reducing hospitalizations for patients with chronic conditions, and providing preventive women’s health services. All of these positive outcomes are accomplished with limited financial resources.

The impact of FQHCs, by the numbers:

• The White House Office of Management and Budget has ranked health centers as one of the 10 most effective government programs – a designation earned by only six percent of all federal programs. (expectmore.gov)
• The annual care costs of health centers are $250 less per patient than private providers. (NACHC.org)
• FQHCs reduce costly emergency, hospital, and specialty care, and save the health care system $24 billion a year nationally. (NACHC.org)

According to the New Jersey Primary Care Association (NJPCA), a nonprofit corporation, 422,000 patients were served in New Jersey in 2010 by health centers. FQHCs continue to be great partners to hospitals in New Jersey by implementing emergency room diversion programs, providing staff to round on the hospital floors, and become the medical home for patients seen in the emergency rooms who do not have one. Additionally, and most importantly, FQHCs are the medical home to thousands of patients, thus helping to reduce the charity care burden on the nation and hospital systems.

With the state of our nation’s economy, FQHCs will continue to play a significant role in providing primary care services for the uninsured and underinsured in New Jersey and across the country. It is a fact that more adults and children are now relying on the “safety net” as their only system of care, including those who were once considered part of the medical and economic mainstream.

For this reason, it is imperative for everyone to understand the meaning of FQHCs, which is a valuable resource in the community, and we hope you help to support their funding so that FQHCs can continue to play a crucial role in maintaining the healthcare safety net in New Jersey and across the country.

Theresa Berger, MD
Chief Executive Officer