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Benefits for Public Healthcare
Funding Agencies -- Better Health for More People at Lower Cost
A HIPAA-compliant patient cross-referral and scheduling system, our CHConnect
solution helps redirect patients from hospital ERs to community
health centers for follow-up primary or specialty care.
This patient
redirection results in reduced subsequent non-urgent ER use and can
save up to $18 billion in annual healthcare costs nationally, according
to the National Association of Community Health Clinics (NACHC).
Those cost savings can be reallocated to initiatives
fostering better health for more people.
Current
Problem
- Patient visits at emergency rooms (ERs)
have risen every year. From 1997 to 2002, 97 million ER visits surged
to nearly 114 million
visits annually, while the number of hospital ERs decreased from 4,270
to 4,037.
- Nearly half of hospitals have reported
that they were at or over capacity. ER waiting times have increased by
33%. About 40% of hospitals reported that they had diverted emergency
patients to other presumably less crowded facilities.
- Ironically, anywhere between 10 and 50%
of all ER visits are for non-urgent and avoidable conditions, and the
medically underserved are more likely to make such visits. If those
patients seeking non-urgent and/or primary care at ERs went to
community health clinics (CHCs) instead, a minimum of $148.67 could be
saved per patient visit. ("A Nation's Health at Risk II";, NACHC, 2004).
- CHCs are a viable means to alleviating
the ER problem as they have been able to reduce unnecessary ER visits
among all of their patients, not just Medicaid patients, due to
improved access to continuous, primary care -- leading to decreased
hospitalizations. As a result, communities are able to prevent as many
emergencies as possible, treat as many conditions as possible in the
CHC primary care facilities, and then use ERs appropriately for
emergency cases.
Why
Community Health Centers (CHCs)?
- CHCs are non-profit, community supported
health care providers which offer primary and preventive health care
services to low-income, underinsured and uninsured families. They offer
a sliding fee schedule based on family income.
- CHCs provide comprehensive health care
for about $1.30 a day per patient served. In fact, medical care at CHCs
is around $250 less than the average annual expenditure for an
office-based medical provider. (2000 Uniform Data System DHHS; Olin GL.
"National Health Care Expenses in U.S. Community Population, 2000."
Statistical Brief #27 DHHS. 2003).
- CHCs provide preventive screening and
comprehensive care to save money and lives by treating diseases before
they become chronic conditions or require hospital care.
- CHCs save the Medicaid program 30% in
annual spending due to reduced specialty care referrals and fewer
hospital admissions. ("A Nation's Health At Risk II, Special Topics Issue Brief #7," NACHC,
August 2004).
- CHCs, on the other hand, save the
Medicaid
program 30% in annual spending due to reduced specialty care referrals
and fewer hospital admissions. ("A Nation's Health At Risk II, Special
Topics Issue Brief #7," National Association of Community Health
Centers, August 2004).
- There are 4,906 CHC sites located
throughout the 50 states and serving 15 million people. $2 billion federal dollars are being
invested in CHCs. Additional money is requested for creating and
expanding CHC sites to serve more people.
Our
Solution
Since CHCs are cost-effective healthcare providers and are in the midst
of a historic expansion initiative, it makes sense to ensure that their
services are fully
utilized. Redirecting non-urgent and/or primary care treatable ER
visits to them would increase their utilization. It can also save up to
$18 billion in annual healthcare costs nationally. ("2006 Data on Community Health
Centers", NACHC, 2006).
Contact
Us
We will discuss CHConnect with you, understand
your community healthcare
needs and verify that CHConnect will indeed help your community and that your
organization will achieve ROI for using CHConnect. Contact
us now.
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