Patient Care Access News

Are rising US maternal mortality rates inflated?

March 15, 2024 - A new study published in the American Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology is calling into question the high US maternal mortality rate, stating that many of the maternal deaths documented in the United States are not due to pregnancy or childbirth. Update 2024/03/15: This article has been updated with a public statement from the American College...


Articles

Behavioral healthcare access in community health centers up 40%

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The number of behavioral health visits to community health centers soared by nearly 40 percent between 2018 and 2022, but if these care sites are to continue to meet patient demand, they’ll need...

White House Commits to Ending Hunger, Diet-Related Illness by 2030

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The White House kicked off the White House Challenge to End Hunger and Build Healthy Communities yesterday, leading industry standouts like Missouri-based health system Ascension and health IT vendor...

Is SNAP the Solution to Healthcare’s Medication Adherence Woes?

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Connecting patients experiencing food insecurity with SNAP benefits could improve medication adherence by as much as nearly 14 percent, according to new data from The Ohio State University. The study,...

Racially Diverse ZIP Codes See Disparities in MAT Access

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ZIP codes with more racial and ethnic diversity have markedly fewer buprenorphine prescribers and far lower rates of dispensed buprenorphine prescriptions, according to researchers from the University...

Updated HHS Health Equity Action Plan Focuses on Care Access

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HHS has unveiled the 2023 update to its Health Equity Action Plan, hitting key points like childhood health and well-being, equitable access to care, and maternal and infant health equity, among other...

Patient Clinical Needs, Provider Skill Set Misalign 57% of the Time

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“It’s not you, it’s me.” For nearly three in five patients, the clinician they meet with is a bad fit for their current medical needs, according to new Zocdoc data, presenting a...

How Community Health Centers Support Transitions Out of Incarceration

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As the healthcare industry continues to eye better transitions of care for patients who are recently incarcerated, community health centers agree they are poised to fill the gap, according to a new...

How a Primary Care-Based Housing Instability Program Cut Outpatient Utilization

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A community health worker-led program to address housing instability was effective at reducing primary care and outpatient care overutilization, proving that addressing the social determinant of health...

HHS Launches 3 Public-Private Partnerships for Food Is Medicine Efforts

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HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra used last week’s Food is Medicine summit to unveil three new public-private partnerships with Instacart, the Rockefeller Foundation, and Feeding America, all with the...

Gender-Affirming Care Access Laws Affect 38% of Trans Youth

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Nearly two-fifths of trans youth ages 13 to 17 live in a state with legal restrictions to gender-affirming care access, which is the result of 23 states enacting such policies, according to a new KFF...

VA Cuts Homelessness, SDOH by 55% with Housing First Model

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The Veterans Health Administration (VHA) was able to reduce homelessness by 55 percent over a 13-year period, demonstrating the power of integrating social determinants of health interventions into the...

What’s Driving Pediatric Use of Urgent Care & Retail Health?

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More kids are accessing healthcare in a retail setting, with care access in grocery store clinics, pharmacy clinics, and urgent care centers up from 2021 to 2022, according to the Centers for Disease...

Preventable Hospitalizations More Common for Black Patients

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Black Medicaid enrollees are more likely to experience a preventable hospitalization than their White counterparts, according to a new report, a trend that researchers at the Urban Institute said...

55% of Rural Orgs Lack Labor & Delivery, Cause Maternity Deserts

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Maternity deserts are a growing problem in the United States, especially for rural hospitals that have to shutter labor and delivery departments at higher rates than their urban counterparts, according...

SDOH, Transportation Access a Problem for 5.7% of Patients

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Transportation access continues to be a leading social determinant of health, with new CDC data showing it affected 5.7 percent of adults over the course of 12 months. The report, which used 2022...

HHS Finalizes Religious Rights Rules Protecting Patient Care Access

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HHS has finalized the last piece of the puzzle to restore the government’s process for handling complaints of conscience and religious discrimination, which the agency said will improve patient...

Care Coordination Model Increases Primary Care Follow-Up Access

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The Camden Coalition’s model for care management and care coordination may not have achieved its initial aims of reducing hospital readmissions, but the program was successful in improving...

Uber Health’s Health IT Deal to Ease Transportation, SDOH Referral

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Health IT company Socially Determined is teaming up with Uber Health to make it easier for payers and providers to flag patients with social determinants of health barriers, like transportation access,...

More Patients Visit NPs & PAs as Usual Source of Care, Primary Care

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The landscape for people’s usual source of care is changing, with fewer people reporting a regular primary care provider, according to a Fast Facts report from the Employee Benefit Research...