Featured Post

By Evan Osborne, MPH, RT(T)

Communities are facing a crisis in healthcare. Patients are choosing to feed their families over purchasing essential prescriptions for chronic diseases. Due to a lack of transportation, vulnerable and underprivileged demographics are purchasing cheap, unhealthy non-perishables at convenience stores rather than health-conscious options at grocers just a few miles away. Non-English-speaking patients are being discharged from hospitals only to return because they did not understand the post-discharge instructions. These are just a few challenges faced daily in communities suffering from low health equity.

In 2014, evidence-based research ranked the U.S. as last overall in comparison to 11 industrialized nations measured in quality, efficiency, access to care, equity and healthy living (Mahon, 2014). In September 2015, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) Office of Minority Health released their equity plan for improving quality in Medicare. The mission of this plan strategized the benefits of advancing health equity by improving quality of care within minority and other underserved Medicare beneficiaries (CMS.gov, 2015). This proposal was catalyzed by the Affordable Care Act, Healthy People 2020 and other leading federal agencies driving nationwide health initiatives. Furthermore, Medicare spending grew 4.2% to $705.9 billion in 2018 (CMS.gov, 2019). This historical data coincides with other trends highlighting the use of excess funds and care being directed towards disparities within specific populations and demographics. Influenced by modern healthcare’s transition from fee-for-service to value-based purchasing reimbursement models, the risk in caring for populations suffering from health disparities has grown exponentially. 

By Tony Cowan

Regardless of a patient’s insurance provider or deductible, the most expensive way to begin a medical treatment is by starting it in the emergency room. Tragically, the number of people who are using emergency rooms as their primary care provider is growing as nearly half of all U.S. medical care is delivered by emergency departments, according to a study by researchers at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. 

This is leading to complications, including crippling volumes in emergency rooms, extraordinarily high Medicare fines for readmittance, and challenges for independent practices protecting their parts in the community’s health care infrastructure. 

A critical step in decreasing the need for people to turn to emergency rooms is the use of mobile medical units, which can help hospitals and physician groups reduce costs and increase patient volume while still providing a superior level of service to the patient.