Commonwealth Fund Releases Safety Net Inventory Reports
A collection of 13 reports that inventory the background data collected by the University of Iowa Public Policy Center Health Policy program regarding the safety net providers and payers in Iowa will be released by the study funded by The Commonwealth Fund (CMWF) on Monday, October 28. These reports are part of a larger project supported by the CMWF to assess the impact of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) on the primary care safety net using Iowa as a model for the country.
To view the reports, click here.
Insurance expansion and other provisions of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) have the potential to significantly alter the financing and patient populations of the health care safety net. The “Health Care Safety Net in Iowa Post-Health Care Reform” project used Iowa as a laboratory to evaluate the potential impacts of the ACA on states and identifying opportunities for integration and coordination of safety net providers and payers into the rest of the health care delivery system.
"These inventory reports bring together all the available information on the primary care safety net providers and payers in Iowa and provide the foundation for an evaluation of the impact ACA on those who support care for the underserved in the state." Says Peter Damiano, Director of the UI Public Policy Center and the principal investigator for this study.
The primary objectives of this study were to:
• Inventory the current funding, expenditures, and infrastructure of the health care safety net at the state level, using Iowa as an example.
• Evaluate the potential implications of the ACA on funding, expenditures and capacity of the safety net.
• Develop and evaluate strategies for improving integration and coordination of safety net providers and organizations within the health care delivery system such as community care teams and Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs).
This project emphasizes the impact of the ACA on the primary care safety net, identified for this study as:
• Providers-primary care safety net:
o Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs), Rural Health Clinics, Title X funded Family Planning Clinics, Free Clinics, and Adult community-based mental health
• Payers-primary care safety net:
o Medicaid, Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP), Medicare, Ryan White, IowaCare
• Other services-primary care safety net
o Oral health, public health and other block grants, uninsured
Additional support for the study was provided by the Dentaquest Foundation and Wellmark Foundation of Iowa.
To view the reports, click here.