Funding Interests
Community Primary Care
Improving access to healthcare and investing in our region’s “safety net” organizations are critical to the strength of the entire healthcare delivery system. Safety net organizations provide care to the uninsured and underinsured throughout our community. If these organizations are unable to keep up with the needs of the populations they serve, then the whole system is weakened and at risk. And, if people do not have the means to get healthcare—whether it’s a way to pay for care or a way to get to care—the overall health of the community is diminished.
sIn our region, primary care providers in the safety net are challenged by Medicaid funding cuts, the re-emergence of managed care, rising unemployment, healthcare workforce shortages, and growing numbers of uninsured patients, chronically ill patients, and immigrant populations. Yet, these providers maintain their commitment to serving uninsured and low income populations. Federal policy has consistently supported federally qualified health centers (FQHCs). However, the majority of existing health centers and other local providers have yet to overcome hurdles of insufficient resources, weak internal operations, and limited service collaboration.
Strategies
Community Primary Care has as one strategy that is being funded:
The Foundation has also funded grants in Infrastructure and Systems Development and Delivery of Services to Selected Populations stratagies, that are no longer funded.
Logic Models
Each focus area has a logic model for each strategy, to view the severe mental illness logic models, click here.
Community Primary Care Advisory Group
The Health Foundation convened an Advisory Group of primary care providers and social service experts in 1998 to assist in understanding the status of primary care services for the uninsured and underserved people in our region. This Advisory Group also helped the Health Foundation develop two strategies to target funding toward strengthening community primary care in ways that the community needs most. The Advisory Group also led us to create Access Health 100.
When the Health Foundation launched the Access Health 100 initiative in 2006, we brought together a steering committee to help us shape the initiative and develop a community-wide solution to ensuring 100% access to care. The Steering Committee, chaired by Dolores Lindsay of The HealthCare Connection and Ken Page of Mercy Health Partners, meets regularly to discuss what is happening in the initiative and to determine future work. For a complete list of Access Health 100 Steering Committee members, please visit our web site at www.accesshealth100.org.