Over the last 2 decades, community health centers (CHCs) have grown in number and capacity to meet the needs of the uninsured and Medicaid populations. This growth has been accelerated by the Affordable Care Act (ACA), which extended Medicaid eligibility beginning January 1, 2014 to include those with family incomes of less than 138% of…
In recent years, the next generation accountable care organization (Next Gen ACO) model has emerged as a solution for lowering costs and increasing quality of care. However, there is little understanding about how workforce roles differ in this new model of care. This report describes a study that conducted interviews with leadership at eighteen different…
Few studies have examined practice redesign to understand how staffing changed with the adoption of patient-centered medical homes (PCMH), and whether these staffing changes impacted utilization. This article examines the workforce transformation occurring in community health centers that have achieved PCMH status and assesses the relationship of those changes to utilization, as measured by the…
The rate of Medicare recipients seeking care in health professional shortage areas (HPSAs) has been increasing. The National Health Survey Corps (NHSC) has been important for helping to staff HPSAs, but little is known about the role of these providers in caring for Medicare recipients. This abstract describes a study that used Medicare billing data…
The use of telehealth has increased dramatically from 2013 to 2016 as many state policies have become more favorable towards telehealth. However, it is unclear whether these policies have led to higher rates of telehealth use for underserved populations. This article describes an analysis of consumer survey data to examine how telehealth use rates have…
The Social Mission Metrics Initiative (SMMI) develops a survey instrument that health organizations can use to measure the success of their social mission. Developing such a standardized survey instrument requires that the relative importance of different elements of social mission success are weighted appropriately. This brief describes a study that surveyed hundreds of stakeholders at…
Medication-assisted treatment (MAT) has been shown to be effective for treating patients suffering from opioid use disorders (OUD), but there is a shortage of providers with Drug Addiction Treatment Act (DATA) waivers to provide such treatment. Designing policies that would assist in the retention of MAT providers who prescribe buprenorphine is dependent upon learning more…
Federal programs such as the National Health Survey Corps (NHSC) are important for ensuring an adequate supply of primary care professionals in underserved areas. However, we know little about how much NHSC clinicians expand patient capacity at the organizations in which they serve. This article describes a study that examined longitudinal administrative data at more…
The National Health Service Corps (NHSC) is a federal program aimed at increasing the number of health professionals in underserved communities. The program’s ability to influence the capacity of community health centers (CHCs) has not yet been investigated. This study examines the role of NHSC clinicians in improving staffing and patient care capacity in primary,…
Community health centers are a vital part of the primary and behavioral health care systems in rural areas. This article compares the staffing and services at these centers in both rural and urban communities. Findings show that behavioral health staff currently participating in the National Health Service Corps (NHSC) contributed more to visits for depression…
