$200K in Funding for Mich. Medicaid Beneficiary Care Access
By - On February 23, The Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan (BCBSM) Foundation and Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan announced $200,000 in a handful of grants for Medicaid Beneficiary care access. Grants will assist with funding for Michigan’s residents’ limited or unavailable health insurance coverage for specialty care.
Insurance expansion movements under the Affordable Care Act (AMA) have generated access for thousands of Michigan residents to primary care.
“The grants [encourage] the sharing of best practices among safety net providers, which helps to close the gaps in specialty care throughout Michigan,” Blue Cross Executive Vice President Lynda Rossi said in public statement .
The focus of the grants on Medicaid beneficiaries stems from recent jarring statistics demonstrating that one-third of all current physicians will likely retire within the next decade — as will the aging Baby Boomer population.
Severe physician shortages in the number of practicing primary care and specialist physicians are anticipated within the next ten years, according to the AAMC. By 2020, it is projected America will experience a shortage of 90,000 doctors. The Census Bureau projects the number of Americans over 65 – those with the greatest health care needs — to increase by over 1/3 at this time.
The 2015 physician shortage for all specialties – including primary care, surgical, and medical — is reported as 62,900. By 2025, this number is anticipated to double, says the AAMC.
Likewise, the 2015 physician shortage (non-primary care specialties) is reported at 33,100. The 2025 figure is projected as 64,800.
Most greatly impacted are 20 percent of Americans classified as the “vulnerable and underserved” populations, primarily those residing in rural or inner-cities with already dire professional shortages.
Although the number of primary care physicians continues to increase, having doubled within the past thirty years, older patients are generally sicker, longer, with “multiple chronic conditions that require more time and coordination.”
“It is likely that shortages will become even more acute now that the ACA is extending health insurance coverage,” according to BCBSM Foundation.
Consequently, since cancer diagnoses are 100 percent more likely in older adults, more medical professionals will require adequate training. Educating and training physicians generally requires a decade of time, meaning residency programs will require expansion.
The number of medical schools is growing — perhaps by 7,000 more graduates every year over the next decade.
Similarly, a recent survey of Michigan’s Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHC’s) demonstrated the state reported difficulty obtaining specialty care in the areas of neurology, psychiatry, dermatology and Ear, Nose & Throat (ENT) services.
The survey also concluded difficulties with transportation barriers when patients needed to be transported to distant cities. Long wait times between referrals and appointments were also reported.
Free clinics, hybrid clinics, federally qualified health centers, look-alike health centers, tribal health centers, rural health centers are eligible to apply, as are organizations/clinics that received 2014 Strengthening the Safety Net grants.
Projects will be assessed and judged by their overall significance to improve access to specialty medical care services and patient health services, possible evidence of feasibility and effectiveness, potential of replication in an alternative setting, ability to be sustained successfully beyond the grant period, and overall quality of invited proposals.
Applicants are encouraged to use any strategy which best achieves the proposal’s aim. Suggestions include reducing the demand for specialty care, expanding the supply of available services, and/or intensifying the coordination of care.
Qualified clinics may submit a letter of interest packet via electronic submission by a March 6 deadline. Full proposals will then be requested from selected organizations by due April 10, 2015. Submission of these full proposals is due May 8, 2015.
