Medicare $$ Needed to Help State-Licensed Emergency Centers Survive, Lawmakers Told
If freestanding emergency centers (FECs) are to survive and help underserved rural communities, they should be allowed to receive Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement, which they cannot currently do, an FEC executive told members of the House Ways and Means Health Subcommittee Monday. “The model doesn’t work unless we can get Medicare and Medicaid,” Robert Morris, […]
Opinion | Can Healthcare Deserts Be Transformed Into Oases?
Providing first-rate healthcare to underserved rural and urban communities is one of the great unmet challenges of recent decades. These low-income neighborhoods have been left behind and feel the pain of healthcare shortages most acutely. The root of this problem is a misaligned system of incentives. Healthcare providers have had little financial motivation to offer […]
HIV Self-Tests Reached High-Risk Populations
Direct-to-consumer HIV self-testing helped to reach underserved populations in areas at high risk for HIV infection, a researcher said. In an ordering portal set up by the CDC, over 56,000 people placed an order for HIV self-tests, and according to a follow-up survey, about a quarter (26%) of those had never been tested for HIV, […]