The Central Neighborhood Health Foundation has been providing basic health care services to the working poor and uninsured in a 71-square-mile area of Los Angeles County since the late 1960s.
In 2004, the clinic was approved as a Federally Qualified Health Center program (FQHC), a federal program that channels state and federal dollars to centers such as Central Neighborhood that provide a disproportionate share of services to Medicaid patients and the uninsured. In California, nearly three million people are treated every year at over 1,000 locations by the state’s 118 federally supported health centers. (more…)
The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) is an ambitious endeavor to improve health care in the United States. One of the ACA’s key features is the Accountable Care Organization (ACO). ACOs will contract with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to provide comprehensive coordinated services for a defined population of Medicare beneficiaries. If they meet quality standards and reduce costs, ACOs will share in the savings.