3 minute read
Primary Care News
from Repertoire June 22
Walmart Health expands to Florida with five new health centers
Florida families can now experience convenient access to health care with the opening of five new Walmart Health centers across North and Central Florida. The openings mark Walmart Health’s expansion into Florida, beginning with the new Jacksonville location at 7075 Collins Rd., situated adjacent to the Collins Road Supercenter. At least four additional locations in Florida will open in the Jacksonville, Orlando, and Tampa areas.
Situated adjacent to Walmart Supercenters, these convenient state-of-the-art Walmart Health centers provide a range of services, including primary care, labs, X-ray and EKG, behavioral health and counseling, dental, optical, hearing, and more. Onsite Walmart Care Hosts and Community Health Workers will help customers navigate their visit, understand resources and be a familiar presence for regular visits.
Walmart is committed to Florida with more than 380 retail locations and 120,000 associates. The company is excited to meet the needs of Florida’s residents as the state’s population grows. From 2010 to 2019, Florida’s population grew 13%, more than double the total U.S. population growth.
AMA: Physicians “enthusiastic” about telehealth
An American Medical Association (AMA) survey showed physicians have enthusiastically embraced telehealth and expect to use it even more in the future.
Nearly 85% of physician respondents indicated they are currently using telehealth to care for patients, and nearly 70% report their organization is motivated to continue using telehealth in their practice. Many physicians foresee providing telehealth services for chronic disease management and ongoing medical management, care coordination, mental/behavioral health, and specialty care.
The survey comes as Congress recently extended the availability of telehealth for Medicare patients beyond the current COVID-19 public health emergency. Additional action by Congress will be needed to permanently provide access to Medicare telehealth services.
As physicians and practices plan to expand telehealth services, they say widespread adoption hinges on preventing a return to the previous lack of insurance coverage and little to no payer reimbursement. Payers, both public and private, should continue to evaluate and improve policies, coverage, and payment rates for services provided via telehealth.
“Physicians view telehealth as providing quality care to their patients, and policymakers and payers have come to the same conclusion. Patients will benefit immensely from this new era of improved access to care,” said AMA President Gerald E. Harmon, M.D. “This survey shows adoption of the technology is widespread as is the demand for continued access. It is critical that Congress takes action and makes permanent telehealth access for Medicare patients.”
The California Health Care Foundation announced a “first-of-its-kind” study examining the level of primary care investment specifically in the state’s health care market. The study measured primary care spending, as a proportion of overall spending, among eight health plans and their product offerings, covering 80% of commercially insured adults in California (13.9 million). The study also took a deeper look at the primary care spending of 180 separate provider organizations, comprising 8.5 million adults enrolled in HMO plans, or nearly half of California’s commercially insured adults.
To measure the impact of primary care investment on care quality, researchers compared provider organizations on measures including the share of members who received recommended breast cancer, cervical cancer, and colorectal cancer screenings; received appropriate medications; and who had their diabetes care goals met. Among the key findings: ʯ The percentage of primary care spending varied more than twofold among the plans, from a low of 4.9% to high of 11.4%, mostly below other states’ recommended levels of 9% to 12%. ʯ Greater investment in primary care among health plans was associated with better quality care and fewer hospital visits. ʯ Among the provider organizations, larger investments in primary care were associated with better quality, better patient experience, and fewer hospital and emergency room visits, as well as a lower total cost of care. ʯ If provider organizations in the lower brackets of primary care spending matched those in the highest bracket of spending, 25,000 acute hospital
