The impact of funding for federally qualified health centers on utilization and emergency department visits in Massachusetts.

ABSTRACT:

Importance

Federally qualified health centers (FQHCs) receive federal funding to serve medically underserved areas and provide a range of services including comprehensive primary care, enabling services, and behavioral health care. Greater funding for FQHCs could increase the local availability of clinic-based care and help reduce more costly resource use, such as emergency department visits (ED).

Objective

To examine the impact of funding increases for FQHCs after the ACA on the use of FQHCs and EDs.

Methods

Retrospective study using the Massachusetts All Payer Claims Database (APCD) 2010-2013 that included APCD enrollees in 559 Massachusetts ZIP codes (N = 6,173,563 in 2010). We calculated shift-share predictions of changes in FQHC funding at the ZIP code-level for

SUBMITTER: Myong C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7714363 | biostudies-literature | 2020

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature