Healthcare For Compton's Homeless & Uninsured

Health care access

Expand existing project, program, or initiative (expanding and continuing ongoing, successful work)

Our Uninsured Patient Care Program was created in 2016 to address the increase in the number of low income, uninsured and homeless individuals residing in Compton and surrounding communities. The numbers have continued to rise exponentially in the post pandemic period as the effects of inflation, rising unemployment and the recent public health sector insurance eligibility restrictions and renewals which continue to cause individuals to lose their health insurance coverage. Our program was created to specifically address and counteract these damaging trends. We provide non-emergency, primary care medical services to infants, children and adults regardless of race, religion, ethnicity, socio-economic or citizenship status. We offer a full array of pediatric and adult services including immunizations, pre-natal care, general obstetric and gynecological services. We also diagnose and treat patients suffering with STD/ HIV infections as well as those suffering from "long term" covid -19.

We will recruit and enroll a total of 145 new uninsured, homeless patients into our U.P.C.P. during a 12 mo. period beginning 10.1,2024, thru 9.30.2025. A minimum of 45 uninsured patients will be enrolled in Medi-Cal, Covered Cal. We provide comprehensive physical exams on each new patient, develop a comprehensive treatment plan to treat all known medical conditions, diseases, injuries, chronic conditions. Creation of distinct medical record will serve as proof of meeting our target goal. For all newly diagnosed hypertensive patients we will document initial b.p. readings, track our progress at reducing baseline readings through a combinations of dietary changes, exercise, medications prescribed over a 12 month period. We will identify all new pre-diabetic and diabetic patients by documenting their initial Hemoglobin A!-C levels at first visit. We will diagnose, treat and reduce elevated A 1-C levels over a 12 month grant period that approaches normal levels generally recognized by the medical community (7.5 A1 - C ). We evaluate urgent, serious medical conditions and when indicated, refer patients to the nearest emergency room at M.L. King Medical Center in Willowbrook or St. Francis Hospital in Lynnwood. New patients with confirmed pregnancy diagnoses will be referred to St. Francis Hospital for pre-natal services including labor and delivery at the appropriate time. We are documenting cost savings realized by significant reductions in e.r. visits and hospital admissions.

Since 2019, BANJ H.C. has been tracking the 2 most expensive indicators of health care utilization; 1.) hospital admissions 2.) emergency room visits. Our preliminary data provides strong evidence that our program is helping to reduce the frequency of both costly encounters. By providing high quality, cost effective, compassionate primary care services we contend we are improving the overall health status of our patients but we are also reducing the total outlay of public, tax payer dollars being consumed by our health care delivery system. Our data indicates we have a lower hospital admission rate and a lower rate of emergency room utilization when compared with both the State of California's Medi-Cal population as well as when compared with statistics published by the Insured The Uninsured Project based in Sacramento. This data needs further analysis and confirmation however it remains our strong contention that we are improving access, reducing health disparities and saving money.

in addition to lowering core health measures like lower blood pressure reading and lower hemoglobin A! - C levels, we offer the following specific data. Our current e.r. visit rate is 3.2 visits/100 patients. This is lower than the national average average of 4.2 visits/100 patients (Source; CDC.gov) With an average cost of $14,100 per e.r. visit, we contend we are saving precious financial resources. We contend this model of improved access, improved overall health status and reduced medical costs should be funded on a much larger scale throughout L.A. County. In addition, our hospital admission rate stands at 6.00 admissions per/100 patients. This rate is dramatically lower than the national average of 10.4 admissions/100 patients. The Agency for Healthcare Research, Quality published an average hospital admission cost of $93,000 in 2021. We contend we are saving the "system" significant dollars with our patient centered medical home model for uninsured and homeless patients.