Friday, December 15, 2006
Contact: Brian Hauswirth, 573-751-0290
Blunt Supports Health Care Home, Expediting Funding for Federally Qualified Healthcare Centers
SPRINGFIELD–Gov. Matt Blunt today announced his support for a health care home model and for stepping up funding for Federally Qualified Healthcare Centers (FQHC’s).
“Including a health care home should be a priority in our state’s new healthcare system for low income Missourians. The concept is the most effective way to build a system that focuses on patients’ health and wellness,” Blunt said.
A health care home provides quality, coordinated healthcare focused on wellness. It enables both health professionals and patients to address health concerns before they become catastrophic. Providing access to a health care home will improve participants’ health, reduce the need for costly specialty services, minimize non essential emergency room visits, and lower preventable hospitalizations.
Blunt also announced significant funding recommendations that will benefit FQHC’s and the more than 300,000 Missourians they serve, including those who do not have insurance.
Blunt has supported initiatives that have led to the creation of new centers in Sedalia, Potosi, Linn and Jefferson City, among others. One component of the governor’s Lewis & Clark Discovery Initiative is an agreement to send more than $60 million to expand and support FQHC’s over six years. If the Initiative is validated by the legislature, the governor announced today he will propose and support funding the entire amount in one year.
“The funding infusion will provide the foundation for our state’s health centers to fund every single one of their capital improvements projects in just one year,” Blunt said. “There is no reason to delay these important and valuable projects that will have a positive impact on patient care.”
The funding will add to clinical space, pay for badly needed renovations, build new wet labs, construct new research and education spaces, among a host of other projects around the state.
In addition to funding for capitol improvements, Blunt’s funding recommendations will include a new project to support collaboration between Community Mental Health Centers and FQHC’s. The funding will allow primary and behavioral healthcare to coordinate efforts to create a more efficient and effective system. The project will work to identify behavioral health disorders earlier in the primary care setting and to reduce the gap between public and behavioral health systems. The governor will recommend $750,000 in next fiscal year’s budget to allow for this collaboration.
Blunt will also recommend an additional $5 million next year for a Healthcare Information Technology Initiative. This initiative will allow health centers to build an electronic health record system. The new system will help close the digital divide that currently exists between providers.
The governor will continue to review recommendations for the state’s new healthcare system that the Departments of Social Services, Mental Health, and Health and Senior Services presented to him last week. The health care home is the first of the group’s recommendations for which the governor has announced his support.
The governor said he looks forward to working with the House and the Senate to address the challenges of improving the state’s healthcare system and crafting a transformed Medicaid program that better serves Missourians.
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