The target audience of the article includes major healthcare provider-based programs, the provider communities, healthcare leaders within federally qualified health center (FQHC), physicians, healthcare systems community health centers, as well as additional healthcare system leaders. The author’s purpose and goal of the article is to discuss new strategies, related to physician integration in the healthcare reform, as means to reduce overhead costs and expand primary care by collaborating with FQHC.
Analysis of Key Issues:
The key issues in the article address the challenge to increase efficiency, improve integration of services, and a quality-based payment system in healthcare systems that is presented by the Affordable Care Act (ACA).1 With the new healthcare legislation of the reform, an $11 billion is supplied for community health centers that are managed as FQHCs for Medicare purposes. This budget increase provides opportunity and necessary resources to expand FQHC systems to local communities. The article focuses on expansion through a collaboration agreement of physician integration while discussing the differences between FQHC and provider-based Medicare programs, the benefits to health systems from FQHC collaboration, as well as benefits to FQHCs from health system collaboration. Most important of these differences between FQHC and provider-based programs include FQHC benefits that are not available to provider-based programs, including higher reimbursements; malpractice cost savings; patient drug coverage; and eligibility to receive additional grants from private federal, and state sources. The discussion of benefits for both FQHC and provider-based programs indicate that reimbursement methods can improve efficiency while limiting costs and expenditures from the help of the collaboration effort, while also providing administrative support of FQHC, who