News Release
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Tuesday, April 27, 2004 |
Contact: CMS Public Affairs
(202) 690-6145 |
HHS Approves Plan to Continue Funding for St. Louis Inner-City Outpatient Clinic
HHS Secretary Tommy G. Thompson today announced a three-year extension of a project that saved a former inner-city hospital from closure and allowed its conversion to an outpatient clinic providing critical services to some of St. Louis' neediest residents.
Today's approval provides Missouri with $50 million over two years with the option of a third year's funding if the project meets goals set by HHS to restructure its health care system and become self-sustaining.
"This approval is a sound federal investment in building a health care system for some of Missouri's most vulnerable citizens," Secretary Thompson said. "We have worked closely with the state on this project, and we look forward to this system being completely independent by the end of the third year -- a good and stable source of health care for thousands of low-income residents."
HHS first approved the project in August 2002 to allow the state to redirect Medicaid funding originally set aside for hospitals treating a disproportionate share of low-income, uninsured patients to a regional funding authority. A portion of the funds allowed the continued operation of ConnectCare, a failing public/private inner-city hospital that now operates as a safety-net provider of outpatient services.
The demonstration project emphasizes the importance of primary and preventive care in avoiding the need for expensive inpatient hospitalizations. Access to primary care and preventive services have been shown to improve the health status of low-income individuals.
"We believe the St. Louis project will continue to show that providing good quality care in an appropriate setting and in a timely way will keep people healthy and out of the hospital -- and that is good for people and good for the health care system that serves them," said Mark B. McClellan, M.D., Ph.D., administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, which oversees the Medicaid program.
The initiative is a component of Missouri's broader health care reform demonstration, "Managed Care Plus (MC+)." The people served by this program are among the neediest people in St. Louis: those who are eligible for Medicaid and those who lack insurance altogether.
"By improving the delivery and coordination of outpatient care, St. Louis will be able to rely less on more costly-- and often not appropriate-- inpatient services," Secretary Thompson said. "This is a win for the low-income people served by the program, a win for fiscal prudence and accountability, and a win for states' flexibility to innovate in their Medicaid programs."
Aside from encouraging an outpatient approach to delivering care, some funds in this demonstration will also be used to support the work of the St. Louis Regional Health Commission, which is responsible for implementing recommendations for restructuring the health care safety-net system.
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Note: All HHS press releases, fact sheets and other press materials are available at http://www.hhs.gov/news.
Last Revised: April 27, 2004
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