Critical care medicine and community involvement in addressing health disparities

With the passage of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), health institutions are trying to accommodate the best cost-effective approach to meet the health demands of American citizens in the 21st century. One component of the ACA requires hospitals to implement health needs assessments to its surrounding communities. This is in an effort to better learn about the community's health issues and expectations, and help foster a medical-community partnership. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services have recently announced a $157 million program to test a medical-community partnership, called the Accountable Health Communities (AHC), in which identifying and addressing health-related social issues is sought after to see if it reduces health care costs and utilizations.
Source: Journal of Critical Care - Category: Intensive Care Authors: Source Type: research