Patrick Ladapo: 5 Ways to Improve Access to Healthcare in Underserved Communities

Preventive and primary medical care are important for improving and maintaining health. However, even having health insurance provides little more than a ticket to enter the healthcare system. It doesn’t necessarily ensure access to timely and effective care.

Many areas throughout the country are in dire need of improved access to healthcare.

How Can We Improve Access to Healthcare?

With 65 million Americans living in regions without adequate, basic medical care, the urgency to expand and improve access has never been greater. Several solutions are currently in place, but more are needed.

Some solutions that could ease the current accessibility crisis include revising laws, incentivizing training, redistributing providers, increasing funding, and expanding the freedoms of nurse practitioners.

1. Use Federal Programs that Target Healthcare Access Barriers

There are several federal and state programs in place that function with the goal of bringing care to underserved areas. Some of these programs include:

• HRSA’s Bureau of Health Professions
• HRSA’s Bureau of Primary Health Care
• The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act
• Health Center Program
• Rural Health Clinic Program
• National Health Service Corps Loan Repayment and Scholarship Programs
• Medicare HPSA Bonus Payments
• Conrad State 30 Program
• Exchange Visitor Program

These and other federal programs focus on solving various aspects of the current healthcare crisis and have been somewhat successful, but the demand for accessible care continues to grow.

2. Access State Programs to Address Health Care Access Problems

Currently, while urban areas are strained and short-staffed in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, rural areas and underserved areas struggle even more. State strategies for improving access include programs to redistribute primary care facilities. Others focus on payment reforms and incentivizing training and onboarding.

3. Address Workforce Shortages

One factor fueling the issue of a lack of accessible health care is the problem of increasing demand for services and a shortage of medical professionals around the country. Some of the programs in place to help defray the impact of workforce shortages include:

• The Increased Demand for Services Initiative
• The Facility Investment Program
• The Capital Improvement Program

While federal programs such as these are in place to ease workforce shortages, such efforts are not enough to counter the overwhelming demand for services that simply do not exist in many areas.

4. Examine Scope of Practice Laws

Scope of practice laws outline the services that healthcare providers are allowed to offer. They also determine the settings in which they can practice. These laws are mostly determined at the state level, causing wide variation from one state to another.

This balkanization limits the services professionals can provide and where they can operate. By restructuring these laws at the federal level, the pool of health care providers would expand, and their mobility would increase.

5. Empower Nurse Practitioners

Currently, nurse practitioners are restricted in their scope of practice by varying degrees of state laws. Allowing nurse practitioners more freedom to practice without doctors looking over their shoulders to such a great degree would increase the availability and scope of available professionals.

Improving Access to Health Care

There are severe disparities in healthcare availability across states, regions, and localities. By revising laws, incentivizing training, redistributing providers, increasing funding, and expanding the freedoms of nurse practitioners, access to healthcare could be improved.