The percentage of adult patients surveyed 3-6 months after their initial visit at VCCU member free clinics reported now having a primary care provider outside the free clinic is down from 67% to 36% in late 2019. VCCU has reported increased difficulty in finding medical homes with openings for new patients.

While 6 of 10 VCCU clinics provide initial medical care to uninsured patients, a primary function of all the clinics is to help patients find a primary care provider and a patient-centered medical home.[HG1]

Each spring all 10 VCCU clinics survey a portion of their patients seen in the past 3-6 months to see how many still have the primary care provider (PCP) that they were referred to by the clinic.

- VDH State Office of Rural Health & Primary Care

- Vermont Coalition of Clinics of the Insured (VCCU) https://www.vccu.net/

Bennington Free Clinic (Bennington, VT)

The Health Assistance Program at Fletcher Allen Health Care (Burlington, VT)

Good Neighbor Health Clinic / Red Logan Dental Clinic (White River Junction, VT)

Health Connections at Gifford Medical Center (Randolph, VT)

The Open Door Clinic (Middlebury, VT / Vergennes, VT)

People's Health and Wellness Clinic (Barre, VT)

Putney Walk-In Clinic (Putney, VT)

Rutland Free Clinic - Medical and Dental Clinics (Rutland, VT)

Valley Health Connections (Springfield, VT)

Windsor Community Clinic (Windsor, VT)

Having adequate health insurance is only one piece of the access puzzle. Being able to get an appointment and establish a patient-centered medical home (PCMH) are also critical to appropriate access to health care.

HealthyPeople 2020 plans says:

“Improving health care services depends in part on ensuring that people have a usual and ongoing source of care. People with a usual source of care have better health outcomes and fewer disparities and costs.

Having a primary care provider (PCP) as the usual source of care is especially important. PCPs can develop meaningful and sustained relationships with patients and provide integrated services while practicing in the context of family and community.

Having a usual PCP is associated with:

Greater patient trust in the provider
Good patient-provider communication
Increased likelihood that patients will receive appropriate care
Improving health care services includes increasing access to and use of evidence-based preventive services.

Clinical preventive services are services that:

Prevent illness by detecting early warning signs or symptoms before they develop into a disease (primary prevention).
Detect a disease at an earlier, and often more treatable, stage (secondary prevention).”
(Source: http://www.healthypeople.gov/2020/topics-objective...

We will work with VCCU member clinics to further analyze survey data to identify those clinics having more or less success in helping patients get and attend an appointment with a new primary care provider to identify potentially effective strategies to implement over the next several years.