Detroit hospitals and clinics are being recognized as leaders in the new field of population health, which explores why some individuals get better care than others and finds ways to improve health for people at risk for not getting adequate care, reports the Detroit Free Press. The University of Michigan is conducting the largest federally funded study of barriers to mental health care among African-Americans, for example, and Eastern Michigan University, among others, is working to overcome privacy issues that prevent Asian Indian women from getting screened for breast cancer. Initiatives to reach individuals who aren’t receiving basic medical care may add as little as $7 million to the $41 million per year spent to reimburse hospitals for uninsured care, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation. Others argue that the nation’s first priority is to beef up its network of outpatient clinics and primary care physicians in order to steer patients away from expensive hospital care, and to let state and local governments find ways to provide care for all their citizens rather than expecting the federal government to extend healthcare coverage to all Americans.
