Healthcare Financial News

President Obama announced his nominee for the U.S. surgeon general, Dr. Regina Benjamin, today at the White House. Dr. Benjamin is the founder and CEO of the Bayou La Batre Rural Health Clinic in Alabama, which aims to provide primary care to people of any age regardless of their financial situation. Benjamin has been acclaimed for founding the clinic in 1990 and rebuilding it after it was repeatedly destroyed in a series of disasters, including Hurricane Katrina in 2005. In his remarks at the ceremony, President Obama chronicled Dr. Benjamin’s dedication to providing health care for her rural community in the face of adversity.

Dr. Benjamin previously served as chair of the Federation of State Medical Boards of the United States, and as the associate dean for rural health at the University of South Alabama College of Medicine. Additionally, she was chosen as president of the Medical Association of Alabama in 2002, becoming the first African-American woman to be president of a state medical society. She was also the first African-American woman and physician under 40 to be elected to the American Medical Association Board of Trustees. Dr. Benjamin received the Nelson Mandela Award for Health and Human Rights in 1998, among other honors.

A new report examines the potential effects of national health reform on the nation’s 96.2 million residents of urban and rural medically underserved communities. Using government data, the research brief from The George Washington University Department of Health Policy estimates that 72 percent of medically underserved community residents are insured; yet residents of these communities experience ongoing barriers to adequate health care, as measured by population health and social risk, a shortage of primary health care, or both. The report, entitled National Health Reform: How Will Medically Underserved Communities Fare?, identifies key investments and safeguards that can help ensure that insurance expansions into a lower income, at-risk population actually translate into improved healthcare quality, the reduction of disparities in health and health care, and greater system efficiencies.