Expanding Access to Care for Vulnerable Populations

Challenge

Access to essential health care services is critical to good health, yet vulnerable populations in the Carolinas face a variety of barriers including lack of health insurance and services that are not reasonably available and obtainable. Across the Carolinas, too many vulnerable residents lack insurance or go underserved. Some 1.6 million residents of North Carolina and South Carolina lack insurance, and national data indicate that three in ten uninsured adults go without needed care due to cost.

Our Objective

The Health Care program area seeks to reduce health disparities, improve clinical outcomes and reduce inappropriate hospital utilization by increasing access to essential services for low-income uninsured adults. 

Health Care also seeks to expand access to essential services for underserved populations such as racial minorities and residents of rural communities. In some instances, we support projects that deploy virtual care technology to reach these underserved populations. We seek to partner with grantees to discover which virtual care models have the highest potential for broader scaling and sustainability.

What We Fund

Our Access Health initiative was launched in 2008. Across the Carolinas, the Health Care program area funds 30 Access Health networks which span 82 counties and serve more than 77,000 people. Components of the healthcare safety net have been integrated into these provider networks which coordinate access to a continuum of services for low-income uninsured adults. Health Care accepts Access Health network applications by invitation only.

Health Care is working with communities and health systems to develop alternative service delivery models that build the capacity to provide essential services to vulnerable populations. We also seek to advance understanding of how different virtual care models can effectively reach the most vulnerable in the Carolinas.