The Thomas Jefferson Program in Public Policy (MPP)
The Schroeder Center
Schroeder Center for Healthcare Policy
The Need
New developments in American health care are profoundly changing the delivery and financing of medical services. Policy makers at all levels of government need the latest information along with careful, unbiased and nonpartisan analysis of health care problems.
The Purpose
The purpose of the Schroeder Center for Healthcare Policy, since it was formed in 2003, is to support students, faculty, and programs in public policy on issues related to healthcare. The Schroeder Center, located in the College of William and Mary's Thomas Jefferson Program in Public Policy, is dedicated to provide a full range of research, education and service to improve the financing and delivery of medical services.
The Role
Using the significant expertise on campus in public policy, government, economics, law and other fields; the Schroeder Center serves public health agencies and private health organizations.
Targeted Survey on Access to Physician Care in Medically Underserved Areas
A report prepared with a grant from the Williamsburg Community Health Foundation
Anecdotal comments are made by local people in the greater Williamsburg area about personal difficulties in accessing physician care. People on Medicaid or without any health insurance are known to have access problems. Threatened reductions in the fee rates paid to physicians by Medicare have raised concerns that persons in some market areas, especially Williamsburg with one of the highest percentages of Medicare in Virginia, may have difficulty obtaining the care they need in a timely manner. However, anecdotes are a weak source of information about access to physician care, and it is difficult to know how physician fees set by state or federal government may affect access to physician care locally.
This report presents results from a 2007 broad-based survey targeted on persons with a limited ability to pay for health-related services and residing in medically underserved areas. The study attempts to assess through state-of-art survey research methods the extent to which people are experiencing problems in accessing physician services and whether certain types of people are more likely to experience problems. It also examines the reasons given by people for reported problems, with the goal of identifying the major issues and challenges to improving physician access.
Exceeding $2 trillion annually, health care spending in the United States is growing significantly faster than the national economy. If left unchecked, this health spending crisis will threaten Americans' ability to pay for other essential services. Driven primarily by the cost of benefits promised to seniors under Medicare and Medicaid, federal health expenditures will force lawmakers to make stark policy decisions. In this third volume of Restoring Fiscal Sanity, policy experts suggest ways to slow the growth of federal spending on health care.
The “Long-Term Care Feasibility Study” was written by experts at the Schroeder Center for HealthCare Policy at the College of William & Mary. “Our mission is to serve Virginia’s veterans and their beneficiaries by ensuring they receive the benefits, support, quality care, and recognition they have earned through service and sacrifice,” said Vincent M. (Vince) Burgess, Virginia’s Commissioner of Veterans Services. “This study has already helped us start a discussion with veteran groups about the future of services in the Commonwealth.”
The study recommends placing the new veterans care centers in Northern Virginia, the Danville City area, and either Southwest Virginia, Southside Virginia, or the Eastern Shore. The locations would be near the largest veteran population centers currently without a Veterans Care Center. Virginia has two existing centers in Roanoke and Richmond. A third is already in the planning stages for Hampton.
In addition to the specific recommendations regarding future facilities, the study recommends that the state begin to build a continuum of long-term care. With approximately 728,000 veterans, Virginia’s veterans population is the 11th largest in the nation. “Virginia lacks a continuum of long-term care in which a veteran’s condition is matched to seven basic categories of services: extended inpatient care (nursing home, special unit and assisted living), acute inpatient care, ambulatory care, home care, outreach, wellness and housing.” said the lead-author, Louis Rossiter, former Virginia Secretary of Health & Human Resources. “The creation of such a system will take a long time, but it would avoid duplication of services and use of inappropriate services.” said Rossiter.
For more information, please contact:
Louis F. Rossiter, Ph.D.
Research Professor and Director
Schroeder Center for Healthcare Policy
Thomas Jefferson Program in Public Policy
The College of William & Mary
PO Box 8795, 141 Morton Hall
Williamsburg, VA 23187-8795
Office Telephone: 757-221-1913
Wireless Telephone: 804-338-0223
Office Fax: 757-221-2390
E-mail:
The Schroeder Center for Healthcare Policy is a division of the Thomas Jefferson Program in Public Policy, Arts & Sciences, College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, VA.
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