Marci Nielsen, CEO Patient-Centered Primary Care Collaborative

The UNLV School of Medicine held its first conference last week on an issue central to our medical school, community and state. Speaker's presentations and small group discussions tackled the tough issue of ensuring access to quality health care for Nevadans who qualify for Medicaid - especially the thousands of new Nevadans who have Medicaid coverage for the first time.

 

Medicaid provides health insurance to Nevadans with very low or no income. The program covers pregnant women; women with children under age 19; the blind; people with disabilities; and people over 65 years of age. In 2014, the program was expanded to cover childless adult men in this income range as part of the Affordable Care Act. Medicaid is funded by state and federal dollars.

Currently, 650,000 people in Nevada qualify for Medicaid; almost a half of these individuals are new to the program. Many have not had access to primary care in the past and many still don't due to Nevada's severe physician shortage. One of the goals of our medical school is to help fill this gap. We are creating community clinics where our students will provide care to these individuals under the supervision of faculty and residents.

 

The purpose of our half-day event was to bring people together who provide care, support, resources or insurance for Medicaid patients and to discuss how we can work together "as partners" to better organize care and services. We had an amazing turnout with more than 95 participants representing 59 different organizations.