Prince George's leaders and health systems outline plans to close major primary-care gap

Prince George’s County Council members sitting as the Board of Health heard presentations and recommendations on a wide primary-care shortage during a meeting that brought hospital systems, the Howard University faculty practice plan and federally qualified health centers to the same table.

The Board of Health session focused on three drivers of access identified by University of Maryland researchers — insurance coverage, proximity to clinics and the availability of clinicians — and on concrete proposals from local providers to expand primary-care capacity in the county.

“About 1 in every 8 of the non-elderly county residents is uninsured,” University of Maryland assistant professor Nate Apathy told the board, summarizing analysis of 2023 American Community Survey estimates. He said the uninsured and subsidized populations are concentrated in Districts 2 and 3, and that drive-time maps show most residents are within a 15–20 minute drive of primary care or a hospital except in portions of south‑eastern District 9.

The presentations and discussion focused on three types of responses: investments and partnerships by hospital systems, recruitment and retention through residency pipelines, and targeted public support to reduce the start-up costs of new practices.

Luminess Health officials said the county lacks both clinicians and inpatient capacity and urged public-private collaboration. “We have a shortage of about 1,050 physicians in the county, and primary care specifically is about 574,” Roxanne Lieber Lawrence, vice president for primary and community health at Luminess, said. She and other Luminess speakers described system investments since 2019 totaling about $200 million and said building or expanding a new primary-care practice requires substantial capital and can produce operating losses in early years.

Luminess’ executive medical director, Andrew McCleone, described a team-based model that pairs physicians with pharmacists, social workers and community health workers and emphasized same‑day visits and telemedicine as ways to reduce unnecessary emergency department use.

Howard University’s faculty practice plan presented a model it says is ready to scale in the county and stressed business-model alignment. “We can take on 10,000 unique patients within the county now,” Vincent Orange Jr., chief executive officer of the Howard University faculty practice plan, told the board, adding that about 40% of Howard’s physicians live in Prince George’s County. Howard said it plans to recruit 20–40 new primary-care physicians over the next two to three years if logistical and financing questions are resolved.

Federally qualified health center CCI Health Services described a residency-based pipeline. CEO Sonia Bruton said CCI secured accreditation to sponsor a family-medicine residency and will begin training with four residents at its Greenbelt site on July 1, 2026, scaling to 12 residents by 2028. “People stay where they train,” Bruton said, citing national research indicating most residents continue to practice where they completed training.

County staff and presenters also discussed the closed Dyer Care Center, established via a Health Services Cost Review Commission (HSCRC) grant for mental health crisis care. Erica Turner, assistant deputy chief administrative officer for health, human services and education, said the vendor that operated the Dyer site opted to end its contract, and the county is working with the state to audit the contract and reopen the center; Turner said reopening is a county goal for next year but that the timeline depends on state action.

Board members and presenters repeated a policy point: removing barriers to standing up new practices — for example, loan‑repayment incentives, startup grants, or targeted tax/financing supports — would reduce the financial disincentive for systems and independent practices to locate in underserved parts of the county.

No formal policy votes were taken at the meeting; the council moved to adjourn after the presentations. Council members and staff said they will continue coordination with the county executive’s office, state partners and health systems to align legislative and fiscal requests for programs that could support recruitment, residency expansion and practice start-up.

Prince George’s County Council members sitting as the Board of Health, University of Maryland School of Public Health, Luminess Health, Howard University faculty practice plan and CCI Health Services gave the board multiple concrete options to pursue, from financing assistance to residency pipelines. Several presenters and council members emphasized they will pursue coordinated state and county funding strategies before submitting legislative financial requests to Annapolis in the next cycle.

The Board of Health adjourned after a voice vote.