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Work group opens planning for 'Prince George's Cares' network to broaden access beyond FQHCs
Summary
Members began defining the scope of a proposed 'Prince George's Cares' program and discussed whether it should serve only uninsured residents or also defined underinsured groups; participants recommended involving hospitals, community-based organizations, dental clinics, Kaiser community-benefit staff and specialty-care referral networks.
The work group began drafting a vision for Prince George's Cares, an expanded county program intended to broaden access to primary care and to create referral pathways into specialty services.
Anya Makarva said the work group must decide whether the initial program should target only uninsured residents or include underinsured populations, and she asked members to recommend definitions and priority populations. Diane Young and other health-system partners urged the group to clearly define what “underinsured” means for the county’s purposes — for example, patients who face large deductibles, catastrophic plans, or seniors with Medicare who lack affordable supplemental coverage.
Sharon Zlewski, executive director of the Regional Primary Care Coalition, warned that underinsurance may expand with recent premium increases and singled out seniors on Medicare without supplements as a vulnerable group. “There are more people with just Medicare…who can’t afford a supplemental insurance plan,” she said, and suggested they be considered in program design.
Participants suggested recruiting a broader set of providers for Prince George’s Cares: hospitals and their community-benefit teams, community-based organizations that already provide clinical care, dental clinics that previously received reimbursement, and private primary-care providers willing to join the network. Diane Young and others recommended examining prior county efforts — including health enterprise zones — and external models (Montgomery Cares, Project Access, and an integrated FQHC-specialist model cited from San Diego) for incentives and specialty referral networks.
The group noted that specialty care access must be part of the network design. Several members recommended creating an administrative function to build or negotiate specialty referral networks, drawing on pro bono or negotiated-rate specialists where possible rather than relying on an ad hoc patchwork.
Next steps: identify potential partner organizations (Kaiser community-benefit staff, Catholic Charities Dental Clinic, local CBO clinical partners), ask providers for lists of community-based clinical partners, and return to the work group with draft definitions of the target population (uninsured vs. underinsured) and specific incentive options.
