Discussion 7 SWK 5526
docx
keyboard_arrow_up
School
Capella University *
*We aren’t endorsed by this school
Course
5526
Subject
Health Science
Date
Dec 6, 2023
Type
docx
Pages
2
Uploaded by Singlemother34
A major issue that many clients in the office where I intern is poverty and healthcare. The link between
poverty and health among health care providers has been primarily grounded in access to health care
with several downstream effects of poverty that may include poor nutrition and substandard housing
Most of the clients that I have been serving cannot locate PCP that will accept Medicaid. Unlike other
developed countries, the US does not have universal health insurance programs in which the
government plays a dominant role (Beech et al., 2021). One major challenge of the US healthcare system
is providing equitable access to care. This is one of the most urgent social justice issues. Disparities in
health outcomes by income status are persistent and hard to reduce in the US.
Universal Healthcare,
ensures everyone has access to all the healthcare they need without financial hardship. For many low-
income people in the US, getting insured isn’t enough to get health care: Patients with Medicaid can
struggle to find a doctor who is willing to take their health insurance (Hinton et al., 2022).
I am currently seeing a client at my practicum site who continues to go to the emergency room because
she could not find a doctor who accepted her insurance. The client is not computer savvy, so I ended up
calling clinics that were near her home. I located her a PCP after calling 10 PCP clinics. I was informed
that the other clinics that I called had met their quota for accepting Medicaid patients. I went back to my
employer United Healthcare, and I explained that this is an issue that is becoming a major issue for many
people. I wanted to know what the MCOs were doing about it. They informed me that they are working
on initiatives with providers to accept insurance. Many providers have informed the managed care
organizations that the reimbursement rates are too low, and the payment takes months to receive.
People are going without the care they need.
I had a client today whose daughter was sick and went to pick up her cough medication and the
pharmacy informed her that cough medication is not covered by Medicaid. The cost of buying it was $30.
The client is unemployed and therefore she had to leave it there. I was able to contact the doctor at the
urgent care clinic and inform her of what occurred. The doctor called another medication that was not
labeled as cough medicine, and it was covered by Medicaid.
According to the National Association of Social Workers (NASW) Code of Ethics, the primary mission of
the social work profession is to enhance human well-being and help meet the basic human needs of all
people, with particular attention to the needs and empowerment of people who are vulnerable,
oppressed, and living in poverty. A historic and defining feature of social work is the profession’s focus on
individual well-being in a social context and the well-being of society. Fundamental to social work is
attention to the environmental forces that create, contribute to, and address problems in living (NASW,
2023).
Medicaid payment rates, the amount doctors receive for providing services, are on average lower than
Medicare or private coverage. This has typically been used to explain why many physicians are reluctant
to take Medicaid and why some Medicaid recipients still struggle to access care (Lazar& Davenport,
2018).
Louisiana has seen the hardships that many have faced locating primary care providers, specialists, and
dentists who accept Medicaid, and practices in there are difficult for Medicaid recipients. The Medicaid
program’s Website, www.medicaid.dhh.louisiana.govLinks to an external site., and Provider Locator Map
allow users to search for Medicaid providers by parish or region. Users can pick what sort of service they
need (i.e. vision services, foot specialists, mental health services) and be given a list of all providers for
that service in their area who are enrolled in Medicaid (LDH, 2023).
This is just the resource provided
however most of the doctors listed are no longer a provider of Medicaid
References
Beech, B. M., Ford, C., Thorpe, R. J., Jr, Bruce, M. A., & Norris, K. C. (2021). Poverty, Racism, and the
Public Health Crisis in America. Frontiers in public health, 9, 699049.
https://doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2021.699049Links to an external site.
Hinton, E., Rudowitz, R., Stolyar, L., & Singer, N. (2022). 10 things to know about Medicaid managed care.
Kaiser Family Foundation Issue Brief. Accessed July, 12, 2022.
https://ldh.la.gov/news/802Links to an external site.
https://www.lamedicaid.com/apps/provider_demographics/provider_map.aspxLinks to an external site.
Lazar, M., & Davenport, L. (2018). Barriers to health care access for low-income families: a review of
literature. Journal of community health nursing, 35(1), 28-37.
Louisiana Department of Health.
(2023, November 20). For Medicaid Providers
NASW, (2023) Retrieved from website. Standards and Indicators for Cultural Competence in Social Work
Practice (socialworkers.org)Links to an external site.Links to an external site.
Your preview ends here
Eager to read complete document? Join bartleby learn and gain access to the full version
- Access to all documents
- Unlimited textbook solutions
- 24/7 expert homework help