Groups Launch Study of California Health Care Regional Marketplaces
On Tuesday, the California HealthCare Foundation and the Center for Studying Health System Change released the first in a series of reports on California's major health economies, the Sacramento Bee reports.
CHCF is the publisher of California Healthline.
For their 15-month study, CHCF and CSHSC plan to examine six key California markets to determine how local health systems interact with their communities.
The groups will investigate health care markets in:
- Fresno;
- Los Angeles;
- Riverside/San Bernardino;
- Sacramento;
- San Diego; and
- The San Francisco Bay area.
CHCF and CSHSC will analyze the supply and organization of hospitals and health care providers in each region. In addition, the study will examine the availability of health services for low-income residents.
Initial Findings
The study's preliminary findings indicate that:
- Fresno faces a shortage of health care providers for a large low-income population;
- Sacramento has a strong hospital system but a fragmented network of not-for-profit clinics; and
- San Francisco's strong community clinic system is under strain amid the ongoing recession (Calvan, Sacramento Bee, 7/28).