NJHA Releases Profile of NJ Federally Qualified Health Centers
Background
NJHA is a not-for-profit trade organization founded in 1918 in order to promote the state’s hospitals and other healthcare providers. NJHA advocates for its member hospitals through research and education activities, its political action committee, community outreach and group purchasing activities. NJHA also provides quality and financial data on New Jersey hospitals and other healthcare organizations to consumers and to its members.
The Report includes information on patient profile and payer mix, staffing, revenues, expenses, service mix and other relevant data of federally qualified health centers (“FQHCs”). It also lists such information for New Jersey’s 20 FQHCs along-side total amounts for FQHCs nationwide. The New Jersey specific information is useful to facilities in benchmarking their operations with other facilities receiving HRSA funding. Similarly, a New Jersey FQHC may also benchmark its facility with that of FQHCs nationwide.
While a typical benchmarking exercise simply compares one FQHC to another, or one FQHC to national data, if used correctly, it can be much more than just a ranking. Benchmarking can be a valuable tool that can be used in setting goals and improving performance. Accordingly, the Report can provide valuable information to assist your organization in achieving improved quality and operational efficiency.
The Report
The Report is approximately 60 pages in length and consists of the following:
- The New Jersey statewide profile comparing New Jersey FQHCs to the nation. Key Statistics are:
- Patient Profile and Payer Mix
- Staffing
- Revenue
- Expenses
- Service Mix
- Average Cost per Service
- Electronic Health Records
- Profitability
- NJ Hospital Support to FQHCs
- Visits by Selected Diagnoses
- New Jersey Health Center Profiles
- Map of New Jersey FQHC Locations
- New Jersey FQHC Hours of Operation
- Glossary of Terms
Overall
The Report shows that there are 20 FQHCs in the State of New Jersey compared to 1,278 nationwide. New Jersey represents less than 2% of the nation’s total FQHC population. These 20 facilities serve approximately 485,000 patients compared to approximately 22,873,000 nationwide. Accordingly, New Jersey provides more than 2% of the total patients served by FQHCs nationwide. When you consider that 95.8% of those served by New Jersey FQHCs are at or below 200% of the Federal Poverty Level and 30.2% of New Jersey FQHC patients are uninsured, it is easy to see why New Jersey FQHCs have challenges and are so dependent of HRSA funding.
Visits by diagnostic category are listed for all centers in New Jersey and compared to all centers in the United States. Major categories compared are:
- Infectious and parasitic Diseases
- Diseases of the Respiratory System
- Other Medical Conditions
- Mental Health & Substance Abuse
- Diagnostic/Screening/Preventive Services
- Dental Services
Financial Information
Other statistics of note are the average cost per service, which in New Jersey, is about $580 per patient compared to $738 per patient nationwide. While this indicator is positive, it is lower than the national average due to patient volume. That is to say that the fixed costs are spread over a larger patient base. This becomes more evident when you look at overall profitability. New Jersey FQHCs show an average profit margin of -0.53% while nationally, the average FQHC profit margin is +6.16%. The disparity is in both revenues and expenses. New Jersey FQHCs have lower total revenues, largely due to the higher percentage of uninsured patients and higher expenses which include components such as physician salaries, nurse practitioner salaries, and other overhead costs that are expected to be higher in densely populated urban locations.
Electronic Health Records
The Report also shows that New Jersey FQHCs are ahead of the national average when it comes to the implementation of Electronic Health Records (“EHR”). In the report, 100% of New Jersey FQHCs have implemented EHRs, with 90% of them implementing at all of their practice sites and 10% of them implementing at some of their sites. Nationwide, 97.7% have implemented EHRs with 91.8% of them implementing at all of their practice sites, 5.9% at some of their sites and 2.3% having no implementation efforts.
Conclusion
NJHA is providing a valuable resource to its members and others with such a detailed report. New Jersey FQHCs should be reviewing this Report and using this information to not only benchmark their facility against their peers but also to national averages. If utilized correctly, benchmarking can be used to set goals and identify service areas where a center can focus on improving overall patient satisfaction while continuing to operate in furtherance of their tax-exempt purpose and mission.
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The information contained herein is not necessarily all inclusive, does not constitute legal or any other advice, and should not be relied upon without first consulting with appropriate qualified professionals for your individual facts and circumstances.
