Overview

Medical research and clinical practice show that treatment for chronic diseases, such as hypertension and asthma, is best provided in outpatient specialty care programs. This is important, because as the U.S. population ages and the size of medically-vulnerable populations’ increases, the numbers of people with chronic diseases will also increase. Clinical practice has shown outpatient specialty care to be both medically effective and cost-efficient. America’s safety net hospitals and health systems provide a comprehensive array of specialty services such as dermatology, immunology, cardiology, orthopedics, oncology and neurology. In keeping with their mission to serve all community residents regardless of ability to pay, the vast majority of these specialty services are for care to low-income and uninsured populations. In many communities, safety net health systems are the only providers of certain highly-specialized services for these patients. Traditionally, these highly specialized services have been provided in hospital settings. But thanks to medical advances, specialty care is now increasingly available in outpatient settings. Life-saving treatments like chemotherapy and dialysis are now routinely performed in the ambulatory care setting.