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By Karen Pallarito
NEW YORK, Mar 27 (Reuters Health) - Rochester, New York's healthcare system--long regarded as a model for the nation--may be at risk, according to a new survey by Harris Interactive.
While Monroe County, New York, which includes the city of Rochester, still does better than the nation as a whole on many measures of access to healthcare, the polling firm unearthed some "possibly disturbing" signs that things have changed since 1992. A Harris survey conducted that year helped quantify the success of the Rochester system.
The percentage of adults in Monroe County who are uninsured--at 8%--is well below the nation's uninsured rate of 16%, but somewhat higher than it was in 1992, for example. The new survey also finds that the percentage of people who refused care because they lacked insurance is higher now than in 1992.
What's more, the remarkably strong spirit of cooperation among large Rochester-area employers, healthcare providers, insurers and community leaders, which is believed to be at the heart of the healthcare system's success, appears to have eroded.
"If they behave, as they are beginning to, more like the rest of the nation, healthcare in Rochester may look much more like healthcare elsewhere--... more uninsured, higher costs, and greater dissatisfaction--which would be a real shame," the polling firm reported.
The suggestion that Rochester's "managed cooperation" system is beginning to erode "certainly is a concern," conceded Bonnie DeVinney, a senior planner with the Finger Lakes Health Systems Agency, the region's health planning agency. The agency is a lead partner in the Rochester and Monroe County Partnership on the Uninsured, for which the survey was conducted.
But that issue was not the focus of the partnership or the survey, DeVinney added.
"We felt that the problems that were identified were problems of a manageable size," she told Reuters Health.
For example, the survey underscores the need for the partnership to focus its improvements in healthcare coverage and access on the most disadvantaged segments of the public.
DeVinney said the partnership is planning to do a number of things to strengthen access to healthcare, such as ensuring that people who are eligible for Medicaid or the Children's Health Insurance Program are covered. It is also developing a strategy to create opportunities for employer-sponsored coverage.
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