Tech-Enabled Referrals Between Mississippi ER & FQHCs Realize Cost Savings

After implementing an automated primary care referral program, called Healthy Linkages, with community-based clinics serving uninsured individuals in 2008, the University of Mississippi Medical Center reported its emergency department saved about $1 million over the first six months by reducing the number of people seeking primary care in the emergency department. Before the program started, about 25% (17,000 visits) of the 70,000 emergency department visits annually were for non-urgent conditions and about 42% of people who made a non-urgent emergency department visit made a second visit within six months. The program is diverting about 10 . . .