Access to Care Committee

Description and Activities

This committee's activities include advocating for changes that will affect health care coverage for residents across all ages of the continuum but particularly those less than 65 years old; bringing together initiatives/partners already addressing access issues; and developing community and agency-based strategies to make measurable improvements in access to care for the uninsured and underinsured residents of Durham.

All Access to Care committee meetings are open to the public. Partnership committee meetings have been held virtually using the Zoom platform since May 2020. Visit the Partnership calendar to view committee meeting dates, times and Zoom links.

For the next three years the committee members plan to work on:

• Increase uninsured and underinsured residents’ awareness about the affordable healthcare, resources, and insurance options available and how to access them
• Improve digital health literacy
• Expand opportunities and sustain funding for Community Health Workers
• Facilitate racial equity training opportunities for patient care teams in Durham County

See the current draft of the Access to Care- 2022-2024 Community Health Improvement Plan

Leadership and Membership

Current committee chairs are:

• Angel Romero
• Edeia Lynch

Meetings

The Access to Care Committee meets on the second Thursday of each month from 8:30-9:30 am on Zoom. Our meetings generally include learning sessions on access to care issues, advocacy updates, and updates from the various working groups.

Meetings are open to the public. Community members are encouraged to attend. For meeting dates and times, see our calendar.

2024 Flu Vaccine Guide

English: English Flu Vaccine Brochure

Spanish: Spanish Flu Vaccine Brochure

Selected Committee Accomplishments

Past accomplishments include:

• Herald-Sun newspaper article series on healthcare reform in 2013 and 2014
• Project Access of Durham County was created by committee members along with other community partners . PADC coordinates with community providers and those at Duke University Health System and the NC Specialty Hospital to bring donated specialty care to uninsured patients at Lincoln Community Health Center.
• Healthcare Reform Summit was held on Tuesday, October 12, 2010.  The Summit provided an opportunity the community to learn more about how the new healthcare reform will personally impact them. Pam Silberman will provided an overview of Healthcare Reform and there was a short expert panel on Children, 0 – 25, Uninsured / High Risk Pool, Business, and  Medicare / Seniors.  The entire event was professionally taped and can be viewed here.
• Cover the Uninsured Community Forum (2009 and 2006) brought together over 100 community members hear from panelists about health care options and coverage possibilities for Durham County residents lacking health ins

Visit www.healthcare.gov for the most up-to-date information on healthcare reform.

Publications and Reports of the Committee

• Strategies for improving transport access to healthcare are described in this report created by the UNC Department of City and Regional Planning.
• Medical options in Durham for uninsured and under-insured residents:   Download (English)      Download (Español)