Dr. William Fales is the Assistant Dean for clinical applications and<\/p>\n
associate professor of emergency medicine at Western Michigan University\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s new<\/p>\n
medical school, Director of Emergency Medical Services (EMS) in Kalamazoo<\/p>\n
County, and an emergency room physician. Dr. Fales carries out on-call emergencies<\/p>\n
with EMS in addition to seeing and treating patients, typically those who have<\/p>\n
benefited from insurance, in both Bronson and Borgess Hospitals. He is familiar<\/p>\n
with the Affordable Care Act, but claims to be more indirectly involved,<\/p>\n
encountering patients who \u00e2\u20ac\u0153could or should be taking advantage of some of the<\/p>\n
provisions of the Affordable Care Act.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d He says that some have utilized these<\/p>\n
provisions, but many have not. Beginning with this statement, he led into the<\/p>\n
concept or framework of what the new law should do theoretically versus what may<\/p>\n
happen in reality. He indicates that, despite efforts for enrollment through<\/p>\n
advertisement and the free enrollment events, many individuals who probably<\/p>\n
qualify for Medicaid or the new insurance exchanges are not aware that they do. In<\/p>\n
Dr. Fales\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 words, some patients \u00e2\u20ac\u0153don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know what [he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s] talking about\u00e2\u20ac\u009d when he<\/p>\n
mentions the Affordable Care Act and its provisions. In other circumstances,<\/p>\n
individuals are aware of the Affordable Care Act, but they have not put in the effort<\/p>\n
to obtain insurance, and there are other people who still cannot afford insurance. He<\/p>\n
stated, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The Family Health Center and both hospitals did a decent job in trying to<\/p>\n
help people, but I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m not sure that it was as effectively communicated to the<\/p>\n
population that could have potentially benefitted.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d As Dr. Fales indicated, the<\/p>\n
provisions of the Affordable Care Act should ideally provide insurance to the<\/p>\n
majority of Kalamazoo residents, but many remain unknowledgeable and<\/p>\n
uninsured. This presents a problem because these people are unable to obtain<\/p>\n
treatment beyond the emergency room.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Dr. Fales also mentioned the significant shortage of primary care providers<\/p>\n
in the nation. Ideally, all individuals who become newly insured obtain a primary<\/p>\n
care provider or a similar medical resource to promote health and address health<\/p>\n
problems. In a response to a question regarding primary care, Dr. Fales stated, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153[The<\/p>\n
Affordable Care Act] should definitely increase the volume to primary care, but the<\/p>\n
question with that is, do we have adequate primary care resources?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d He stressed the<\/p>\n
importance of educating more middle care providers, such as physician assistants<\/p>\n
and nurse practitioners. A theme reiterated throughout the interview was the fact<\/p>\n
that this law\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s provisions are just starting to take effect. It is difficult to determine<\/p>\n
right now how many people the Affordable Care Act will affect and how many<\/p>\n
people will actually benefit from it. There may be unforeseen consequences or even<\/p>\n
more benefits, but it will take many years to analyze the provisions of the Affordable<\/p>\n
Care Act and observe the true, complete transitions undergone on the individual,<\/p>\n
state, and national levels.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Despite the potential problems, Dr. Fales believes that if people take<\/p>\n
advantage of primary care services, the community should become healthier. He<\/p>\n
also mentions that the ACA will benefit his work; as he will be able to see more<\/p>\n
insured patients who will be willing to receive primary care and specialist follow up.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
An interview with William Fales, the Assistant Dean for Clinical Applications and Associate Professor of Emergency Medicine at Western Michigan University. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":157,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7,8],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.kzoo.edu\/acastorieskzoo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.kzoo.edu\/acastorieskzoo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.kzoo.edu\/acastorieskzoo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.kzoo.edu\/acastorieskzoo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.kzoo.edu\/acastorieskzoo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=156"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.kzoo.edu\/acastorieskzoo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":275,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.kzoo.edu\/acastorieskzoo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156\/revisions\/275"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.kzoo.edu\/acastorieskzoo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/157"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.kzoo.edu\/acastorieskzoo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=156"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.kzoo.edu\/acastorieskzoo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=156"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.kzoo.edu\/acastorieskzoo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=156"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}