Loudoun County ranks high on the list of
Virginia
’s healthiest counties, but the numbers don’t tell the whole story. For many years, the relative affluence of Loudoun County compared to the rest of the commonwealth has masked disparities in outcomes for its underserved residents, who, though they make up a small percentage of the county, still number almost 16,000. In December of last year alone, according to the state office of Family Access to Medical
Insurance
Security, more than 1,300 people in Loudoun County applied for basic health insurance benefits through state
Medicaid
.
Women are frequently the highest sufferers of these poor outcomes, and as the backbone of our society — the primary caregivers, the primary healthcare decision-makers — their health should be a top priority for our policymakers.
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That’s why I was incredibly excited to see Inova Cares Clinic for Women — Lansdowne expand critical maternity and fetal services to the uninsured and underinsured women in our county through a partnership with the Loudoun County Health Department in March.
Under its previous name, Inova OB-GYN Clinic at Loudoun Hospital, the clinic has provided quality prenatal care for the uninsured and those on Medicaid since 2008. The recent renaming of the clinic comes with an expansion of services to give mothers and their babies the best possible start, regardless of their race, risk, immigration status, or ability to pay.
It couldn’t come at a more critical time. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently released data showing an alarming spike in the rates of maternal mortality and morbidity across the United States in 2021, with minority women and the underinsured making up the largest percentage of those affected. Clinics such as Inova Cares are an important answer to these alarming trends since they are bringing more providers of care at a subsidized rate to families that struggle to pay for these crucial services.
But government and nonprofit initiatives and spending can only temporarily bridge the gap. The root causes of these problems are structural; they demand a sea change, not a stopgap. Put simply, there are not enough providers of care to meet the increasing demand for affordable healthcare.
Here’s what that means for pregnant mothers in the commonwealth: According to the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, the number of OB-GYNs in the U.S. is 10,000 providers short of where it needs to be. In Virginia, 31.6% of counties have no access to maternity care providers, and 15.8% of counties have low or moderate, not full, access.
And that’s just OB-GYNs. The physician shortage extends to all areas of care, making healthcare access one of the most crucial matters facing our policymakers. Bringing providers to underserved areas through salary increases or other incentives is only robbing Peter to pay Paul. No matter how you cut it, there are not enough human resources to cover the need.
As the founder of a health technology company, I experienced these problems firsthand. Instead of spinning our wheels over a reality that couldn’t be changed, the company developed technology that expanded its limits — such as automating processes to free up appointment slots in overburdened schedules and extending providers’ reach through intelligent remote monitoring solutions that patients can access outside the four walls of a doctor’s office, at their own convenience, without compromising safety or quality of care.
It’s going to take these types of solutions to reverse the downward trajectory of healthcare access and, more importantly, a legislature that understands the barriers to innovation, as well as the means to incentivize it. With a deep practical knowledge of the problems and possible solutions, it is possible to address the problems inherent in our legacy systems — to ensure that Inova Cares Clinic for Women — Lansdowne and organizations like it can sustainably support the community for decades to come.
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Juan Pablo Segura is the Republican nominee for the Virginia state Senate in District 31.
