When public beats private: Community clinics that reduce costs and improve care

The ability to provide effective healthcare rests in large part on the availability of primary care. For low-income patients and the uninsured, this function is often fulfilled by government-funded community organizations called Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHC). Though skeptics might regard these and similar outfits warily, new research published Tuesday in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine indicates that these facilities provide care on par with, and in some cases superior to, that of private practices.