Community health centers seek more robust federal funding
Wisconsin lawmakers are calling on the federal government to provide more funding for community health centers facing financial fallout from COVID-19.
Last week, Sen. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., joined 40 other senators on a letter sent to the Senate appropriation committee’s health subcommittee asking for additional emergency money in the next COVID-19 package.
They wrote that community health centers have played a critical role in responding to the pandemic by offering testing and services that help keep people out of emergency rooms, where beds are in high need.
Nationwide, centers will see 34 million fewer appointments over the next half year as Americans cancel primary and preventive care appointments or delay non-essential care, according to the letter.
They’re anticipating losing $7.6 billion in revenue and 105,000 jobs. The federal government has already provided $2 billion in emergency money to health centers, including $600 million in testing.
“Despite this funding, health centers are still worried about how to keep their doors open to serve their patients,” they wrote. “Additional funding is critical.”
Wisconsin lawmakers from both sides of the aisle have asked for additional funding. Last month, 53 state lawmakers joined a letter to congressional leaders asking for additional investments to help centers sustain their operations.
Wisconsin community health centers are expected to lose between $85 million in a best-case scenario and $205 million under a worst-case scenario, under projections by BKD, a financial accounting firm.
State lawmakers wrote that centers have made significant operational changes in response to the pandemic. And they asked that Congress maintain funding support for public and private payers to cover telehealth at the centers. All 17 community health centers in the state now offer virtual services.
Baldwin and the state’s House delegation sent a letter to congressional leaders in early May asking for legislation building off of recent COVID-19 relief laws.
“These resources, while significant and appreciated, still fall short of ‘keeping the lights on’ beyond the next six to eight weeks,” they wrote in the May 5 letter.
The letter called for allowing funding to go toward making up lost revenues due to centers reducing services in response to federal guidance and building up supplies of personal protective equipment.
The Wisconsin Primary Health Care Association said they’ve received around $21 million through federal emergency stimulus funding.
That’s helped, but it’s fallen short of what health centers will likely need to continue operating amid the uncertainty caused by the pandemic.
Lawmakers and the association are also calling for long-term funding for the community health center fund, which provides around 70 percent of federal money for health centers.
The fund is set to expire at the end of November, the latest in a string of short-term extensions.
“The lack of a longer-term fix impedes health centers’ ability to prepare for the future and is another uncertainty in an already uncertain time,” the association noted.
Last month, the House approved $7.6 billion for community health centers, part of COVID-19 package estimated to cost more than $3 trillion.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., called the bill a “major investment in the lives of the American people and in the budgets of our states and localities.”
Support for the bill, which passed 208-199, almost fell along party lines.
The Senate hasn’t acted on the plan, which Majority Leader Mitch McConnell referred to as an “1,800-page doorstop” and the “legislative equivalent of stand-up comedy.”
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