For the almost 1,200 community health centers in the U.S., the recent announcement of $295 million in Affordable Care Act funding was welcome news. The ACA funding will allow 1,195 health centers in the U.S., Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands and the Pacific Basin to expand primary care services by:
• Hiring an estimated 4,750 new staff, including healthcare providers; • Allowing facilities to stay open for longer hours; • Adding oral health, behavioral health, vision services and pharmacy.
The new funding, announced by Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Sylvia M. Burwell, should enable U.S. health centers to provide services to about 1.5 million new patients. That number includes more than 137,000 oral health patients and 38,000 patients with mental health and substance abuse treatment needs, according to HHS.
“Health centers are a key part of how the Affordable Care Act is working to improve access to care for millions of Americans,” Burwell said in announcing the awards. “These funds will enable health centers to provide high-quality primary health care to more people including the newly insured, many of whom may be accessing primary care for the first time.”
The National Association of Community Health Centers (NACHC) estimated in a report published last March that “62 million people nationwide have no access to primary care” because of a shortage of primary care physicians in the U.S.
“The [ACA] funding is critical because the demand for primary care – especially from the uninsured, underinsured and those living in medically underserved rural and urban areas – far surpasses the nation’s available primary care capacity,” said Amy Simmons, director of communications for NACHC.
“Every investment makes a difference,” Simmons said. “When more people have access to care at a health center, it means reduced hospitalizations and reduced costs.”
But, Simmons says, it’s important to “remember we are talking about access to primary care, not insurance coverage. These are two very different things and people need both to stay healthy – coverage and a place to go, a healthcare home.”
Recent data show that more than 6 million people in the U.S. have been provided ACA enrollment assistance by health centers, which in turn get more assistance under the law to meet growing care demands.
“Luckily, the Affordable Care Act provided resources to double the size of health centers over five years to ensure their capacity can meet the demand for care, now and in the future,” Simmons said.
Unfortunately, that five-year period of mandatory ACA funding expires next September, meaning “health centers face a reduction of up to 70 percent in grant funding,” she says.
“Such a shortfall could be disastrous in medically underserved communities – some health centers would be forced to reduce their scope of services or raise their sliding-scale charges, which would create barriers to access for many working families,” Simmons said. “The reality is that there are few health centers in America that could continue their operation at current levels if this grant funding was cut.”