It has been a year of trials and tribulations for Community Health Centers but our theme for the year is “Resilience.” Health centers have more than five decades of experience confronting setbacks and threats and emerging stronger than ever. The pattern remains unbroken in 2018. A brief funding cliff ushered in the New Year before …
Author: Amy Simmons Farber
Same Day Billing Policies Affect Health Centers and Patients
Community Health Centers have a long-standing and proud tradition of providing patient-centered care. That means a patient’s individual needs and health outcomes drive clinical decisions. A key feature of how many health centers accomplish that task is through the integration of primary care and behavioral health. Health check-ups in the exam room focus on both …
Celebrating Healthy Meals During Thanksgiving
With the Thanksgiving holiday nearly upon us, cooking healthy meals is on our minds. That brought us to Mary’s Center, a health center in Washington, D.C. Mary’s Center is no ordinary health center. The site we visited in the neighborhood of Fort Totten (one of 8 locations) opened just two years ago and operates a …
California Health Centers and Wildfires
NACHC is monitoring reports about the fires that have devastated communities across northern and southern California, particularly the Camp Fire in Butte County and the Hill and Woolsey fires in Ventura and Los Angeles counties. The Camp Fire has killed 42 people and more than 200 residents remain missing. The blaze, the most destructive and …
Open Enrollment Begins This Week
The following is a guest blog post from Ronald Yee, MD, Chief Medical Officer of NACHC. Open enrollment under the Affordable Care Act began this week (November 1 – December 15). For Community Health Centers, which now serve 28 million people nationwide, it is our job to continue to educate people about their health insurance …
Tropical Cyclone Devastates Northern Mariana Islands
NACHC is closely tracking developments in the aftermath of a massive typhoon that struck Saipan and Guam this week. The category 5 typhoon, known as “Yutu,” has moved away from the region near the U.S. Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, but left in its wake obliterated homes, downed power lines and flooding. It is …
Hurricane Michael and Health Centers
We want to bring you up to date on what we know so far about Community Health Centers that were in the path of Hurricane Michael. Conditions on the ground in and around the disaster zone have made it challenging to get information about recovery from the storm, which five days ago cut a destructive …
October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month
October is always a busy month for Community Health Centers as they ramp up efforts to reach out to America’s underserved and promote the importance of breast cancer screenings for early detection of breast cancer. In 2015, the latest year for which incidence data are available, 242,476 new cases of breast cancer were reported among …
The Surgeon General’s Report on Opioids
A few developments worth highlighting in our nation’s ongoing war against opioid use disorder. The U.S. Surgeon General has released a report, “Facing Addiction in America: The Surgeon General’s Spotlight on Opioids.” Among other things, the report calls for a cultural shift in the way we talk about the public health crisis and recommends actions …
A Few Words About October
What a difference a year makes. On this exact day 1 year ago the primary care funding cliff took effect and Community Health Centers were launched into uncertainty. Congress failed to reauthorize funding for the Community Health Center Fund (CHCF), opening the door to crippling service interruptions for patients and confusion in health systems across …