On this July Fourth holiday the health and welfare of the brave men and women who served in the armed forces are very much on our mind. Community Health Centers provide care to over 335,000 veterans and counting (there’s been a 55 percent increase in their numbers since 2008). Health centers have also hired thousands of veterans …
Author: Amy Simmons Farber
A Food Desert in Ohio Welcomes a New Grocery Store, Thanks to a Community Health Center
If you want fresh foods on your table, open your own grocery store. That is what happened in Franklinton, Ohio, on the West side of Columbus, in a community that struggled as a food desert until Lower Lights Christian Health Center opened the Jubilee Market and Cafe. The health center started the nonprofit grocery store …
New: Fact Sheet Highlights the Cost Savings Health Centers Generate for Medicaid
We’ve always known that health centers and Medicaid are ideal partners in the effort to cut health care costs. A host of independent studies, both statewide and national, have confirmed those findings over the course of many years. Now a new NACHC fact sheet based on 2016 federal data showcases those findings and takes a …
Health Centers on the Front Lines of the Opioid Epidemic
The nationwide opioid epidemic is getting a lot of attention in Washington, where there have been hearings focusing on the cause of the public health crisis now claiming thousands of lives. Opioids (including prescription opioids, heroin and fentanyl) killed more than 42,000 people in 2016, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In addition to overdose …
P & I Update: HHS Secretary Azar Stops by the Conference
The 2018 NACHC Policy and Issues Forum has been a whirlwind of events and there’s just one more day before events draw to a close. Today’s highlight was an appearance by Alex Azar, Health and Human Services Secretary, who addressed a packed and enthusiastic General Session gathering. “We see you not just as vital partners …
NACHC P & I 2018 Kicks Off
Nearly 2,500 Community Health Center advocates from around the country – including senior executives, clinicians, board members and other health care representatives –have gathered this week under one roof for the 2018 NACHC Policy & Issues Forum [see media advisory]. The Opening General Session offered plenty of information about the policy recommendations for health centers …
Rising to the Challenge of Fighting a Nationwide Addiction Epidemic
Too often we hear about the ravages of substance abuse disorders, such as opioid addiction, and not enough about the innovations in health care to treat it — not as a problem but as a chronic illness that requires a thoughtful treatment strategy. Drug overdose deaths and opioid-related deaths are on the rise. On average, …
Fighting the Funding Cliff: One Veteran’s Story
We’ve been writing about the Community Health Center funding cliff. The phrase alone would lead one to think that this is an issue about money, but it’s more about people and how the decisions made (or left unmade) by Congress can have a ripple effect. That brings us to Kymberly Grafton, one of 300,000 veterans that …
2017 Ends with a “Cliffhanger”
2017 brought forth a year of challenges for Community Health Centers that included natural disasters and a man-made one: a funding cliff. The funding cliff came as it was revealed that health centers now serve more people than ever at 27 million, or 1 in 12 Americans. Leading up to the funding cliff deadline was uncertainty across the nation about the future of insurance …
It’s National Rural Health Day!
It’s National Rural Health Day and for Community Health Centers, that’s something to celebrate. Nearly half (44 percent) of health centers are in rural communities, serving 8.5 million patients. The work that health centers do in rural communities defies the conventional wisdom that innovation and good ideas only happen in urban civilization. The Community Health Center …