The consensus building among health experts is that we’re going to be in pandemic mode for the foreseeable future. On Capitol Hill, top disease expert and White House advisor Anthony Fauci today told lawmakers on the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee that daily new cases could surpass 100,000 new infections per day if …
Category: Health Care News
Celebrating Mothers Means Ensuring Access to Care
The COVID-19 pandemic continues to create challenging situations across the country, changing the way patients get their care and exacerbating disparities in health care. Unequal access to health care and the wellbeing that comes with it is not new. Policies impacting access to care for marginalized populations result in health disparities–preventable differences in the burden …
Notes from the Hot Zone: Health Centers Launch Testing Sites at Food Processing Plants
Here’s what’s remarkable: 60 percent of Community Health Centers nationwide have drive-through or walk-up testing for COVID-19, according to a new NACHC infographic. This massive pivot to address an unprecedented pandemic has happened in a matter of weeks, a testament to the nimble powers and innovation of health centers. They can sense a need and …
What COVID-19 Has Laid Bare
Ravi Kavasery, MD, is the Medical Director of Quality and Population Health, AltaMed Health Services, Los Angeles, CA, Associate Faculty, Department of Global Health and Social Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School Recently in the midst of closing out patient charts after a busy day in the medical clinic, I received a call …
The Hurdles and Barriers to Medicaid Coverage
In February, just as the COVID-19 crisis hit the United States, a federal appeals court struck down the Trump Administration’s latest effort to enable states to impose work requirements on Medicaid recipients. At the time, advocates celebrated the outcome as validation of Medicaid’s longstanding role to improve health for vulnerable people without placing unnecessary obstacles …
Telehealth, COVID-19 & Health Centers
CMS Announces Guidance for FQHCS on CARES Distant Site Provision (Updated April 17, 2020) Today the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid announced its guidance allowing Community Health Centers and Rural Health Clinics (RACs) to receive enhanced Medicare reimbursement for telehealth services, per the provision in the CARES Act. Retroactive to January 27, 2020 and continuing …
COVID-19’s Financial Punch to Community Health Centers
COVID-19 has launched a devastating blow to the financial health of Community Health Centers, impacting visits, revenue, and employment. Working on the front lines of this pandemic, many health centers have already seen a surge of patients who need COVID-19 screening and treatment. They have pivoted to meet the pandemic in a matter of weeks, converting …
Ohio Health Center Doctor Sick With COVID-19 Soldiers On
“You still just go on,” she said, “because patients need you,” Dr. Mary Krebs tells Wall Street Journal reporter Jennifer Levitz in an article published today. Dr. Krebs is a family physician at HealthSource of Ohio, one of Ohio’s 56 Community Health Center organizations. Ohio’s Health Centers span about 400 sites and are part of a …
In These Extraordinary Times
In these extraordinary times, we are all on the frontlines of COVID-19, struggling to be our best selves while scared and worried about the future. That’s what makes the stories of innovation and courage among Community Health Centers so remarkable. They choose the mission. They choose to step into the arena of a global pandemic …
We Are The Shock Absorbers in the COVID-19 Pandemic
Our world is a different place now. The COVID-19 pandemic is shutting down normal life as we knew it and Community Health Centers turn their attention to the business of saving lives. We know that everyday heroics won’t be enough. Even so, we acknowledge their courage on the front lines, the difficult choices they are …