July is National Minority Mental Health Awareness Month. An estimated 50% of all Americans are diagnosed with a mental illness or disorder at some point in their lifetime, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That is why breaking down barriers to provide accessible, affordable, and community-based primary care for behavioral health is …
Category: Health Care News
Trump Administration Issues Final Rule on Association Health Plans
The Trump Administration issued a final rule on Association Health Plans (AHPs), which was proposed earlier this year. This is the first rule finalized after President Trump issued an Executive Order last year to “promote health care choice and competition” in the insurance market. This final rule amends The Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) …
Transforming Care for Pregnant Moms and Babies
As a nurse midwife, Sharon Rising found that she often struggled to create a connection with her patients because the constraints of each appointments made meaningful interaction difficult. Yet she also knew as a health professional that such connection is necessary for providers to understand life events that can influence health of each patient – …
Engage at Every Age, Older Americans Month
We are always on the lookout for great stories and we stumbled on the one below from a NACHC member, East Boston Neighborhood Health Center (EBNHC) just in time to mark Older Americans Month. EBNHC operates a program called Neighborhood PACE, 1 of 121 PACE programs across the nation and the first in the Bay State. It serves …
A Potential Shutdown: How Did We Get Here and What Does it Mean?
How did we get here? As of Friday afternoon, Congress still hasn’t agreed upon a Continuing Resolution (CR) that can pass both Houses of Congress and prevent the federal government from shutting down. Thursday evening, the House passed a CR that would keep the government’s doors open through February 16th. The House-passed bill provides a …
Celebrating World AIDS Day, One Partner at a Time
Health centers are no strangers to forging partnerships with other organizations. There are health center partnerships with hospitals, health departments, universities, chambers of commerce, and local businesses. These collaborations are key to assuring good patient health outcomes, not to mention boosting their quality of life and overall care. HIV prevention and treatment is no different. The number of health center patients living with …
Congress Returns to a Long “To Do” List and Health Center Funding On the Agenda
As Congress returns from the Thanksgiving holiday, they confront a list of complicated, controversial, and interconnected “must-pass” items that rival any legislative pileup seen in modern times. And squarely in the middle of that pileup sits the now long-overdue extension of funding for Community Health Centers and other key health priorities. While many of the …
In the Land of Plenty, People Still Struggle with Hunger
The U.S. may seem to have a bounty of healthy, nutritious foods to feast on this Thanksgiving week but for many families it’s a different story. Approximately 14 percent of our nation’s population (48 million) struggle to put healthy meals on the table. Food insecurity is what experts now define as America’s hunger problem and …
President’s Commission Releases Final Report on Opioid Crisis
Just after the President’s Public Health Declaration on the opioid crisis, the President’s Commission on Combating Drug Addiction and the Opioid Crisis released its final report earlier this month. The report includes 56 specific recommendations to help address the nation’s increasingly troubling opioid addiction problem, and focuses on 4 main areas: federal funding and programs, opioid …
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 …