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 …
Category: Health Care News
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 …
President Trump Declares the Opioid Epidemic a Public Health Emergency
By Connor Williams, NACHC Intern After a long wait and much speculation, President Trump has declared the opioid epidemic a Public Health Emergency. By way of background, Public Health Emergencies allow for special grants and contracts to be made, as well as special Public Health Emergency Funds to be accessed by states in response to a health …
Fighting Food Insecurity: Hunger as a Health Problem
More than 50 years ago, Dr. H. Jack Geiger, a co-founder of the Community Health Center Movement, helped create a food co-op program in Mound Bayou, Mississippi. Part of his mission was to ensure people would both have access to food and be invested in their own food security. Despite this early effort, food insecurity – difficulty …
Fighting Food Insecurity: The Problem Solvers
Earlier this week NACHC issued a press release about our initiative to highlight Community Health Centers that are focused on fighting food insecurity in their local communities. Many may not be aware that 14 percent of people in the United States (48 million) face food insecurity. What does that mean exactly? It means they struggle to find sufficient …
Administration Actions on Marketplaces Create Major Uncertainty
By Colleen Meiman and Michaela Keller Last week, the Trump administration took two steps that have injected major uncertainty about the continuation and cost of coverage offered through the Marketplaces. On Thursday, President Trump signed an Executive Order (EO) instructing federal agencies to advance three policies that would make it easier for individuals to purchase …
Partnering with Hospitals to Reduce Avoidable Emergency Visits
Roughly 13 to 27 percent of visits to the emergency department (ED) could be managed in a primary care setting, and the average non-emergency visit to the ED costs seven times more than the average health center visit. In the emerging landscape of value-based care, health centers and hospitals are exploring new partnerships to improve …
Michigan Health Center Leader Gets the Spotlight for Reducing Unnecessary ER Visits
Patty Wagenhofer-Rucker wasn’t looking for any special recognition when she began her work as Integrated Health Director at Genesee Community Health Center in Flint, MI, but that’s what happened anyway. Her work at the health center has reduced unnecessary hospital emergency room visits by 80 percent in the past three years, which caught the notice of …