The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Community health centers in a panic
NEW HAVEN — The anger and frustration in the room was palpable.
Congress, so far, has failed to renew funding for community health centers across the country which puts coverage for 9 million patients at risk with potential layoffs impacting 50,000 providers at the 2,800 sites.
Democratic U.S. Sens. Chris Murphy and Richard Blumenthal stopped at the Fair Haven Community Health Center on Friday where they listened to administrators and staff from a sampling of the 17 centers in the state.
Generally, these centers serve the poorest clients, who often present with the most complex medical and behavioral issues.
At stake in Connecticut is $37 million in funding for some 90,000 patients.
More than 70 percent of the funding for these centers comes from the Health Centers program under a provision in the Affordable Care Act that is due to expire on Sunday.
“There seems to be a nonchalance about this funding stream in Washington that simply does not match the reality on the ground,” Murphy said.
At the same time, the junior senator for the state said the Trump administration is “brazenly trying to burn down our health care system by sabotaging the Affordable Care Act.”
Murphy said for the first time this week the administration admitted “plainly that they have no intention to administer and enforce the current law.”
“They have shut down 90 percent of the marketing for the Affordable Care Act and refuse to pay the insurance companies more than a month ahead of time. They told the IRS to stop enforcing the individual mandate and this week they refused to cooperate with the states who are trying to enroll their citizens in the Affordable Care Act,” he said.
Other questionable expenditures by government officials made their way into the discussion.
Dr. Evelyn Cumberbatch, the director of behavioral health at the Fair Haven Center, criticized the estimated $1 million in taxpayer expenditures spent for charter and military planes by Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price and his staff.
“I think that shows a real lack of common sense and priority at a time when we are trying to fund health care to populations a lot needier,” she said.
The roundtable discussion took place before it was announced Friday afternoon that Price had resigned. He had only agreed to pay back $51,887, reportedly the price of his seat on the charter flights.
Murphy, after the announcement was made, said Price was done in by the private jet use, “but his real offense was overseeing and directing President Trump’s sabotage of health care for millions of people . ... Let’s get a new HHS secretary who’s finally devoted to improving health care, move past these debates and come to bipartisan agreement.”
Michael Taylor, CEO of the Cornell Scott Hill Health Center, said he didn’t plan to be as diplomatic as Cumberbatch in his criticism of the government.
He said it is frustrating to hear of these “astronomical sums of money” being spent on avoidable and unnecessary expenditures.
“There is no apparent regard for law whatsoever. It is all about ideology and what I believe. And no one seems to care about the law. It is irrelevant,” Taylor said.
He said the centers have been encouraged to expand their services as the number of patients on Medicaid grew.
“We have all done that with very thin margins ... All we have now is insecurity no matter where you look,” Taylor said, pointing to the lack of a state budget, the immediate funding cliff and the efforts to repeal the ACA.
“There is nothing that is secure about a health center anymore — nothing,” Taylor said.
The CEO said his operation stands to lose over $4 million in funding and that threatens care for more than 2,600 patients and probably 50 to 75 jobs.
Dr. Suzanne Lagarde, CEO at the Fair Haven Center, said if Congress fails to act, they would lose $2.5 million out of $3.6 million, which will put 2,726 patients in danger of losing coverage.
She said this doesn’t take into account the potential loss of other revenue sources and a decrease in services that help patients access care.
“Behavioral health depends so much on these ancillary, wrap-around serives, the care coordination,” that would be threatened, Lagarde said.
Lagarde said the immediate drop off in funding means they will have to seriously consider cutting services or eliminating sites.
“The horizon looks very very gloomy and if this funding cliff is not averted, it is literally going to be a major calamity,” Legarde said.
Blumenthal said the health center money is an investment that provides preventative care before illnesses require more expensive procedures.
“These community health centers are worth their weight in gold ... it is a sound investment,” Blumenthal said.
“If the doctors here turned away 90,000 who needed health care, or they failed to treat them properly, they could be held responsible for medical malpractice. The Congress of the United States and the Trump administration are committing political malpractice. They are violating the public trust,” Blumenthal said. “It is reckless disregard for the human condition,” Blumenthal said.
Taylor said the centers also provide a significant percentage of the substance abuses services in the state, all of which depend upon the same sources of funding.
On a more positive note, Murphy said he sits on the Health Care Committee and he and his colleagues are 90 percent along in finding a way to stabilize the individual exchange markets by guaranteeing payments to insurers, while also allowing some flexibility for the states.
As for the community health centers, he said Congress says it will get to it later this year or next year, but that uncertainty “ultimately is going to ruin families in this state who rely on these health centers for care and treatment.”