A letter sent Thursday to Dr. Dorothy Fink — acting secretary of U.S. Health and Human Services — outlined Virginia health care providers’ fears of layoffs, drained reserve accounts and concerns about cutting back on health care services.
The concerns surfaced after a freeze in foreign and domestic federal spending ordered by President Donald Trump blocked access to grant money that Federally Qualified Health Centers rely on for operation costs, including payroll.
The White House rescinded the freeze in January after a federal judge granted a temporary stay blocking the administration’s order. Since then, a second federal judge has issued a restraining order blocking the action.
Despite the legal roadblocks, Joe Stevens, a spokesperson for the Virginia Community Healthcare Association, told VPM News earlier this week that 16 of Virginia’s 31 community health centers had been unable to access the HHS-operated payment management system. The community health centers described being “locked out,” denied funding they had already been awarded or experiencing delays in receiving funds.
Stevens said that five of those clinics have since been able to access some funds, but intermittent outages are making it difficult for the centers, which are Health Resources and Services Administration grantees, to access the money.
In an email to VPM News, HHS acknowledged some users have experienced “technical issues” with payment management. A federal spokesperson said the system is operating, but warned users may be experiencing lags due to a high volume of requests.
There are over 200 community health center locations in Virginia, two-thirds of which are located in rural communities, according to VCHA CEO Tracy Douglas.
Community health centers provide low-cost preventive, dental and pharmaceutical care, as well as behavioral health and substance use disorder services to about 400,000 Virginians annually, according to the VCHA. The CHCs are funded through a combination of Medicaid, Medicare, private insurance, self-pay patients and grants.
Federal Section 330 grants account for 19% of the health center funding in Virginia, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation.
“For countless hardworking individuals and families in these regions, these health centers are not just a place for medical care - they are a lifeline,” Douglas said in a press release. “It is absolutely imperative that we ensure the continued operation of these vital health centers to protect the well-being of our communities and our nation.”
There are 1,400 health centers nationwide that operate over 15,000 locations in every U.S. state and territory. According to the letter to Fink, signed by all of Virginia’s congressional Democrats, health centers across the country have reported issues accessing payments.
As VPM News has previously reported, the funding interruption has led to closures of several health care centers — including three in Richmond. It’s also led to delays in replacing aging equipment, fears of layoffs in the coming weeks, and a reduction in available health care services like dental care in one southeastern Virginia clinic, according to Stevens.
The Capital Area Health Network, which operates seven FQHC facilities across Greater Richmond, announced Tuesday it was closing several locations and transferring patients to other practices within its network.
U.S. Rep. Jennifer McClellan (D–4th) represents many of the patients that CAHN serves and was “very concerned” about the impact locally and nationally.
“Community health centers are vitally important to rural communities and to marginalized communities that really have no other health care provider,” McClellan said. “By closing any, you put health care that much farther out of reach of those people.”
McClellan said the Health Resources and Services Administration had begun to address the request backlog: “They’re working on it, but it’s slow, and frankly, it never should have happened.”
Virginia’s congressional members have asked HHS to provide details about how many health centers have been impacted by payment issues, when reimbursements will be made and reasons for denying payment requests.
Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine met with representatives from Virginia’s community health centers on Wednesday.
“Community health centers provide essential services to many Virginians, especially those from rural Communities,” Kaine said in an emailed statement. “It’s outrageous that some community health centers have had to close and some are still not able to get the funding they are already allocated.”
