Clinics for the low-income are hoping for a piece of the pie in the Medicare deal lawmakers are currently negotiating.
Lawmakers are considering including as part of a larger health bill a funding extension for community health centers which serve the country’s low-income, uninsured and rural populations.
The broader purpose of the bill is to repeal and replace a flawed payment formula that would lead to steep Medicare cuts for doctors unless Congress circumvented them each year. If a deal is reached — and House leaders from both parties have indicated they want one — it would solve a problem lawmakers have been ducking for years with temporary, short-term funding patches.
But besides the big question of how the package would be paid for, lawmakers are debating whether it should also include funding extensions for the Children’s Health Insurance Program and the community health centers.
For the past five years, community health centers have been given billions in extra funding. As part of the 2010 health care law, Congress approved $11 billion in mandatory spending on the centers — on top of the discretionary funds they receive — giving them extra resources to open more sites, hire more staff and offer more services.
But that funding is set to run out Sept. 30, costing the centers 70 percent of their federal dollars. The centers are trying to convince lawmakers to extend the funds for a longer period of time. If Congress doesn’t renew the dollars, more than 2,000 health center sites would be shuttered, according to estimates from the Department of Health and Human Services.
Advocates for the centers worry that if the funding isn’t renewed in the legislative package currently being considered, lawmakers might not take up the issue until the fall.
“We consider this being one of the few if not only health-related package that’s likely to move before Sept. 30 or so,” said Dan Hawkins, a vice president of the National Association of Community Health Centers. “If we were not to be included in this package, it would be problematic.”
To bolster its case, the National Association of Community Health Centers released a paper Tuesday contending that about 7.4 million patients would no longer be able to access their medical professional at their local center, and nearly 57,000 clinicians and staff would be laid off under the so-called “fiscal cliff.”
The association also says that by 2020, 9.8 million fewer patients could be served and more than 82,000 staffing positions would be unfilled. About 23 million Americans who are low-income, lack health insurance or who live in rural areas with few health care providers visit community health centers each year for medical care.
“Failing to fix this cliff would send the country in the wrong direction by reducing primary care capacity and causing costs to spiral upward,” the paper says.
Even though the extra funding was part of the controversial health care law, there’s wide bipartisan support for extending it for a longer period of time. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., and Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich, are pushing the issue in the Senate, and in the House, the issue’s being led by Texas Reps. Kay Granger, a Republican, and Gene Green, a Democratic.
Last fall a majority of members signed a letter asking leaders to extend the fund, including 250 House members and 66 senators.
The current Medicare payment patch runs out at the end of March, so lawmakers hope to reach a broad deal by then. Hawkins said his group is hoping it will include $5.1 billion in annual funding for community health centers for five more years.
“We’re fervently, profoundly hopeful,” Hawkins said.
