Every single health center cares for people who have been affected by domestic violence. When providers initiate conversations about domestic violence with their patients, they provide crucial support for survivors. In a new blog, Anisa Ali, MA,  of Futures Without Violence and Kimberly S.G. Chang, MD, MPH, of Asian Health Services explain. Read more.

Contact: Amy Simmons Farber 202 309 0338

The National Association of Community Health Centers (NACHC) has filed suit to take action in response to recent moves by drug manufacturers to dismantle the health center federal 340B drug discount program.  The suit seeks to compel the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to implement a long-delayed dispute resolution process that would allow health centers to act against drug companies that are violating the 340B statute and have abruptly stopped shipping discounted drugs to health centers’ contracted pharmacies. Across the country, millions of lives are at stake and health center operations and budgets face possible devastation in the midst of an overwhelming public health pandemic.

The 340B program is critical for health centers’ ability to make medications affordable for patients, and to generate savings that are used to expand access to other services.  Previously, most health centers were unable to afford to provide their patients with access to discounted drugs.  NACHC estimates that 10 million low-income patients will suffer reduced access to health center services and affordable medicine unless HHS acts now to protect the program.  Bipartisan Members of Congress have urged HHS Secretary Alex Azar in a letter  to take “immediate action” because drug manufacturers are setting “a dangerous precedent.”

America’s Health Centers care for 30 million patients nationwide across nearly 14,000 communities and are able to provide life-saving medicines and services because of the federal 340B program. Twelve percent of health center patients who have been tested were positive for COVID-19. Health center patients typically suffer from chronic health conditions and rely on low-cost 340B medicines and other health center services to stay healthy and out of hospitals.   Yet many of the wealthiest pharmaceutical manufacturers are refusing to ship 340B discounted drugs to contract pharmacies, which are used by thousands of health centers.  NACHC has fielded hundreds of complaints from health centers in the past few weeks about high drug prices that low-income patients will be forced to pay. For instance:

• A health center patient may now pay up to $600 for a 30 day supply of insulin that used to cost $17.
• The price of preventive inhaler for asthma may rise from $17-18 to $350 or more per month.

In its filing NACHC noted that:

“The manufacturers’ abrupt about-face, after decades of shipping [health centers’] purchases of 340B-priced drugs to their contract pharmacies—during a global pandemic and a recession—is not only callous, but  a clear violation of 340B statutory requirements and the binding pharmaceutical pricing agreements manufacturers have with HHS.”

NACHC’s suit presses HHS to promulgate administrative dispute resolution (“ADR”) regulations and implement a process to adjudicate and remedy the 340B violations.  While HHS has signaled some disapproval of recent manufacturers’ practices, no action has been taken despite concerns raised by hundreds of bipartisan Members of Congress.

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Established in 1971, the National Association of Community Health Centers (NACHC) serves as the national voice for America’s Health Centers and as an advocate for health care access for the medically underserved and uninsured.

NACHC will continue its partnership with other organizations for an initiative called the “Delta Center for a Thriving Safety Net ” (Delta Center), securing an additional three years of support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to advance policy, payment, and practice changes that will benefit millions of people who rely on Community Health Centers and community behavioral health organizations.  Since the launch of the Delta Center in 2018,  the need for a  strong and stable safety net has only increased. The COVID-19 pandemic has dramatically increased the number of people who rely on Medicaid while safety-net provider organizations contend with service cuts or closures.

To read the full press release please visit this link.

 

 

 

The National Association of Community Health Centers strongly disagrees with the White House’s September 22^nd Executive Order, which prohibits the federal government and federal grantees from conducting trainings that address systemic racism and bias in the workplace. The EO even goes further to ban the use of such terms in training materials, such as “critical race theory,” “white privilege,” “intersectionality and “unconscious bias”.

Community Health Centers sprang into existence nearly 60 years ago as part of the Civil Rights Movement – and this pandemic has revealed what we have known since their inception: communities of color, as well as lower income communities, have marked differences in health access and health status in virtually every measure. As healers, America’s health centers have long understood that racism, even in its most subtle forms, will continue to plague our communities and produce health disparities that include higher maternal and infant mortality rates, cancer, depression, diabetes and trauma.  Our mission — to reach beyond the exam room and address the basic inhumanities a person may suffer in their community, workplace, or home — begins with recognizing inequity wherever it may exist.

Among the most insidious of the many social determinants of health are racism, discrimination, and even unconscious bias. And silence on practices such as these is akin to complicity and cooperation in their execution. Further, it is our belief that attempting to ignore or even erase these concepts and prevent the exploration of such multi-faceted issues by denying their usage in robust, open, and honest dialogue would seem to not only violate the spirit of our Constitution — but also do little to encourage the very “diversity and inclusion efforts consistent with principles of fair and equal treatment” that the Administration purports to be striving for.

The concepts and terms being prohibited are not, as the EO asserts, “divisive concepts” that threaten the core institutions of our country. We deny the assertion that discussion of these and similar ideas will “sow division among the workforce by attempting to prescribe and impose upon employees a conformity of belief in ideologies that label entire groups of Americans as inherently racist or evil.” We deny this assertion not only because we hold true to such other historically controversial concepts as frank discussion, respectful disagreement, diversity of opinion, and freedom of speech – but also because we believe in confronting the societal factors that result in disparities and view the full understanding of the complexity of our current society as integral to the strength and success of our nation’s future. For, as Justice Robert H. Jackson once wrote, “Compulsory unification of opinion achieves only the unanimity of the graveyard.” And, as we believe history has demonstrated time and again — where there is diversity, there is strength.

We, the National Association of Community Health Centers (NACHC), hereby reaffirm our commitment to equity and the protection of all people from discrimination based on race, gender, sexual orientation, religious practice, or national origin. And we call upon the Administration to cease implementation of this misguided policy and its threat to free speech and open discussion.

 

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Contact:  Amy Simmons Farber 202 309 0338

On behalf of America’s 1,400 Community Health Centers, serving 30 million people at almost 14,000 care delivery sites, we want to express our profound disappointment at the President’s call to cease all economic stimulus negotiations until after the November election.  Like thousands upon thousands of other American businesses these days, our nation’s health centers are suffering massive revenue shortfalls and deep uncertainty about what the future holds – and we need action now.

Like many of America’s health care providers, health centers have been heroically serving on the front-lines of the COVID response since this pandemic began.  We have been called upon to not only keep our primary and preventive care services functioning in the face of massive in-person patient visit cancellations and reduced telehealth reimbursements – but to also institute and conduct routine COVID testing and treatment – often with little to no financial assistance.  Our centers have had to not only reconfigure their entire clinical workflows and undertake material alterations to their facilities, but also create portable and curbside testing and clinical treatment options – all while losing revenue and operating on reduced staffing levels.

Furthermore, health centers’ economic pain has been, and continues to be, exacerbated by ongoing uncertainty around a commitment to long-term operational funding from Congress, chronic clinical and administrative workforce shortages, vastly underfunded outstanding capital improvement needs, and – most recently –an assault on the crucial 340B federal drug discount program by pharmaceutical manufacturers and the current Administration.  Projected operational revenue losses alone over these many months are estimated to be in excess of $8 billion – not to mention the potential loss of additional billions of dollars regularly saved through the 340B drug discount program – which are then reinvested into additional critical health care services.  However, in spite of all this uncertainty, last year alone our centers served 1 in 11 Americans — including 1 in 4 uninsured individuals — and 1 in 8 children in this country.

Birthed from America’s struggle for Civil Rights and the effort to eliminate health disparities for our nation’s most medically underserved, health centers have been fighting against the odds from Day One. By law and by mission, we have a proud, almost 60 year, history of delivering services to all – regardless of their ability to pay. Yet at a time when the nation is asking us to do even more in the fight against COVID-19 – including being an important part of the country’s vaccine delivery system – we are struggling with uncertainty.  For every week and month that goes by without additional economic assistance, our centers are having to ask themselves the hard questions – questions such as: How will we continue to pay our staff members? How many do we need to lay-off or let go? What services should we curtail or terminate all together? Should we reduce our hours of operation? Which locations can we afford to keep open? How many vulnerable patients do we need to stop providing services to?

Yet, in the face of all these many challenges — health centers, as always, will answer the call – and stand ready to do and serve even more.  And while, over these past several months, we have been forced to bend — we are not yet broken.  America can rest assured that no matter what happens –health centers will draw upon the strength and commitment of those who have come before us and hold the line — continuing to show up and care for those who need us most.

Know this: we will never cease advocating for our patients and our communities – and we will continue to educate and keep up the pressure for additional funding for our centers.  In the meantime, it remains our sincere hope that the Administration will reconsider its harmful position and recommence talks with Congress to pass much needed additional and overdue stimulus funding, not only to ensure the survival of health centers but for our nation as a whole.

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Contact: Amy Simmons Farber 202 309 0338

Community Health Centers and the nearly 30 million patients they serve have a temporary reprieve from a new regulation implementing the President’s Executive Order around insulin and EpiPens.  The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has revised the regulation from an Interim Final Rule to a Proposed Rule, signaling that the public will now have a chance to submit written comments before it goes into effect.  The move comes after health center leaders sounded the alarm about the rule’s potential impact on vulnerable populations, flooding the federal agency with meeting requests.

“We are deeply grateful that there seems to be growing recognition among leaders in the Administration that this rule will do more harm than good at a time when too many people are suffering,” said Tom Van Coverden, President and CEO of NACHC.  “We hope that this is further acknowledgment that a pandemic is no time to destabilize the safety net. Certainly, the high cost of prescriptions remains a national crisis – but health centers are the solution — not the problem.”

NACHC has made protecting the 340B program at health centers a top priority.  Last week the association held a press conference that highlighted the threats to the federal drug discount program that will force people further into poverty, disease, and put countless lives at stake.  NACHC is moving forward with plans to mount a defense that includes legal action.

OMB’s revision comes after a White House Executive Order (EO) was issued in July that targeted EpiPens and insulin dispensed by health centers and purchased under the 340B Drug Discount program.  Members of Congress from both parties joined with health center leaders in expressing concern and highlighted health centers as excellent stewards of the 340B program, using the savings it generated as Congress intended.  U.S. Rep. Cindy Axne (D-IA) led a letter to U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) requesting they rescind or decline to enforce the EO. “By targeting the centers providing these medications to those without insurance or the means to get the care instead of big pharmaceutical companies, HHS risks making things worse for a community already in need,” said Axne in a press release.  “Community Health Centers provide critical lifelines in our communities. They aren’t the reason why drug costs, especially insulin costs, are too high in this country.”

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Established in 1971, the National Association of Community Health Centers (NACHC) serves as the national voice for America’s Health Centers and as an advocate for health care access for the medically underserved and uninsured.