Close Menu

  • Home >
  • LA Fires Impact Local Health Centers & Communities, Destroying One Clinic 

NACHC Blog

Monday, January 13, 2025

Unprecedented wildfires are raging in Los Angeles, having taken lives, destroyed more than 40,000 acres, and forced 150,000 residents to evacuate. High winds threaten to spread fires to the surrounding counties. While the full impact will take weeks to discover, Community Health Center (CHC) patients and staff are experiencing devastating destruction from the fires. As is typical in disasters, CHCs in LA are in harm’s way while at the same time providing critical support to their patients and communities.   

AltaMed has lost its Pasadena clinic

At least one CHC clinic has completely burned down. The Eaton wildfire destroyed the AltaMed Health Services clinic in Pasadena. In addition to the loss of the Pasadena location, The California Primary Care Association reports AltaMed had to close five additional sites due to evacuation. Learn about the fire relief fund AltaMed set up to support its relief efforts.

Despite losing a clinic and other challenges, AltaMed Foundation President Dr. Zoila D. Escobar told Yahoo News that the health and well-being of their patients has remained their top priority.  

“Our staff have been working around the clock since Wednesday, providing health services, mental health support, medication and other essential resources to evacuees at the Pasadena Convention Center,” said Dr. Escobar. 

The San Fernando Community Health Center closed January 8 due to evacuation concerns for staff. The Northeast Valley Health Corporation CHC sites remain operational and are seeing patients except for one site that closed due to power outage.

As of publication, 30 CHC clinics have closed for safety reasons. An untold number of CHC staff have lost their homes.  

Organizations offering medical aid and relief to health center patients

Several organizations are mobilizing relief operations to aid CHC patients. NACHC’s longtime partner, Direct Relief, has been distributing medical aid and other emergency supplies across Southern California. Direct Relief maintains medical inventory commonly requested during large wildfire events, including N95 respirators, prescription medicines, Tdap vaccines, medical supplies, personal care items for evacuating people, and protective gear for post-fire recovery efforts.  

“Wildfires often cause power outages, disrupting access to critical health services and putting those reliant on electrically powered medical devices and medicines requiring refrigeration at heightened risk while increased patient volumes during and after wildfires can strain local health care systems,” wrote Direct Relief on its website. “The impact of these power outages and the pressure on local health resources often exacerbate health inequities, particularly among communities that experience chronic shortages of primary care.”

As Taina Lopez, NACHC’s Director of Emergency Management, says, “We are grateful for Direct Relief, International Medical Corp, and other NGO partners who are working in coordination and supporting health centers impacted by this disaster.”

NACHC is monitoring the situation and will post updates here.

As we begin another year of advancing the mission of making Community Health Centers (CHCs) the Employer, Provider, and Partner of Choice, NACHC thanks all CHC advocates for their engagement through a difficult two years of divided government. Unfortunately, last month, a bipartisan agreement to extend and increase CHC funding fell apart at the last minute due to unrelated concerns. Instead, Congress extended funding at current levels through March 2025, despite how difficult it is for CHCs to plan for their communities’ primary care needs.  

Collective advocacy from CHCs, NACHC, Primary Care Associations, and Health Center Controlled Networks has been essential to building strong support for funding in a divided Congress. In March 2024, despite the polarization in Congress, advocates secured the largest year-over-year increase to our mandatory funding in a decade.1 Two key workforce development programs – the National Health Service Corps (NHSC) and Teaching Health Center Graduate Medical Education (THCGME) – also received significant boosts in funding. Congress only provided increased funding through December 31st, 2024, creating a critical year-end deadline. 

NACHC Hosts Successful Fly-In for CHC Advocates

To keep up the pressure on Congress, more than 300 CHC advocates flew to DC in early December to attend more than 160 in-person meetings. Across the country, more than 2,200 advocates sent nearly 7,000 e-mails and made nearly 1,000 calls to emphasize the need for action to protect access to primary care in underserved communities. 

The strong turnout and strategic timing jumpstarted bipartisan negotiations around extending and increasing CHC and workforce programs as part of a year-end package.  On December 17th, Congressional leadership announced a compromise bill that would have increased the mandatory funding to $4.5 billion in Fiscal Year (FY) 2025 and $4.6 billion in FY 2026.2 The final number would have represented a 15 percent total increase over the mandatory funding level at the start of the Congress in 2023. Also, the bill would have increased and extended funding for NHSC and THCGME for two years and five years, respectively. Lastly, it would have enacted common-sense health system reforms, such as payment parity for telehealth services delivered to CHC Medicare patients.

House Members Balk at 1,500-Page Package, Citing Rushed Process and Limited Input

Unfortunately, soon after the package was released, opposition started to build on social media channels about provisions in the bill unrelated to CHCs.  A growing number of Representatives in the narrowly divided House objected to the measure because they had not been involved in the drafting process; other lawmakers expressed concern they had not had time to review the entire 1,500 legislation before the vote. Despite the backlash, the CHC-related provisions had previously received strong bipartisan support in the House and Senate.  

Two days later, Congress settled on a much-reduced proposal that provided only level funding and short-term extensions for most federally funded programs.3 The reworked legislation extended all discretionary spending, including 30 percent of total CHC funding, through March 14th, 2024. It extended mandatory funding, which accounts for the other 70 percent of CHC funding, at current levels through March 31st.  

The two deadlines create another layer of uncertainty as CHCs draw up budgets for the rest of the year and cope with growing costs due to inflation and workforce shortages. The situation is increasingly dire as data suggests that CHCs may have already been operating at a potential net loss of -2.2% in 2024 while facing increasing restrictions on other sources of revenue, such as the 340B program.4

Advocacy is essential to ensure that Congress stays at the negotiating table and reaches an agreement as quickly as possible. There are key opportunities to engage with Representatives and Senators this month and in February. Representatives will be in their districts and available to tour CHCs and meet their constituents during the weeks of January 27th, February 17th, and March 17th. Hill Day during the Policy and Issues Forum on February 6th will be another important opportunity to engage with Senators and Representatives in their DC offices.  

NACHC will provide resources and materials to support your meetings with elected officials, and our Federal Affairs team is always happy to answer any questions you may have.  There is also a P&I Prep Webinar scheduled for January 22 at 3 pm EST. Feel free to reach out to NACHC staff at federalaffairs@nachc.org for questions. 

  1. Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2024. https://www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/house-resolution/1061/text ↩︎
  2. Further Continuing Appropriations and Disaster Relief Supplemental Appropriations Act, 2025. https://docs.house.gov/billsthisweek/20241216/CR.pdf ↩︎
  3. American Relief Act, 2025. https://www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/house-bill/10545/text ↩︎
  4. Community Health Centers Grew Through 2023, But Serious Hazards Are on the Horizon. Geiger Gibson Program in Community Health. Policy Issue Brief #72. 2024 Sep. https://geigergibson.publichealth.gwu.edu/72-community-health-centers-grew-through-2023-serious-hazards-are-horizon ↩︎

President Carter welcomes CHC advocates to the White House

As the nation mourns the passing of President Jimmy Carter, we reflect on his extraordinary commitment to community health and human dignity. His vision for healthcare accessibility began during his presidency, when he championed the Rural Health Initiative in 1975, which led to funding for 47 new health centers. By the next year, it had grown to 138 new health centers. By 1977, Congress passed the Rural Health Clinic Services Act, which increased Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement rates and allowed payment for nurse practitioners and physician assistants in rural health centers.  

“President Carter’s legacy is deeply intertwined with the Community Health Center (CHC) Movement, exemplified by his warm welcome of health center advocates to the White House,” said Kyu Rhee, MD, MPP, President and CEO of NACHC. “His visionary leadership and profound understanding of primary care’s importance laid the initial groundwork for building access to rural CHCs, which today serve nearly 10 million rural Americans—one in five rural residents—across 6,500 locations. Carter’s early recognition of CHCs’ vital role in community health and wellness helped establish them as cornerstone institutions in rural health delivery.” 

President Carter’s dedication to health extended beyond his presidency. Together with his wife Rosalynn, he established The Carter Center, an organization that would become a powerful force for human rights and disease prevention worldwide. Under their leadership, the Center achieved remarkable success in nearly eradicating Guinea worm disease, a devastating parasitic infection that once affected millions through contaminated drinking water. 

His commitment to health was both personal and profound. “I think all Americans believe in human rights. And health is an often-overlooked aspect of basic human rights,” Carter once reflected, drawing from his early experiences as the son of a registered nurse. “Many of the diseases that we treat around the world, I knew when I was a child… They no longer exist in our country.”  President Carter’s legacy in health – from expanding rural health centers to tackling industry costs, from fighting neglected diseases to championing mental health – reflects his fundamental belief that health is a human right, not a privilege. His life’s work continues to inspire and guide our mission to ensure accessible, high quality, affordable, comprehensive primary care for all. 

As rural hospitals have closed or shuttered essential services in recent years, health centers have stepped up to fill gaps in communities’ healthcare systems and mitigate some of the negative effects of closures on health outcomes.

Health centers are essential primary care providers in rural communities across the country. According to HRSA’s Uniform Data System, 595 rural health centers operated 6,397 sites across rural America. Together, they served nearly 10 million individuals (about one in five rural residents) through over 36 million clinical visits and over 3 million virtual visits.  In many rural communities, health centers are the only care providers available, as hospitals and other providers can be many miles away.

Abrupt hospital closures in rural areas have reached crisis proportions and strained health centers’ ability to absorb and adapt to the number and needs of patients left without care. According to the Cecil B. Sheps Center for Health Services Research at the University of North Carolina, in 2013, 2,322 rural hospitals were serving 20 percent of Americans, around 60 million people. Since 2010, 86 of these rural hospitals have closed and 64 have ceased to provide inpatient services. The problem is getting worse – a recent study found that 700 rural hospitals are at risk of closing due to financial losses.

In 2023, NACHC found that 100 million Americans lack access to primary care, and the number lacking access due to an inadequate supply in their local community has nearly doubled since 2014.  In many rural communities, hospitals’ emergency departments are significant providers of primary care, and closures exacerbate existing gaps in access to emergency and specialist services as well as primary and preventive care. Health centers’ governance model of patient majority boards means they are well-positioned to respond to the communities’ needs when a hospital closes.

In 2020, Capital Link conducted a survey assessing how rural health centers respond to rural hospital closures. They found that health centers preserved the communities’ access to key services by acquiring buildings or facilities, assuming services, and ramping up partnerships and collaborations. Of the CHCs that have collaborated to retain access to services, the most prevalent have been primary care, prenatal services, and mental health/behavioral health/substance use disorder services.

Health Centers Fill Gaps in Access to Healthcare

Protecting Access to Maternal Healthcare

Health centers are important providers of maternal health care, and that is especially true after a hospital closure. Health centers fight maternal mortality after hospitals close or shutter by ramping up testing, medication management, follow-up appointments, and consultations with specialists in the field.

In North Carolina, the Betsy Johnson Hospital in Harnett County closed its labor and delivery ward. Since then, CommWell Health has been working to expand its prenatal care services as they have seen an influx of pregnant patients in need of care. While they currently have two OB/GYNs on contract for two half-days a week due to the prohibitive cost, they are working to expand and preserve prenatal care in the community to support healthy pregnancies and births.

In California’s Central Valley, the closure of Madera County Hospital put significant pressure on Camarena Health, the local Community Health Center. The hospital closure left hundreds of mothers without access to essential maternal diabetes care, placing them at risk for pregnancy complications and adverse neonatal development. Faced with this lack of access, Camarena Health was able to develop an internal program to replicate all the same services previously provided by the hospital, including testing, medication management, follow-up appointments, and consultations with specialists in the field. This has created convenience for patients to remain within their medical home to receive gestational diabetes counseling and management, including dietary instruction and medication prescriptions.

Expanding Service Locations to Protect Access to Care

In response to hospital closures, some Community Health Centers have preserved services by acquiring buildings or facilities previously owned by hospitals. In response to a hospital closure, the NorthLakes Community Clinic opened a new clinic in Eau Claire, WI, to provide medical, dental, behavioral health, and substance use disorder services to patients left without a provider. This new clinic expanded care provided in the Chippewa Valley.

Mercy Hospital in Fort Scott closed in 2018, leaving the town of 7,800 with no hospital within thirty miles. Community Health Center of Southeast Kansas (CHC/SEK) stepped in to help by acquiring four medical practices that had been part of the hospital and setting up a clinic site in a building that had previously housed the hospital. They hired many of the hospital staff to keep providers in the area and set up new models of care that many say resulted in better care than patients had received before the hospital closed.

Protecting Jobs and Boosting Rural Economies

Health centers are significant sources of economic development in rural communities, creating good-paying jobs and offering rewarding career paths in primary care. More than 80 percent of rural health centers also serve as training site partners and sponsors, enabling the next generation of care providers to understand rural communities’ unique challenges. In 2023, rural Community Health Centers trained more than 3,000 physicians, including 100 OB/GYNs. Health centers also offered opportunities to individuals without a traditional educational background, training over 2,000 Registered Nurses and more than 1,500 Medical Assistants in 2023.

For example, in Williamston, NC, Agape Health Services, preserved access to care after the closure of Martin General Hospital by reopening an orthopedic clinic previously managed by the hospital. Additionally, Agape Health Services absorbed a Nurse Practitioner and her team when their primary care clinic closed, keeping providers in the community and preserving their community partnerships.

Community Health Centers are essential providers in rural communities across the country and serve many of the same communities that rural hospitals do. As aging demographics and economic challenges put pressure on rural health care delivery systems, health centers have stepped up to meet their communities’ needs by meeting maternal health challenges, protecting health care jobs, and broadening their service offerings to fill gaps in care.

Funding that Community Health Centers rely on to serve 32.5 million people a year expires later this month. It’s important for Congress to hear from as many health center supporters as possible — in-person, through calls, and emails — before the December 31 funding deadline. Act now to urge your elected officials to:

  • Increase base funding for Community Health Centers to $5.8 billion in the year-end budget package to maintain and expand patient services.
  • Support primary care workforce programs by funding the National Health Services Corps (NHSC) at $950 million per year and increasing funding for the Teaching Health Center Graduate Medical Education (THCGME) program to $300 million per year.
  • Support at least a two-year extension to Medicare telehealth flexibilities to protect seniors’ access to telehealth services, especially in rural communities.

This is an opportunity for all advocates to make their voices heard with Members of Congress on behalf of the 32.5 million patients you serve. Advocating takes less than 2 minutes and easy step-by-step instructions are included in the links below.

Confused about health center funding? Watch our Explainer Video on Health Center Funding to learn about federal funding.

Why engaging with Congress matters

Did you know? Congress measures the importance of an issue by counting the number of calls received in a day. This is a reminder that everyone has the power to quickly raise this issue to the top of their priorities. Follow the campaign links to find everything you’ll need: call script, sample letter to Congress, and additional talking points. If you have any questions about this campaign, feel free to contact us at grassroots@nachc.org.

Sign up to receive updates about how you can take action to support health centers.

The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) is set to extend the Public Health Emergency (PHE) teleprescribing flexibilities through the end of 2025. To support this extension, NACHC, alongside 216 other organizations, recently signed a letter urging the Biden Administration to extend the current teleprescribing flexibilities for controlled substances for two more years. An extension will ensure continuity of care for millions of patients and provide additional time to build a plan balancing access and enforcement.

Read the full letter.

As the COVID-19 pandemic highlighted, telehealth has become an essential tool in delivering healthcare to underserved individuals nationwide. For patients in rural areas, people with disabilities, and those experiencing homelessness, teleprescribing offers a vital bridge to care—particularly for those managing chronic conditions or substance use disorders.

Community Health Centers, which serve nearly 32.5 million Americans, are on the front lines of this health crisis. In 2023 alone, nearly 400,000 telehealth visits for substance use disorder were conducted at health centers. With patients increasingly managing complex conditions, teleprescribing is critical to ensuring continued access to necessary medications and support. It’s not just a convenience—it’s a lifeline for those who need it most.