Government shutdown raises concerns for community health centers in Virginia

Roanoke – The government shutdown has raised concerns for community health centers, especially in rural parts of Virginia. Core federal funding for these centers expired on Sept. 30.

A community health center is a non-profit, community organization that provides primary care for those living in areas of the state with a shortage of medical care. Because they receive some federal funding, community health centers have paid medical and support staff and are open regular business hours. Community Health Center’s provide primary care, dental visits, behavioral health services as well as substance use treatment and help managing chronic diseases.

Access to medical care is already a major issue in rural Virginia, particularly in the southwest region. The ninth congressional district of Virginia has more than 60 community health centers, more than any other district in the state. According to the Virginia Community Healthcare Association CEO Tracy Douglas, more than 400,000 Virginians rely on CHC’s every year.

Republican Representative for the 9th district, Morgan Griffith spoke about the impact of the funding lapse. He said the clinics are now at financial risk. The government shutdown affects patients covered by Medicare, meaning telehealth services will no longer be covered.

“I’m hoping that we can get some of that made permanent as a result of seeing what happens when you do these temporary programs that everybody’s for,” Griffith said. “There’s nobody, I mean, I don’t know of any known large opposition to this or to the community health centers. But they got caught in a crossfire.”

Congress never extended the pandemic-era rule that allowed care to be delivered virtually. Griffith has been advocating for a long-term solution to authorize funding for these vital health services.

“We made certain exceptions during COVID for the authority for telemedicine. Well, that’s gone and so both our hospitals and our community health centers have been using more and more telemedicine which is fabulous for a rural community,” Griffith said. “It’s one of those things where some of it was authorized previously, some of its temporary authorization. But we lost some of the authorization for telemedicine. And that’s devastating to a lot of communities in Southwest Virginia because, particularly when you’re talking about mental health issues, your mental health professional may be in Charlottesville or Richmond or Northern Virginia, but you’re able to go visit them at your community health center, at your local hospital, where you don’t have the stigma because you’re going in and you could have the flu as easy as you could a mental health issue, and then through telemedicine, you’re seeing a psychologist or a psychiatrist. And a lot of that is now gone.

Griffith said there is support for Community Health Centers and telemedicine from both parties, and it’s unfortunate that these critical services are now in jeopardy due to the shutdown.

“There’s nobody, I mean, I don’t know of any known large opposition to this or to the community health centers. But they got caught in a crossfire because even the president doesn’t have the authority to spend money when there’s no authorization and the government’s in a shutdown. And so it’s really very frustrating in many ways."

The Virginia Community Healthcare Association CEO Tracy Douglas called for urgent on CHC funding in post on social media and in an op-ed piece in Cardinal News.

“When the government shuts down, most people expect the pain to appear slowly. But for Virginia’s community health centers (CHCs), the impact is immediate. That’s why we are urging Congress to move beyond stopgap solutions and deliver long-term, stable funding for CHCs. Health care should not rise and fall with the tides of politics. Families should never have to wonder if their CHC will be open next week.”