Vaccines for Children Program: Early Legislative History and Future Innovations m.radman Thu, 10/13/2022 - 11:46 Leighton Ku, PhD, MPH, Florence Tyler, and Marsha Simon, SM, PhD Executive Summary Congress passed the Vaccines for Children (VFC) program as part of the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1993 (OBRA 93) after a call to action by President Bill Clinton. VFC is a federal entitlement program that has successfully provided vaccines at no cost to millions of Medicaid-eligible, uninsured, partially insured, and other needy children. This report focuses on the legislative intent of Cong ..read more

Data Note: Findings from 28 months of Data from HRSA’s Health Center COVID-19 Survey m.radman Thu, 09/01/2022 - 18:41 Jessica Sharac, Colleen Bedenbough, Feygele Jacobs, and Peter Shin This data note provides an overview of findings from the Health Resources and Services Administration’s (HRSA’s) Health Center COVID-19 Survey. HRSA has conducted the survey of community health centers since April 2020, initially on a weekly basis, and bi-weekly starting in July 2021. The survey has queried health centers on their COVID-19 activities and response, including testing, vaccinating, and providing tr ..read more

The Value Proposition: Evidence of the Health and Economic Contributions of Community Health Centers m.radman Tue, 08/23/2022 - 15:14 Leighton Ku, Jessica Sharac, Rebecca Morris, Feygele Jacobs, Peter Shin, Erin Brantley, Sara Rosenbaum Executive Summary Community health centers are the backbone of safety net primary and preventive health care services for underserved communities. In 2020, 1,375 health centers served almost 29 million patients. The health center program rests on a financial base consisting of core grant funding under Section 330 of the Public Health Service ..read more

In the Wake of Dobbs, are Community Health Centers Prepared to Respond to Rising Maternal and Infant Care Needs? m.radman Thu, 07/21/2022 - 13:23 Peter Shin, Sara Rosenbaum, Rebecca Morris, Kay Johnson, and Feygele Jacobs Executive Summary The Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health Organization will have a dramatic impact on access to abortion services. Thirteen states have abortion bans on the books that are designed to immediately go into effect (trigger bans), while another 13 states are expected to enact bans in the near future. Community health centers are a major ..read more

Three in Four Community Health Centers Are Engaged in Social Determinants of Health Activities. Making These Activities Universal Will Req m.radman Wed, 07/06/2022 - 13:45 Peter Shin, Jessica Sharac, Feygele Jacobs, and Sara Rosenbaum Executive Summary Poverty, lack of safe, affordable housing, hunger and poor nutrition, exposure to domestic violence, and other social conditions all have been shown to deeply affect both short- and long-term health outcomes. For over five decades, community health centers have been engaged in efforts to identify their patients’ social and health risks and to he ..read more

Community Health Centers’ Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic: Two-Year Findings from HRSA’s Health Center COVID-19 Survey (April 2020—April 2022) m.radman Tue, 05/03/2022 - 14:04 Jessica Sharac, Feygele Jacobs, Peter Shin, Sara Rosenbaum Executive Summary Community health centers have played a vital role during the COVID-19 pandemic, as the single largest source of comprehensive primary health care for medically underserved urban and rural communities. This Data Note reports on health center pandemic activities, using information from the Health Resources and Services Administration’s (HRSA) He ..read more

Loss of Coverage for COVID-19 Prevention, Testing, and Treatment Will Harm Community Health Center Patients m.radman Tue, 04/05/2022 - 10:13 Rebecca Morris, Jessica Sharac, Sara Rosenbaum, Feygele Jacobs, Peter Shin Approximately 6.2 million uninsured patients at community health centers could be hit with COVID-19 testing, vaccination, and treatment costs beginning tomorrow,  April 5th, as the COVID-19 uninsured fund expires.  Since 1 in 5 patients at centers are uninsured, the financial burden on centers could be substantial. In the first year of the pandemic, health center self-pay ..read more

What is at Stake for Community Health Centers and the Communities They Serve under the Biden Administration’s Proposed Public Charge Rule? m.radman Wed, 03/23/2022 - 10:21                 Sara Rosenbaum, Peter Shin, Jessica Sharac and Feygele Jacobs On February 24th the Biden administration issued a proposed rule that would replace regulations issued in 2019 by the Trump administration. The 2019 rule, reversing decades of policy, threatened to brand as “public charges” – and therefore ineligible for permanent U.S. residency (green card) status – le ..read more

Key COVID-19 Updates from Twenty Months of Health Center Survey Data m.radman Fri, 12/17/2021 - 10:36 Jessica Sharac, Feygele Jacobs, Maria Casoni, Peter Shin HRSA’s Health Center COVID-19 Survey Beginning in April 2020, the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) has conducted a Health Center COVID-19 Survey weekly (or every two weeks, starting in July 2021) to capture data on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the nation’s community health centers (see the Appendix for more details on the survey). The Geiger Gibson/RCHN Community Health Foundation Research Collaborative has p ..read more

The Evidence Does Not Support the Claim that the CMS COVID Vaccine Mandate will Make it Impossible for Health Care Providers to Find or Keep Staff m.radman Tue, 12/14/2021 - 10:25 Leighton Ku, PhD, MPH Professor, Dept. of Health Policy and Management Director, Center for Health Policy Research   Erin Brantley, PhD, MPH Deputy Director, Center for Health Policy Research   December 14, 2021 On November 5th 2021, in the face of an ongoing public health emergency, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services published an interim final rule mandating COVID-19 immunizations for empl ..read more