Tri-Area Community Health, which operates nine community clinics in southwest virginia, has been based on federal subsidies for 40 years. This month marked the first time that CEO James Werth had trouble accessing the funds necessary to cover the wages of its 170 employees.
Every two weeks, he requests a sum via the grant portal, and money is generally transferred to the health system within 24 hours. This time, an eight -day delay almost wreaked through financial, forcing him to consider closing if the wait continued much longer.
According to the Virginia Community Healthcare Association, almost half of federal skilled health centers in Virginia have waded during the week after President Donald Trump tried to freeze all federal subsidies. Although a memo describing the plan was quickly canceled, and A federal judge prevented the decree from taking effectThe disturbance has led to funding delays that put these clinics in danger, said Joe Stevens, director of the association.
Stevens refused to provide details on the centers that have experienced delays or a closure.
Federal qualified health centers are non -profit clinics that receive funding from the Health Resources and Services Administration. Often located in rural communities, they mainly serve non-insured and under-assured patients, offering payment on a mobile scale depending on the income and size of the family.
Virginia has 31 of these centers which operate more than 200 clinics.
“It’s so out of our control,” said Werth, adding that he contacted the American representative Morgan Griffith, R-Salem and US Meaning. Tim Kaine and Mark Warner, both D-VA.
According to a staff member, Griffith’s office had heard of a single center in the southwest of Virginia. In response, the office contacted the Health Resources and Services Administration, said staff.
The senator of the state Bill Stanley, the county of R-Franklin, and del. Wren Williams, County of R-Patrick, whose districts include part of the region’s service region of the region of the region, said they were not aware of the issue in their districts. Williams said he knew only one FQHC in his district – Patrick Springs – which opened in August 2024.
The president of the Chamber of Delegates, Don Scott, D-Sportmouth, created a Bipartite Committee last week to combat the impacts of the state of federal financing and the reductions of Trump’s workforce. During a press conference in Richmond on Thursday, he decreased funding delays, which he said led clusters, and he accused the Republicans of the State of remaining silent.
In a press release, Kaine and Warner noted that the Trump administration had provided no indication to those who knew the delays and declared that they had signed a letter to the United States Ministry of Health and Social Services, putting In view of delays in financing and emphasizing the role of community health, centers play in rural virginia.
Tri-area Community Health operates nine sites in the southwest of Virginia, from Grayson to the county of Franklin, including clinics in schools in Galax and the county of Carroll. It serves around 12,500 patients per year, totaling around 45,000 visits.
The system receives approximately $ 3.5 million in federal funds per year, representing 20% of its budget.
“We are a high -level employer in some of these small communities,” said Werth. Federal subsidies allow the system to respond to the payroll, he said.
Federal subsidies generally represent 20% of the budget for most of these health centers, said Stevens. The rest of the budget comes from Medicaid and private insurance.
“We often describe it as a three -legged stool,” said Stevens. “If a leg goes out, she collapses.”
Medicaid and private insurance income can keep these installations open temporarily, but without federal subsidies, many would probably close.
“It is important to remember that these clinics are also in the community, it is not only in brick and mortar buildings,” said Stevens.
Many centers are expanding their scope in schools and through mobile health units. These services offer medical, behavioral and dental health services, reducing obstacles to care such as transport.
When funding is tight, these services are often the first to be cut, said Stevens.
According to Stevens, some centers awaited their grant funds, aggravating existing work shortages, according to Stevens.
The industry is faced with uncertainty in all of its sources of funding, said Jonathan Stewart, CEO of New Horizons Healthcare, a federal qualified health center in Roanoke.
After a judge blocked Trump’s decree, Stewart tested his access to funding and succeeded. His organization has not undergone any delay, but he said that the psychological impact of the frost was immense.
“We have a nest egg, but we are a very thin operation,” said Stewart. “An impact like this would be to cut us into the bone.”
Federal subsidies represent approximately $ 2.8 million in the annual budget of $ 14 million in New Horizon.
New Horizons serves around 10,000 people a year, totaling around 40,000 patient visits. About a quarter of patients are not insured.
Increased access to primary care often results in lower expenses by minimizing the need for high cost interventions, Stewart said. Early intervention leads to better management of conditions which, if they are not processed, can lead to hospital stays or expensive emergency visits.
“Access to primary care creates savings to the revolutionary system,” he said.
This is why he and his colleagues work to raise awareness of the role that these centers play.
Stewart was at the General Assembly when the news announced that Trump had signed a decree to freeze all federal subsidies.
“People burst. The general assembly is always a very active place, but it was at a level that I had never seen before, “said Stewart. “We were there to discuss oral health, but everything that has faded in the background.”
His phone turned on with messages from workers worried about their next pay check.
While Stewart believes that community health centers have been involuntary losses in federal gel in grants, he noted that most of the funding supports pay – the most important expenditure for these facilities.
He said he was not concerned about another freezing of subsidies, but that the potential cups of Medicaid could bring a serious blow to his clinics.
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Fixed February 4:10 p.m. The CEO of James Werth of Tri-Area Community Health, said that he had contributed to the aid to the American representative Morgan Griffith, R-Salem and US Sens. Tim Kaine and Mark Warner, both D-VA. An earlier version of this story included an incorrect list of names.