Children play during the Head Start program in Easterseals South Florida, an organization that obtains about a third of its federal government funding on Wednesday, January 29 in Miami.
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tilting legend
Rebecca Blackwell / AP
For more than a week, Paula Tomko of Virginia Central Health Services Waited for federal funding from the Ministry of Health and Social Services. The organization manages 20 community health centers across the State.
“Normally, we put the request in one day and it would be on our bank account the next day,” she explains. On January 24, its organization submitted a request through payments management services, a portal managed by HHS.
But the funds have never come. Many other organizations that receive federal funding via the same portal also found that they could not reduce reimbursements from last week.
The moment of the chess of the system coincides with the Trump administration gel ordered federal subsidy funding, including a White House management and budget office published memo January 27, which was later blocked by a federal judge and canceled by Omb.
“We have been doing this for over 50 years – we started in 1970 and and we never had this problem,” she said. “We are really uncertain of what it means.”
Its organization has enough reservations to pay for their 550 staff members at the moment, she says, but not long.
“We were honest with our staff, we said:” Hey, it’s a cash flow problem at the moment “”, she explained.
To be careful, the organization brings small changes such as the limitation of travel and only store supplies for short -term needs. Patients have not yet had interrupted care.
But certain health care centers near Richmond, Virginia, have closed and had to transfer patients to centers in its network when they could not access federal funds, According to VPM News.
Community health care centers provide primary and preventive care to millions of patients, many of whom are low -income, whether insured or not. In many regions of the country, these are the only health care centers offering primary care in addition to the hospital emergency services.
“People hear that the frost has been lifted, they assume that we are back to normal and we are really not – we are really not,” said Tomko. “We thought we had a contract and we cannot access the funds that have been contracted.”
Lack of communication
A spokesman for the Ministry of Health and Social Services, who manages the payment system, sent a declaration to NPR saying that the “technical problems” had caused a breakdown.
“Users can experience delays due to the high volume of requests. HHS is working in the program support center to help accelerate resolution as quickly as possible,” the spokesperson wrote.
Community health centers across the country have been affected, but unevenly. Defense of community health defenders, which represents community health centers, written in a declaration This clinic from Maine, Nebraska, Illinois, Michigan, with Virginia, has experienced interruptions.
Some Head Start programs, which also receive HHS grant funds, have also reported problems.
“We know 37 grant recipients serving approximately a little less than 15,000 children in 20 states across the country and DC and Puerto Rico who are still waiting (for the funds)”, explains Tommy Sheridan, deputy director of the National Head Start Association .
Tomko de Central Virginia Health Services indicates that beneficiaries are not indicated on how to navigate the problem, “whether, delete your previous requests and make new ones, or do it every day in small amounts – ‘There is no advice. “This week, his organization canceled the request from January 24 and submitted a new one, without knowing if it would help or hinder the problem.
A message recorded on the federal payment portal is declared: “We have no information to share concerning the delay in payments at the moment. Please continue to visit the website for updates.”
Thursday, a group of democratic senators sent a letter to the acting secretary for health and social services to request responses on funding delays.
Navigation of uncertainty in Head Start
For HEAD Start suppliers who could not access the system on which they depend, the last week was “really emotional,” said Abbi Kruse, executive director of playgrounds, a early childhood center in Madison, Wisconsin, this uses Head Start dollars to cover part of its programming.
“The recent thing was really only uncertainty,” she said. If the funding of funding continued, she said: “It would really have a domino effect on our entire operation.”
Since last week, she said, she heard families who were afraid of losing their childcare and teachers who are afraid of losing their jobs.
“Many of our families are homeless, or they may become homeless, and even a few days off can make a difference for them between being able to pay their rent and not being able to pay their rent,” she said.
Kruse added that maintaining the revenue model of the playground is a difficult balance in the best of cases, and that providers are already in a hurry due to inflation.
“We are simply counting on many different forms of financing to ensure that our program is accessible to low-income families,” she said. “This is a difficult period anyway. And therefore, adding in addition to that, this federal money which has always been stable, withdrawing it would have done right things – that would have been really impossible to understand this.”
On Friday, half of the funds serving the center of Kruse were released, the rest promised for Monday. At least four other HEAD Start beneficiaries in Wisconsin were also confronted with delays; Friday, all had seen a certain resumption of financing, according to Jen Bailey de la Wisconsin Head Start Association.
Kruse said that she was relieved that her program saw her federal funds resume, but she stays on board.
“What are the plans for Head Start? Who makes these decisions? How do they make these decisions?” She said. “I feel relieved for today, but I always feel really uncertain about the future.”
Imminent budgetary uncertainty
Karen Haring Court LiberatedA community non-profit organization in Virginia-Western that supports young women. This week, the organization Inaugurated a new building that they are preparing to renovate as a community center with affordable accommodation for 8 young women.
Libera also had problems obtaining funding as usual thanks to the HHS grant portal. Instead of funding to arrive the next day after a request, as usual, it took more than a week.
Underant obstacles in access to funds now make them worry about their future.
“The concern, we have this building, it seems that the funding will take place and continue to renovate the building, but what happens if we do not have the staff to carry out the programs? And if we n ‘Do not have the staff to manage the building? “Asks Haring.
Tomko in Virginia agrees that the threat of government closure is suspended from each organization that receives These federal health subsidies. They now use their reserves to cover delays in subsidy financing.
“How long can we cover this and when should we tighten our belt even more and start having an impact on services?” she asked.
At one point, funding delays could really start hitting patients and families on these community centers.
Simmons-Duffin reported to Washington; Van Wagtendonk reported to Madison, WISC. The correspondent of the White House of NPR, Tamara Keith, contributed to this report.