New Health Law: Doubles # of patients able to be seen at community health centers

Here’s another one in my series on under-reported aspects of the new health law. Many people, including many in the health world, don’t realize that the law doubles the capacity of community health centers nationwide over the next five years, including in North Carolina, by adding $11 billion in new funding. If you aren’t familiar with NC’s large number of independent nonprofit Community Health Centers, then you should be. Largely in rural and underserved areas, the centers are where excellent doctors, nurses, dentists and many other providers have been providing comprehensive primary care at sliding-scale fees to anyone who walks in the door. They’ve been doing this for decades and, along with our rural health centers and local health departments, provide the backbone of primary safety net health care in our state.

Take Piedmont Health Services, started in 1970. They operate six community health centers serving 14 counties in the central part of North Carolina. They have amazing doctors and staff – many of whom have worked there for decades. And they have always seen anyone who needs care, regardless of whether they have insurance or not. Not to mention that the primary care they provide is so good plenty of people with health insurance in communities like Siler City and Moncure come to them for care as well.

Before the new health law, when we tolerated 1.5 million uninsured people in NC, Piedmont and other community and rural health centers stepped up to do the work to provide primary care for people who needed help but couldn’t afford insurance. The reform bill recognizes that large numbers of people becoming insured means a huge need for more primary health care doctors and clinics. The increase in funding is welcome for our hard-working community health centers and will help with the influx of new patients. There are other changes to beef up primary care in the bill as well – I’ll have more of those in future posts – but the boost for community health centers is one of the most significant.