Our periodic blogs offer quick takes on emerging issues in health law and policy of relevance to community health centers and the communities they serve, addressing how current policy considerations and upcoming regulatory and legislative changes may impact underserved communities.
The expiration of the COVID-19 Uninsured Fund in April 2022 could substantially impact community health centers and their patients, hitting many low-income health center patients with COVID-19 testing, vaccination, and treatment costs. Authored by Rebecca Morris, Jessica Sharac, Sara Rosenbaum, Feygele Jacobs, and Peter Shin
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 – legal immigrants who received public housing or Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) assistance or most forms of Medicaid.
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 employees of 15 separate types of providers that participate in Medicare and Medicaid.
A new report finds that nearly 1.34 million uninsured community health center patients would gain health coverage in 2022 under the Build Back Better act now pending in Congress.
Amicus Brief Tells Supreme Court Abortion is an Essential Component of Reproductive Health
One of over two dozen amicus briefs urging the Supreme Court to strike down Mississippi's 15-week ban on abortions was signed by the American Public Health Association, The Guttmacher Institute, The Center for U.S. Policy, and 547 deans, department chairs, scholars, and public health professionals, including several members of the Department of Health Policy and Management. “Abortion is an essential component of reproductive health,” the brief’s authors write.
The Future of the CDC Eviction Moratorium is Now Unclear
On May 5, 2021, in Alabama Association of Realtors v. Unites States Department of Health and Human Services, the United States District Court for the District of Columbia invalidated a nationwide eviction moratorium issued by the Centers for Disease Control in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The court found that the CDC was without legal authority under the Public Health Service Act, § 361, to issue the moratorium.
State Provider Immunity Laws in Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic
As reported by the Washington Post, CMS recently found that nursing homes operated by Life Care Centers of America (“Life Care”) violated federal standards intended to stop the spread of infections and communicable diseases during the COVID-19 pandemic. These deficiencies can be a matter of life or death for patients at nursing homes, who tend to be older, have underlying health conditions, and have been particularly impacted by the pandemic.
An Unexpected Education: Teaching Health Center Training in a Global Pandemic.
The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed a critical need for both improved access to primary health care services and community-wide partnerships to support public health efforts.
A new blog looks at the impact on community health centers and the patients they serve if the Affordable Care Act is repealed.
In recent days, multiple stories about COVID-19’s disproportionate impact on African Americans have emerged, and from these stories, it is becoming increasingly clear that the nation’s medically underserved communities and populations are at the highest risk for coronavirus and its worst effects.
