WASHINGTON, D.C. – Following his urging, U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) announced that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has released additional funds and awarded $358,333 to One Health Ohio/Ohio North East Health Systems, headquartered in Youngstown. In June, Brown urged HHS Secretary Sylvia Matthews Burwell to release outstanding grant funding to help Ohio health centers meet the demand for services.

“Community Health Centers in Ohio and across the U.S. are critical access points for underserved patients,” said Brown. “This funding will help Ohio’s health centers continue to provide local residents with quality and affordable primary and preventive health care services.”

In a letter to Secretary Burwell, Brown and his Senate colleagues asked HHS to promptly award remaining fiscal year 2015 funding by granting approval of pending grant applications. Funding for the Community Health Center Fund was first made available through the health law, which boosted funding for community health centers’ primary and preventive care services.

Full text of Brown’s letter is below:

June 19, 2015

 

The Honorable Sylvia Mathews Burwell
Secretary
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
200 Independence Avenue, SW
Washington, DC 20201


Dear Secretary Burwell:

 

As strong supporters of our nation’s Community Health Centers (CHCs), we want to thank you for your continued efforts to increase access to primary care and health services for all Americans. We appreciate the work the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has done to increase access to CHCs, and we urge you to utilize all of the Fiscal Year (FY) 2015 CHC funding available so health centers are able to keep up with the current demands for additional sites and services.

For half a century, CHCs have been providing comprehensive primary health care and support services to underserved and uninsured patients nationwide. Investments in CHCs across the country have already helped provide health care, behavioral health, dental care, vision, and pharmacy services to more than 23 million individuals, yet demand for additional sites and services remains.

As you know, in FY2015, the Health Centers Program received a total program funding level of $5.1 billion. This includes $1.49 billion in discretionary funding through the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) and $3.6 billion in mandatory funding from the Community Health Center Fund. If fully utilized, these funds could increase access to care for patients in every state of the country.

We understand that a portion of the FY2015 funding was allocated for the Health Center Program but left unobligated to support the program should Congress fail to extend the Fund before the end of FY2015. Congress has since extended funding for the Health Center Fund through 2017 as part of H.R. 2, the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015. This legislation received overwhelming bipartisan support from Congress, in part because of the stability and funding opportunities it provides CHCs. With that stability now in place, we hope HHS will allocate available funding as soon as possible.

We appreciate that HHS has already started to allocate some of the remaining FY2015 funds. Last month, HHS announced $101 million in new funding to CHCs in 33 states and two U.S. Territories. These New Access Point (NAP) awards will expand access to primary care for an additional 650,000 patients in 164 communities, generating an overall cost savings to the health care system. While we are pleased HHS has awarded these funds to increase access to care across the country, there are still more than 300 approved, unfunded applications pending from communities desperately in need of health center services.

We urge you to promptly award all of the FY2015 funding made available by Congress so new organizations may gain “health center” status through additional NAP grants and existing health centers can expand their organizations to address demands in their communities.

 

Sincerely,

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