It’s coming down to the wire for Congress to approve continued funding for Community Health Centers across the U.S., including 39 organizations in North Carolina that serve half a million people.Brian Toomey, CEO of Piedmont Health Services, says they are bracing for cuts if the federal government doesn’t act. Piedmont Health Services runs 10 clinics and two other sites.
“For us it is about 13 percent of our budget,” he said. “While that’s 13 percent, it’s not 50 percent like some of our colleagues are facing, 13 percent means you have to make some significant cuts, and that’s the part that we are trying to look at now.”
The deadline to renew funding for "CHIP," the Children’s Health Insurance Program, is also at the end of the month.
Toomey said patients from 14 counties visit their clinics and nearly half don’t have insurance. He says it’s a frustrating time.
“The last time health centers went through something like this was back in the mid-1980s, that’s how significantly different this is,” he said.