Health clinics getting new $295 million for primary care through health law

The money will go to expanding primary care services, as well as helping health centers stay open longer and provide expanded services not always available at the clinics across the United States.

Kansas Health Institute News Service: Kansas, Missouri Health Clinics Get $9.6M For Primary Care
Twenty-five health centers in Missouri and 16 in Kansas have been awarded $9.6 million in federal funds to expand primary care services. The funding is part of $295 million awarded to 1,195 health centers nationwide under the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare. The money is to be used to hire new staff, help the clinics stay open longer and provide oral health, mental and behavioral health, pharmacy and vision services (Margolies, 9/12).

Seattle Times: $7.5M To Boost Care At Low-income, Minority Health Clinics In Washington
Health clinics in Washington that largely serve low-income and minority residents will receive nearly $7.5 million in federal grants to increase access to primary care. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is awarding more than $295 million to community clinics nationwide, according to an announcement made Friday. In Washington, the money will go to 25 community health centers that treat medically underserved communities. The grants will help pay for an estimated 104 full-time health-care providers and benefit roughly 40,000 new patients. The Affordable Care Act and its expansion of health-care coverage has increased the number of people seeking medical care, putting added strain on a primary care system that was already stretched thin in places (Stiffler, 9/12).

Georgia Health News: Georgia Health Centers Get Funding To Expand Care
A federal agency has awarded $6.9 million in Affordable Care Act funding to 30 community health centers in Georgia that will help expand their primary care services. That funding was part of $295 million awarded nationally to 1,195 health centers by the Department of Human and Human Services (HHS) (Miller, 9/14).

But in Charlotte, a health center reduces hours after financial troubles --

Charlotte Observer: Financially Troubled Health Center Reduces Hours, Patients
C.W. Williams Community Health Center, a federally funded clinic that's provided medical care for low-income patients in Mecklenburg County for more than 30 years, has temporarily reduced hours at its Wilkinson Boulevard clinic after closing its satellite clinic on East Boulevard. A notice posted on the door at the Wilkinson location says it remains open three days a week – Monday, Wednesday and Thursday – instead of the usual five, that it has one staff physician instead of three in the past and that only 25 adult patients with appointments can be seen in a day. ... C.W. Williams is the only federally qualified health center in Mecklenburg and one of 32 in the state. Based on the latest federal data, the health center got an 18 percent increase in federal funding from 2011 to 2013, but treated 22 percent fewer patients in the same period. C.W. Williams' federal funding increased from $955,000 in 2011 to $1.1 million in 2013, according to the U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration. In the same period, the number of patients served dropped from 10,169 to 7,908 (Garloch, 9/14).