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The latest on the Key Bridge collapse, New York puts forth legislation to get clean energy projects on the grid and Wisconsin and other states join a federal summer food program to help feed kids across the country.

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Republicans float conspiracy theories on the collapse of Baltimore's Key Bridge, South Carolina's congressional elections will use a map ruled unconstitutional, and the Senate schedules an impeachment trial for Homeland Secretary Mayorkas.

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Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

Community Health Centers Provide Vital Safety Net for 300,000 Virginians

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Tuesday, August 12, 2014   

RICHMOND, Va. - As National Health Center Week continues, community health centers around the commonwealth are reminding residents of their commitment to provide a crucial safety net for more than 300,000 Virginians at more than 135 community health centers.

Central Virginia Health Services is Virginia's largest community health center network, and like most community health centers takes patients regardless of their ability to pay. Central Virginia Health Services development director Sheena Mackenzie says along with serving a sizable portion of the commonwealth's working poor, they also serve rural areas with few doctors, like Charles City County.

"We're often the only doctor, the only dentist in the county," says Mackenzie. "So it doesn't matter what kind of health insurance you have. If you don't have a doctor, you don't have health care."

Mackenzie says her organization tries not to turn anyone away, but also asks every patient to pay something. She notes the most significant component of her organization's funding comes from patients, patients' personal health insurance, or other third-party payers.

She says Central Virginia Health Services also receive federal grants and help from charitable foundations, and that the "pieced together" funding enables them to fill gaps in the state's overall health care network, like keeping patients with conditions like diabetes from running up huge costs by delaying day-to-day treatment or immediate care.

"If you wait, it is very expensive to treat, and your prognosis is generally not going to be as good," says Mackenzie. "But there's also the cost of lost time from work, lack of productivity, and impact on the family."

She says many of the state's rural hospitals are struggling, and areas such as the Northern Neck are left without crucial services such as obstetrics. Mackenzie notes the severity of having to take a newborn child to a neo-natal intensive care unit because the mother did not get proper care during pregnancy.

"There's a place where you can chalk up some big expenses," says Mackenzie. "Plus, you just bought yourself a lifetime of health problems as that baby grows."

The National Association of Community Health Centers estimates community health centers save the U.S. some $24 billion dollars every year by reducing hospitalizations and unnecessary emergency room visits.


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