Yet another victim of DC’s recession-led budget crisis: community health centers.
In an effort to save money, the Mayor’s proposed budget for FY 2011 would entirely restructure ‘ and nearly defund ‘ a fairly new and creative program that helps health centers get affordable medical malpractice insurance. The move has the potential to put many of DC’s non-profit community health centers at risk for closure, or severely limit their ability to provide services to the community.
Malpractice insurance is a challenge for all health professionals, but especially for community health centers because many operate on a shoestring budget and rely in part on volunteer medical staff. Finding medical malpractice insurance to cover volunteers can be nearly impossible.
Recognizing these difficulties, the District created the “captive insurance” program in 2008. It provides a way for the city’s non-profit community health care centers to pool their risk, cover their volunteers, and obtain medical malpractice insurance at a lower cost than they would find in the private market.
Under the FY 2011 budget, the District would stop providing insurance and instead provide small grants non-profits must apply for, and make them return them to the private marketplace to buy medical malpractice insurance. The program would be cut by $8 million, leaving just $1 million for grants to support five to six community health care centers.
Many centers have concluded that this cut would force them to reduce services and could put some at risk of closure. Malpractice insurance would be much more costly, and many insurance packages may not cover volunteers, leaving clinics that rely on volunteer medical providers possibly without options for insurance or having to cut back on the services those volunteers provide.
Unfortunately, none of the health centers were consulted by the DC Government before the change was announced. This is despite the fact that there is in place a captive insurance program advisory council that is made up of stakeholders, including at least one representative of the health center providers.
DC’s non-profit community health centers provide health care for many of the Districts’ uninsured and under-insured residents. Without the care these health centers provide, many of these DC residents would wind up in the emergency rooms of hospitals, raising the costs of health care for everyone. It is in the District’s best interest to work with these health centers on a program that allows them to obtain the insurance they need to continue operating, without compromising their ability to provide services to the community.
