Modern Healthcare’s Virgil Dickson discusses the decision in some states not to expand Medicaid the consequences for community health centers and the patients they serve.  Citing the Geiger Gibson/RCHN Community Health Foundation Research Collaborative report, “Assessing the Potential Impact of the Affordable Care Act on Uninsured Community Health Center Patients: An Update,” Dickson reports that community health centers in non-Medicaid expansion states would lose out on $569 million in increased revenue in 2014 alone.

Further, Health Centers have to continue care for an estimated 1.1 million patients—the vast majority of whom are in 11 southern states—who would remain uninsured because they earn less than 138% of the federal poverty level and do not qualify for insurance subsidies under the law. According to Peter Shin, an associate professor of health policy at Milken Institute, “Not expanding Medicaid doesn’t change the fact that these centers will be seeing more and more uninsured patients and eventually they are going to buckle, or are going to continue to see significant pressure to maintain services.”

Modern Healthcare