This is the season where Community Health Centers in Michigan advocate personally with the state of Michigan concerning given legislative priorities. This week our Board Chair Dave Brown and I were involved in meetings with key politicians to advocate for policy changes within the state that will positively affect health centers.
One of the key areas we spoke with senators and was how health centers are paid by Medicaid and the inadequacies of the current system. We are now paid on a per-visit basis and sometimes we are not paid by the state all that is owed to us until years later. The Medicaid office may even ask us to send money back to them. So we discussed as a priority, funding for all health centers to finance a transition to a new payment process. We would get paid a lump sum payment by the state based upon the Medicaid patients that use our primary care services. We believe this new payment process will help pay for services that are not now reimbursed. Health Centers would obtain needed reimbursement on a consistent time basis.
We also spoke about several other priorities related to community health workers and telehealth payments. Health centers, as well as health systems, now use community health workers and they are vital members of our care team. However, there is no reimbursement for the services that they provide. We spoke in Lansing about the need to have Medicaid pay for their work with our Medicaid patients.
In reference to telehealth, the federal government provided approval for the states to reimburse for the services and we have been being paid. However, that change was not permanent and we spoke with the senators and representatives about making the change permanent as well as paying for audio visits.
In the near future, we will share how each of you can reach out to our representatives in Lansing and let them know your thoughts about these issues. In addition, there are a number of budget items that are being debated that if approved will positively impact all health centers. Some of these public items include funding for student mental health services, expanded funding for dental services, and funding to support "bonuses" for health care workers.