The Massachusetts League of Community Health Centers (Mass League) sent a letter to Governor Baker today asking for “immediate and substantial financial relief in order to avoid a partial or complete collapse.” The letter describes the critical role that health centers play in caring for over one million Massachusetts residents, including “MassHealth members and the uninsured, as well as the linguistically, ethnically and racially diverse populations throughout our state.”

The letter, authored by Neponset resident and Mass League CEO Jim Hunt, warns of a “countdown to the closure of Community Health Centers in Massachusetts.” Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, most health centers have been forced to curtail non-urgent services and suspend dental, vision, and routine medical visits, unless such visits can occur via “tele-medicine.”

The result is a 50-70 percent reduction in income from visits, which, with health centers chronically underfunded, will result in closure without “financial relief.” The organization Capital Link, which assists health centers with capital needs, reported that “over the next 12 weeks alone, … declines (in income) will result in income losses of between $109 million and $152 million statewide.”

Like other health care entities, community health centers have had to deal with staffing issues, including staff that is quarantined, staff with daycare issues, or in risk categories that result in inability to be at work.

Another issue reported in the letter is the lack of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE). Most health centers report that they have few respirator masks, and extremely limited protective gear, which is exposing staff to potential infection. The great fear among many health center leaders is that they will be forced to shut down from seeing patients should staff need to be quarantined.

Studies in the past few years have indicated that most Massachusetts health centers’ cash on hand lags most other states. Health centers provide an array of support services for which there is no or very limited reimbursement, and payments for services that are reimbursed are significantly lower than what is paid in many other states. Meanwhile, personnel costs are increasing due to competition for staff from hospitals.

Chuck Jones, CEO of Harbor Health Services, noted that his organization—which includes centers in Neponset, Columbia Point and Mattapan— is dealing with staff on leave and reimbursable medical visits that have been cut in half. Jones pointed out that just closing dental services is resulting in a loss of $600,000 per month.

“Normally our employees have stressful days, dealing with the challenging problems of patients, but now when they go home the anxiety doesn’t stop,” said Jones. “We’re trying to balance survival of our organization with people who are the organization. This is a fight for survival. We’re going after every possible source of funding for relief.

“I’m very worried that the safety net that took decades to build could be gone in two to three months. Consideration is being given to bailing out airlines, while care for 1 million people in Massachusetts could disappear.”

Sen. Nick Collins said he has eight health centers in his district and understands and supports the effort to get health centers financial support.

He said that he’s been “in discussions all week on the public health impact [of COVID-19] and the infrastructure that’s needed in personnel and equipment. I anticipate we’ll have to appropriate more money for this, and I’m committed to getting the resources needed.”