La Clínica de La Raza has cared for generations of Bay Area patients since its inception nearly 50 years ago. With dozens of clinics in Alameda, Contra Costa and Solano counties, the nonprofit sees roughly 90,000 mostly low-income patients per year.
But many people are no longer seeking routine care since local stay-at-home orders began in mid-March, and La Clínica is losing $3 million in revenue per month, said its chief executive Jane Garcia.
Patient visits have plunged by 40 percent, and the organization has closed non-emergency dental services and downsized optometry as well. Garcia said she has had to furlough about 300 employees.
“This is unlike anything we’ve experienced before,” said Garcia, who has led La Clínica for 38 years. “Not being able to provide the services is a big problem for communities who are already underserved.”
Nonprofit community clinics and health centers care for patients regardless of their ability to pay or their immigration status. However, during the coronavirus public health emergency, many clinics across California are struggling to keep their doors open.
Statewide, federally qualified health centers are hemorrhaging nearly $90 million per week because patient visits — and reimbursements from Medi-Cal insurance — have dropped by half as people hunker down at home, according to Carmela Castellano-Garcia, president and chief executive of the California Primary Care Association, a lobbying group that represents 1,300 community clinics and health centers.
“This is unsustainable,” Castellano-Garcia said. “We are the leading providers of care for California’s most vulnerable populations and community health centers’ future is very much threatened by the COVID-19 pandemic.”
Last week, 180 health centers in California were awarded $193 million in federal emergency aid to ramp up COVID-19 testing and respond to the pandemic, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
But Castellano-Garcia said those funds are not enough to keep nonprofit health care providers afloat, and 200 clinic sites have temporarily shut down across the state.
“Community health centers are absolutely at risk of closing and losing services permanently if more federal and state relief is not forthcoming,” she said.