Coronavirus: Bay Area community health centers struggle as patient visits plummet
https://www.mercurynews.com/2020/04/20/coronavirus-bay-area-community-health-centers-struggle-as-patient-visits-plummet/
As Bay Area residents and public officials grapple with the coronavirus, the community health clinics that serve some of the region’s most vulnerable residents are dealing with a challenge of their own: how to keep their doors open while patient visits plummet during the shelter-in-place mandate to reduce the spread of the virus.
Statewide, patient visits are down by roughly half across California’s network of community clinics and health centers, leading to tens of millions in lost revenue each week. For many local health clinics that primarily serve low-income residents and rely on Medicaid reimbursements to make up a large portion of their income, the dramatic reductions in patient visits threaten their ability to stay open and care for the kinds of patients who are at a heightened risk of contracting the virus.