Last Thursday, leaders in Santa Barbara’s sprawling network of low-income health care clinics — also known as Federally Qualified Health Centers, or “FQHCs” — were put on notice by the federal government they had to begin verifying proof of their patients’ citizenship, effective immediately. Without such verification, the feds made clear, there would be no reimbursement for any services provided. “Before, we never were allowed to ask them about anything except their insurance and income. Now, we will have to provide proof of citizenship,” explained Dr. Mouhanad Hammami, chief executive of the county’s Public Health Department, which runs seven such clinics. “It absolutely will be a burden on our patients,” he added, “but it will also be a big burden on our staff.”
Hammami said the FQHCs were created back in the 1960s as part of Lyndon Johnson’s War on Poverty. To incentivize primary-care docs to treat low-income patients, he said, the feds offered higher reimbursement rates. Citizenship or immigration status did not matter. In 1996, under the Clinton Administration, the rules changed to bar any questions regarding immigration status from being asked…