Half of Virginia’s community health centers have been cut off from federal grant money, forcing some to stop providing certain services and others to close branches.
The commonwealth has 31 Federally Qualified Health Centers with over 200 locations — a majority of which serve rural areas with limited access to medical care. Annually, about 400,000 Virginians rely on the care provided by these nonprofit, community-based centers, according to the Virginia Community Healthcare Association.
They provide primary health, dental, behavioral health, and pharmaceutical and substance abuse services to people with Medicaid or Medicare, the underinsured and the uninsured. They also treat those with private insurance on a sliding fee scale…