This is a precarious time for community healthcare centers that depend on reimbursements from the federal government.
The state is pledging to do more this legislative session to help, but what happens with federal funding is anyone's guess, as President Trump is looking for ways to cut costs and shrink the government.
NBC Connecticut's Mike Hydeck spoke with Sabrina Trocchi, the CEO of Wheeler Health.
Mike Hydeck: You are a community healthcare center with multiple locations across the state. Five brick and mortar and then in schools as well, you were telling me. How many patients does Wheeler serve?
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Sabrina Trocchi: Wheeler serves approximately 22,000 patients each year across our health center sites, Harford, New Britain, Bristol, Plainville and Waterbury, and 17 school-based health centers, 14 in Bristol and three in the city of New Britain.
Mike Hydeck: So students can go, a chance to get healthcare in school.
Sabrina Trocchi: In school. During the school day, which completely eliminates the barrier of parents needing to take time off from work, and needing to bring kids in, and it gives us the opportunity to work with the schools and the teachers and the students during the day.
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Mike Hydeck: So there have been, since President Trump decided to pause funding leaving Washington and going to local municipalities like here in Connecticut, there have been some nonprofits in our state that have struggled with withdrawing money. They can withdraw money from the federal government weekly. Have you had that problem at Wheeler?
Sabrina Trocchi: When the pause was initially put into place, we did try to to draw down on our federal dollars, and were not able to. As soon as the the pause was lifted, we were able to. It took a little bit longer than usual, but we were able to access the funds. The biggest piece, though, is not only accessing the funds, but what it has done across our system. So we have providers and staff asking questions. Just this week, I had my staff meeting. One of the questions, 'will we be laid off? Will we be fired?' So the impact of the actions taken at the federal level are impacting our staff, and then we have patients. The impact on the patients is dramatic. We have patients coming in asking, will their care continue? Will they continue to have the services they need in order to live healthy, productive lives?
Mike Hydeck: How do you answer that question? How do you answer any of those questions? Whether it's the students, elderly, anybody else who needs help.
Sabrina Trocchi: That's a great question. And the direction I'm giving to our staff, the direction I'm giving to our patients is, we will do everything we can to keep our doors open and to continue to provide the critical primary care, behavioral health and dental services that we provide. While Wheeler provides care to 22,000 individuals, we're part of a larger healthcare system here in Connecticut. There are 17 federally qualified health centers, and across the state, we're serving 440,000 individuals. That means one in every eight residents of Connecticut is accessing their primary care, behavioral health or dental services from a health center.
Mike Hydeck: So because of the uncertainty regarding the federal government, do you look forward to the state going, Look, we need more help just in case? The governor has already been clear with, look, I don't want to touch the guard rails. I'm worried about using surplus money. Where did this all stand with you? And how do you move forward?
Sabrina Trocchi: So the federal dollars are a portion of the dollars that we receive to continue our care, and while they are a critical component, it varies by health center. So for Wheeler, it is a smaller portion of our overall budget, but yet a very critical piece. The piece that I'm most concerned about is, what are the next actions that will be taken at the federal level? And by that I mean, will there be specific restrictions that will be placed on my federal dollars? We are a significant provider of gender affirming care treatment.
Mike Hydeck: So that could be the target, as it's well advertised from the Trump administration.
Sabrina Trocchi: Correct, that could be the target. The other area that's really concerning for us, as a federally qualified health center, we provide care to all individuals who are presenting for care, regardless of their documentation status, their citizenship status, regardless if they have a payer of care or not. And so our ability to continue to meet our community's needs is another area of concern.
Mike Hydeck: Do you have a plan for that? Not that we've heard immigration officials going to a hospital, but I mean, is there a protocol for something like that?
Sabrina Trocchi: So there wasn't a protocol prior to two or three weeks ago. What we've had to do is train all of our front desk staff and our patient facing staff to understand what the rules and the laws are, and what can and cannot be done if law enforcement or ICE officials do present at any of our health center sites. That is not something traditionally that a healthcare system has had to to be concerned with, and we've had to dedicate staff timing and resources to do that training so that we're prepared not only for our staff to feel comfortable and safe, but also for our patients to feel comfortable and safe.
Mike Hydeck: Are you looking for assistance from the state in any way, whether it's a security thing or more funding, and how have you been met?
Sabrina Trocchi: Sure. At this point, it's really a lot of communication and collaboration with our state agency partners. A lot of the questions we have, there aren't concrete responses to at this point, and the one piece that we feel very comfortable is, we do have a lot of support at the state level. We are very fortunate to be in a state that recognizes the value of the services we deliver and and understands we are significantly serving a community or population that is underserved, very vulnerable, and I'm confident we'll continue, we'll have the ability to continue to do that in partnership with the state.
