Future of Hudson River HealthCare $4.5M Federal Grant Unclear

Hudson River HealthCareederal grant last month to help it expand under the Affordable Care Act, the federal health care law passed in 2010. HRHC’s expansion plans include additional medical and dental rooms and services to help the system treat about 5,000 additional patients. Many of those patients have no health insurance, are on Medicaid or have limited coverage, the New York Times’ Reed Abelson wrote in an article published June 22.

However, the Supreme Court is expected to decide whether some or all of the federal health care law that made this grant possible is constitutional by the end of June.

Abelson’s article focuses on the tens of billions in federal funds that have been appropriated for  health care systems under the law. It is unclear what might happen to that money, or to the organizations and systems that have benefitted, or were planning to benefit, from the federal support, Abelson reports. 

Community health centers, for example, are to receive $11 billion under the law with about $10 billion more designated for a new effort to improve public health. An additional $2 billion has been appropriated to states for care for the aged outside of nursing homes, and there is also $350 million to combat fraud and waste in Medicare. About $200 million is to go to school-based health centers.

If the court strikes down the entire law, many experts are skeptical that lawmakers will go ahead with funds for programs like the new Prevention and Public Health Fund, even if they are completely distinct from the controversial aspects of the law seeking to overhaul the insurance markets.

Read the full New York Times article here.