Message from the CEO
Since joining CPCA in April 2022, I have been immersing myself in all aspects of the association’s work. I have traveled and met with many CPCA members, attended member-sponsored community events, participated in our Region IX Clinical Excellence & Leadership Conference and NACHC’s Community Health Institute Conference. I have also prioritized visiting our community health centers.
To date, approximately 18 visits have been completed, and we are working to schedule more member visits in the coming months. The highlight of my onboarding into the association has been meeting with each of you, touring your health centers, meeting your staff and experiencing first-hand what makes our patient-led, community-based model of care optimal. I continue to be impressed by the dedication and mission-centered work of our health centers, regional consortia, and CPCA staff.
As we continue to push forward toward new possibilities, it’s important to reflect on the incredible accomplishments that we all achieved collectively. Throughout the pandemic, community health centers (CHCs) were instrumental in vaccinating our most vulnerable Californians, providing over 6.6 million vaccines since January 2021. Working together, CPCA and CHCs were able to secure an alternative payment methodology for providing vaccinations. Health centers transitioned to provide care through telehealth at lightning speed, and now, thanks to advocacy efforts, CHCs can continue to do so with payment parity at their PPS rate for both synchronous and asynchronous care, including audio-only visits.
And now, we are meeting the moment to prepare for the future of healthcare in California. Utilizing the lessons learned from COVID, CHCs have stepped up to provide Mpox vaccinations and help educate patients about decreasing exposure and spread within communities. As we prepare to provide Medi-Cal coverage to over 700,000 additional Californians and continue to expand access to behavioral health, we must invest in our community health centers to ensure that all Californians with Medi-Cal, including those newly eligible, are provided timely access to culturally and linguistically appropriate care. The bills passed by the Legislature at the end of the legislative session will help us work towards achieving this goal by permanently expanding telehealth services, growing our behavioral health workforce, creating new training programs for nurse practitioners and physician assistants, and providing retention bonuses for our community health center workers.
We continue to focus on bolstering the community health center workforce needs and on innovative solutions, like the Alternative Payment Methodology (APM), that can be designed to expand patients’ access to care and social services by further empowering the community health center model of care. And lastly, we celebrate HealthCare4All and the expansion of Medi-Cal to even more Californians!
We have much to celebrate – both in what we have accomplished and what we plan to achieve in the future. I am excited to be on this journey with you all and look forward to working with you all as we move toward a healthy horizon.
Adelante!
Francisco J. Silva