CHCACT is just back from Washington, DC, where we attended the NACHC Policy & Issues Forum (P&I), along with thousands of colleagues from across the country. Connecticut was well-represented, with a team comprising almost thirty health center leaders and board members from eleven health centers!

Deb Polun, MA

Senior Director for Policy & Outreach

Throughout the week, we learned more about clinical, operational, financial and other topics, including new site visit protocols, quality improvement, communications strategies and policy issues. The P&I also fosters important networking between health centers, Primary Care Associations, federal agencies and strategic partners.

The highlight of P&I is Hill Day, when we visit members of our Congressional delegation. CHCACT continued our tradition of partnering with the Urban Service Track programs at UConn Health and Quinnipiac University. This year, ten students – in pharmacy, medical, nursing, dental and social work – joined us to meet with Congresspeople and their staff. The collaboration is a great way for students to learn about advocacy – and for them to network with health center leaders (hopefully their future employers!). In total, almost forty people from Connecticut went to Capitol Hill last Thursday to thank our delegation for their leadership and support of health centers and discuss important issues for the coming year.

This year, NACHC, CHCACT and health centers are asking Congress to:

- protect and stabilize health center funding;

- protect the Medicaid program on the federal level;

- direct resources to health centers and ease policy restrictions to help combat the opioid epidemic;

- expand telehealth; and

- support 340B.

You can learn more about these issues on the Health Center Advocacy web site.

And you can see photos from our trip on CHCACT’s facebook page! I hope you will consider coming to next year’s P&I, which is scheduled for March 26-30, 2019.

Deb