Bay Area Clinics No Longer Dreaming Big As Threat Of ACA Repeal Looms
Many clinics are having to rethink staffing, budget and expansion decisions.
San Francisco Chronicle:
Obamacare’s Murky State Forces Bay Area Clinics To Scale Back
For most of last year, Sherry Hirota, chief executive of Asian Health Services, was planning to convert two floors of offices in its Oakland Chinatown facility to clinic space to accommodate more patients. But that changed on Nov. 8. Soon after the election — as Republicans in Congress began taking steps to repeal the Affordable Care Act — uncertainty over the future of the health care law forced Hirota’s group to scale back those plans. They are now going to build out just one floor of new clinic space instead. That’s because Asian Health Services stands to lose $8 million, about 15 percent of its annual revenue, if the Affordable Care Act is repealed without a comparable replacement. (Ho, 1/21)