Blue Ridge Medical Center: A Community Partner in the Age of COVID
Blue Ridge Medical Center: A Community Partner in the Age of COVID
Earlier this spring Sarah Jane Stewart, an NCDC member and a founder of Blue Ridge Medical Center contributed to this story with an exclusive interview with Randy Pirtle, BRMC CEO.
Blue Ridge Medical Center opened its doors in July 1985 with one doctor and three exam rooms. Today, BRMC has expanded into five building additions and service expansions, and two locations. Each year, more than 90 staff serve 10,000 patients offering primary and preventive care for adults and children, behavioral health, dentistry, physical therapy, x-ray, and lab services. BRMC also has a pharmacy that provides both prescription and over-the-counter medications and supplies for patients.
To help residents access health services, BRMC has a Rural Health Outreach Program and other programs that help families and individuals overcome barriers, such as low income, lack of transportation, cultural and language differences, and misinformation.
A 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, BRMC’s mission is to improve access to comprehensive primary care and to reduce health disparities for all people in our community. They provide financial assistance to needy families through a Sliding Scale Program. Sliding Fee funding is largely provided by the Health Resources and Services Administration of the US Dept. of Health and Human Services.
BRMC Pandemic Response
· BRMC staff are healthy. Almost 200 tests for COVID 19 have been performed with less than 10 positive.
· Telehealth visits are being done in behavioral health, medical and dentistry. Patients can use cell phone as well as a computer to talk with a medical professional. “This is the wave of the future,” said BRMC CEO Pirtle. “Dentistry is allowed now, but dentists must use PPE. BRMC staff are stretching the use of PPE equipment that they have.”
· In May, Virginia Senators Mark Warner and Tim Kaine announced U.S. Department of Health and Human Services funds to expand COVID 19 testing capacity in the commonwealth. BRMC received $227,029 to expand testing capacity to monitor and combat COVID-19.
· Also, there was additional HHS funding of $58,337 to help maintain or increase staffing. “Like most businesses, we are experiencing a major loss of revenue during the pandemic crisis. My hope is that this HHS funding will be useable to help us cover our payroll and sustain our staffing,” Pirtle said. “Community health centers did get emergency funding but guidelines for how to spend it are not complete. We expect most will go to maintain staff salaries; some for PPE.”
· Patient revenue is down 40%, he said. And, about 10% of staff were laid off to ease some of the financial shortfall. Many of those laid off have since been recalled.
What has been the impact of the Trump administration on community health centers prior to COVID 19?
· “Working with the Public Health Service career staff has been positive,” Pirtle said. “These professionals quietly maintain the spirit of the Community Health Center program even though the Trump administration has been antagonistic. They are at risk of their jobs. If Trump won a second term, it would be disastrous. You can weather it for four years, but not for eight.”
· Pirtle, who was a public policy fellow at George Washington University in 2019 said: “The biggest negative impact is with the ACA. The Trump administration is like a wrecking ball. Because Trump blocked the payment of subsidies to the insurance companies in the marketplace, huge spikes in the cost of insurance premiums occurred. Fewer people could afford health insurance. Now the Supreme Court has ruled that the federal government will have to pay these subsidies to the insurance carriers but it is not yet clear whether the consumer will receive the benefit. The federal health policy approach has been terrible. The Republican party says it’s protecting pre-existing conditions, but in fact, lawsuits are pending against the ACA which would wipe that out.” (Editor’s note -- See details here )
· “It’s like death by a thousand cuts,” he added. “Obama had a pandemic advisory council and Trump undid it. There is no infrastructure to counterbalance Trump in preventing the spread.”
How has the 2019 state expansion of Medicaid affected BRMC?
· “The percent of uninsured patients did go down, but not as much as anticipated in our area,” Pirtle said. “Some grant funding was available to do outreach. Most patients were auto-enrolled, and may not have realized that they even had it.”
· He continued: “There seemed to be a huge disconnect between having Medicaid and knowing that you have it and can now go to the doctor. The fed was not involved in any of the marketing, since it’s primarily a state program. The new model of care is based upon care management and in the long run reimbursement needs to be based on that rather than on the existing fee-for-service approach.”
Sarah Jane Stewart added: “This is from my talk with Randy. It’s easy to see how frightful the prospect of another four years of Trump would be on our national healthcare system! (Editor: Thank you, Sarah Jane for this exclusive insight into one of Nelson County’s key community partners!)