News

During National Health Center Week, Community Clinics Join Together and Urge Voters to Protect Patients by Voting NO on Proposition 44

Reckless measure will force clinics to close, harming millions of Los Angeles patients 

LOS ANGELES – Aug. 3, 2026 – This National Health Center Week, patients and community clinics should be celebrating the whole-person, whole-community care that helps millions of Angelenos stay healthy. Instead, they are facing a dangerous ballot measure that will force clinics to cut services and close their doors – jeopardizing health care for more than two million patients who depend on community clinics for their care. 

Proposition 44 will appear on the November ballot. If approved, the initiative would divert billions of dollars away from community clinics and the critical services that patients rely on, including preventative medical visits, urgent care, maternity services, transportation, translation, and more.  

“Prop 44 will disproportionately harm patients who are already facing federal Medicaid cuts, state budget cuts, and other barriers to care,” ...

Read Full Article  

Final State Budget Protects Health Center Reimbursement and Delays Harmful Medi-Cal Changes, But Advances Disruptive Transition to Fee-for-Service

LOS ANGELES – June 30, 2026 – Yesterday, Governor Gavin Newsom signed a budget for the 2026-27 fiscal year that aims to balance the budget over two years while maintaining the state’s commitment to health care coverage and access. The budget includes funding for community health centers’ top priorities, including continuing existing reimbursement rates for state-only funded Medi-Cal services for another year. 

“Over three-fourths of health center patients are Medi-Cal members, so Medi-Cal reimbursement is the backbone of health centers’ financial stability. The health center Prospective Payment System, known as PPS, enables health centers to provide comprehensive, whole-person care and critical wrap-around services that promote patient health,” said Louise McCarthy, President & CEO of the Community Clinic Association of Los Angeles County. “The loss of PPS, in combination with H.R. 1 coverage losses and rising uncompensated care, would have pushed safety net clinics to the breaking point. Maintaining PPS ...

Read Full Article  

LA Says “Yes” on Measure ER, Voting to Raise Funds for the Health Care Safety Net

LOS ANGELES – June 10, 2026 – CCALAC and community health centers across LA are celebrating the passage of Measure ER in LA’s June 2nd election. The measure offers some relief to LA’s health care safety net as it grapples with federal funding cuts and state policy changes that are making it harder for people to access care.

“Community clinics serve one in five LA residents – the very people in our communities who are the most vulnerable to losing their coverage, if they haven’t already,” said Louise McCarthy, President & CEO of the Community Clinic Association of Los Angeles County. “Measure ER provides a pathway to help uninsured patients access care and to keep clinics open.”

The funding cannot come quickly enough: since H.R. 1 was passed, more than 200,000 LA residents have lost health coverage, the Los Angeles County Department of Public ...

Read Full Article  

May Revise Continues to Balance Budget on the Backs of the Most Vulnerable

LOS ANGELES – May 15, 2026 – Despite higher-than-projected tax revenue, Governor Gavin Newsom’s May Revision again seeks to solve California’s budget problems on the backs of the most vulnerable, including immigrants, older adults, and people with disabilities. The revised budget proposal leverages higher tax revenue while maintaining reserves over the next two fiscal years, yet fails to reverse harmful Medi-Cal cuts. 

The budget maintains damaging Medi-Cal cuts from FY2025-26 that impact immigrants, including the elimination of health centers’ prospective payment system (PPS) reimbursement for state-only funded services, effective July 1, 2026. This cut will cost Los Angeles health centers roughly $400 million a year — combined with H.R. 1 coverage losses and rising uncompensated care, this change threatens to push safety net clinics to the breaking point. 

Further, the budget proposes raising monthly premiums from $30 to $50 for adults with unsatisfactory immigration status, reinstating Medi-Cal asset limits for seniors and people with disabilities, and narrowing eligibility for Enhanced Care Management (ECM) and Community Supports ...

Read Full Article  

Governor’s 2026–27 Budget Proposal Falls Short on Addressing Challenges and Protecting the Safety Net

LOS ANGELES – January 12, 2026 –  Governor Newsom kicked off California’s 2026-27 budget process with the release of his budget proposal. The main takeaway: the real budget news will come in May. At that time, California will need to address the negative impact of H.R. 1 and other federal policies, along with the State’s significant structural deficit. In the meantime, the proposed budget only assumes a $2.9 billion shortfall for the fiscal year, compared to the Legislative Analyst’s Office projection of an $18 billion deficit.  

While the Governor’s budget proposal doesn’t make drastic new cuts to Medi-Cal, it does continue last year’s unfair changes to Medi-Cal eligibility and benefits for immigrants, along with reduced payments to health centers for serving them. We are disheartened by the Governor’s proposal to eliminate full scope Medi-Cal coverage for certain immigrants, including refugees, ...

Read Full Article  

Facing Dark Days for Health Care, Let’s Not Forget How Far We’ve Come

CCALAC President & CEO Louise McCarthy reflects on the community health center movement this National Health Center Week.

National Health Center Week is underway, and while community health centers celebrate their patients, staff and partners, this year’s celebrations feel more subdued in the face of multiple challenges to the health center movement. In this moment, however, it’s important to reflect on how far the movement has come since its beginning in the Civil Rights Era.

While some health centers in Los Angeles trace their roots back to the early 1900s, it was in the 1960s that the health center movement began in earnest nationwide, and in the 1990s that Los Angeles’ health centers galvanized to work together toward their common mission.

Thirty years ago, LA’s health system was on the edge of collapse and the county was on the brink of bankruptcy. In ...

Read Full Article  

HRSA Awards LA Health Centers $1.45 Million to Improve Patient Care through Information Technology

LOS ANGELES – August 4, 2025 – The Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) announced awards of more than $53 million in funding to 52 Health Center Controlled Networks (HCCNs) across the nation. Among the awardees, the Community Clinic Association of Los Angeles County (CCALAC) will receive $1.45 million per year over the next three years to support 46 health centers in Los Angeles County. This is CCALAC’s fifth consecutive award.

HCCNs provide technical assistance to community health centers, leveraging health information technology and data to enhance how they deliver affordable, accessible, and high-quality primary care.  The HRSA awards will enable HCCNs nationwide to support more than 1,300 health centers.

In the last three-year grant cycle, members of the Los Angeles network received nearly 6,000 specialized technical assistance support hours, resulting in enhanced patient and provider experiences, improvements in data exchange, and data ...

Read Full Article  

Reckless Reconciliation Bill is Direct Attack on Health Center Patients

LOS ANGELES – July 3, 2025 – This week, the U.S. Congress passed a devastating budget reconciliation bill that jeopardizes health care for millions of Americans, including community clinic and health center patients. This dangerous and irresponsible new law will impose unnecessary and burdensome new bureaucratic hurdles, such as increased paperwork and more frequent eligibility redeterminations, that will force nearly 12 million people to lose Medicaid coverage over the next decade.

Los Angeles County clinics and health centers serve more than two million people each year, three quarters of whom have low incomes and rely on the Medicaid program for health care. Health centers already operate on razor-thin margins and will struggle to provide care without reimbursement to newly uninsured patients who lose their Medicaid coverage. Health center outreach and enrollment staff will be overwhelmed by the need to help patients ...

Read Full Article  

California Budget Addresses the State’s Fiscal Challenges at the Expense of the Safety Net

LOS ANGELES – June 30, 2025 – Over the weekend, Governor Gavin Newsom signed California’s 2025-26 fiscal year budget – a budget that addresses the state’s fiscal challenges at the expense of its most under-resourced residents and the health care safety net. The budget comes as state leaders, health providers, and residents are struggling with high levels of uncertainty and anxiety about the future with the threat of federal cuts looming.

Starting in January, the budget will freeze Medi-Cal enrollment for adults who have unsatisfactory immigration status, and in July of next year it will eliminate full scope dental coverage for this population. These changes are a dramatic pullback from the state’s values and promises to expand health care coverage and access for all. Loss of coverage will undo years of progress in building healthy communities.

The budget will also eliminate Prospective ...

Read Full Article  

Proposed State Budget Puts California’s Fiscal Challenges on the Backs of Health Centers and Their Patients

LOS ANGELES – May 14, 2025 – Today, Governor Gavin Newsom unveiled his May Revision budget proposal for the 2025-26 fiscal year. The budget identifies $12 billion in corrective proposals to balance the budget and maintain reserves. The Governor attributes a projected $16 billion reduction in state revenue to federal policies and actions but does not otherwise incorporate any projected effects of federal cuts currently under consideration in Congress.  

Health centers are dismayed to see proposals that will weaken recent Medi-Cal expansions and reduce access to care for our patients. The May Revision proposes to freeze enrollment for Health4All expansion adults starting in January 2026 and add a $100 monthly premium for those adults who remain enrolled beginning in January 2027. It also calls for the elimination of full-scope dental coverage, in-home supportive services, and long-term care benefits for this population. ...

Read Full Article