CONGRESSMAN PAT RYAN SECURES OVER $2M TO EXPAND SERVICES AT SUN RIVER HEALTH IN BEACON

Congressman Pat Ryan Secures Over $2M to Expand Services at Sun River Health in Beacon 

Funding will allow Sun River Health to expand hours of operation, build a new 6-room urgent care center, and add two more primary care rooms  

In lead up to debt ceiling resolution, extreme politicians have called for cuts to health care facilities; Ryan demands full funding for Community Health Centers 

BEACON, NY –  Today, Congressman Pat Ryan announced that he has secured over $2M in federal funding to expand services at Sun River Health’s Beacon Health Center. Amidst extremist proposals to cut funding for health care facilities in the lead up to the debt ceiling resolution, Ryan also reiterated his demand that Community Health Centers be fully funded . 

"Everyone in the Hudson Valley deserves affordable and accessible healthcare,” said Representative Pat Ryan. “This federal funding will help families across the region get the treatment they need at a cost they can afford. But we can’t stop there. Congress must fully fund Community Health Centers like Sun River Health across the country. The Federal government shouldn’t play political games with our families’ health and safety.”

“Sun River Health’s Beacon Health Center has been a critical resource for the Beacon community for over 20 years and we are so pleased to further expand our work to include urgent care services at this location,” said Sun River Health CEO Anne Kauffman Nolon, MPH.  “This investment will help us further meet the needs of the Beacon community in our multiservice health center. And, we are looking forward to being a more visible part of the Main Street landscape!” 

A copy of Ryan’s original letter to the Chairman and Ranking Members of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services is included below: 

Dear Chairman Aderholt and Ranking Member DeLauro:

We want to thank the Subcommittee for your continued support and recognition of America’s Community Health Centers as a longstanding bipartisan solution to the primary care access problems facing this country. As you proceed with the Fiscal Year (FY) 2024 Appropriations process, we respectfully request that the Subcommittee provide robust funding for Community Health Centers within the Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education, and Related Agencies legislation for FY24. This will ensure that health centers can remain providers of high quality, cost-effective primary care, and continue to provide innovative, high-value health services to medically underserved communities across the nation. 

Since the first health centers opened their doors more than fifty years ago, they have proven to be a worthwhile investment, providing quality and affordable primary and preventive care, dental, behavioral health, substance use disorder, pharmacy, vision, and a variety of complementary services to America's most vulnerable patients and medically underserved communities. Today, thanks to longstanding bipartisan support in Congress, well over 1,400 health center organizations serve more than 14,000 communities in every state and U.S. Territory, including 42 percent of health centers located in rural areas. Health Centers are the medical home for over 30 million patients – one in every eleven people – including 9 million children and nearly 400,000 veterans. Furthermore, health centers employ over 275,000 people - generating $63.4 billion in economic impact for local communities and providing cost savings for the nation’s overall health care system. 

Community Health Centers have a proven record of using cost-effective, innovative strategies to deliver high-quality, affordable health care. For the past decade, Congress has supported health centers on a bipartisan basis through the annual appropriations process for the Health Center program, combined with investments in base funding for Community Health Centers. With the Community Health Center Fund also set to expire on September 30, 2024, we urge you to work with your colleagues on other committees of jurisdiction to keep funding for Community Health Centers whole in FY24. This combined discretionary and base funding of the health center program is critical to the success of these safety net providers nationwide as they meet the growing demand for affordable health care and respond to the changing needs of their communities. 

Central to the health center mission is an emphasis on treating the entire person through integrated care. The objective is to serve as a comprehensive medical home by addressing physical health conditions and an individual’s mental health, dental, and social determinants of health needs. Whether providing behavioral health services, offering HIV/AIDS prevention care, addressing rising maternal mortality rates or delivering opioid addiction treatment, health centers are a cornerstone of the nation's health care system and need reliable, sustained federal support to continue their work. Without access to primary care, many people, including the chronically ill, delay seeking health care services until they are seriously ill, leading to higher costs and worse health outcomes. The Health Center model is designed to address this and other health challenges by fostering innovation and high-value care at the community level. 

Health centers also demonstrated their value to the nation throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. Reflecting the needs of their patients, health centers educated, vaccinated, and treated millions of patients. Since January 2021, health centers have administered over 22 million COVID-19 vaccines and 20 million tests. These providers are trusted voices in the community, which are often hard-to-reach populations. 

While health centers are willing and able to do even more to carry out their mission to care for the people in our communities and the nation, they must have the resources to keep delivering care. For many health centers, funding will be critical to provide post-COVID-19 follow-up care and to address provider shortages. Severe workforce shortages and growing salary gaps make it difficult for health centers to recruit and retain the workforce necessary to provide high quality care. Burn-out, early ‐ retirement, sickness, and marketplace competition due to COVID-19 has only exacerbated this crisis.

 As Congress works to improve access to care, reduce health care spending, and promote patient-centered solutions to our health care challenges, we urge the Subcommittee to continue robust support for Community Health Centers – and their demonstrated record of success. Thank you for your continued support. 

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