County reviews routine FY26 agreement with Community Health Care to fund sliding‑fee discounts

Laurie Elam presented the county’s proposed FY26 contract with Community Health Care (CHC), a longstanding relationship in which the county provides funding to support health services and to offset CHC’s sliding fee discount for low‑income residents.

Elam described CHC’s community health team that conducts outreach and home visits to clients who have difficulty getting to clinic appointments; she said the program has reduced emergency‑room use and helped prevent escalation to higher levels of care. Elam told the board CHC has a walk‑in clinic nearby for residents and, as of the third quarter, CHC has seen over 19,000 people who fall below 150% of the federal poverty level and used the medical sliding fee scale for over 14,000 people. Staff said CHC discounted more than $1.2 million last year through its sliding fee program.

Why it matters: county funding supports local access to primary medical, dental and prescription services for low‑income residents and helps sustain CHC’s capacity to serve homebound and otherwise hard‑to‑reach patients.

Action and next steps: the committee of the whole reviewed the routine FY26 agreement; staff presented the contract and answered questions; no formal objections were recorded in the committee discussion. Annual routine contract renewals will be processed according to county procurement and fiscal procedures.

Context: staff characterized the funding as longstanding and described collaborative arrangements for prescriptions with Vera French Health Center where applicable.