Community health centers—nonprofit facilities located in medically underserved areas that treat roughly 31.5 million people in the US—have been hit hard by the yearlong Medicaid unwinding process, which critics have called chaotic and say has led to disenrollment for roughly 20 million people, according to data from health policy research firm KFF.

Data from trade group the National Association of Community Health Centers (NACHC) showed that disenrollment has cost community health centers an average of $600,000 each. The health centers already operate on tight margins and rely on Medicaid and federal funding to provide access to care for vulnerable communities, including people experiencing homelessness and those in poverty, according to nonprofit health policy research firm the Commonwealth Fund.

“Medicaid is the lifeblood of community health centers and their ability to serve high-need urban, rural, frontier, and island communities,” Kyu Rhee, president and CEO of NACHC, said in a statement. “Both coverage and access to affordable primary care services are essential to achieving health equity, improving population health, and lowering healthcare costs.”

Keep reading here.—MA

Do you work in healthcare or have information about the industry that we should know? Email Maia at [email protected]. For confidential conversations, ask Maia for her number on Signal.

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The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) on Tuesday issued a final rule that bans noncompete clauses and limits certain stay-or-pay contracts, a policy that greatly affects nurses.

The stay-or-pay contract practice requires nurses to put in a certain amount of time “or be required to pay money to their employer for an alleged debt, which could be tied to so-called training, a sign-on bonus, or other costs their employer claims are related to their employment,” according to National Nurses United (NNU), a union that represents about a quarter of a million registered nurses (RNs).

“The new FTC rule is a step in the right direction for nurses and those aspiring to take on this critical role in our communities,” NNU President Nancy Hagans said in a statement, adding that these contracts “exploit vulnerable new graduate nurses at the very start of their careers.”

Keep reading here.—AE

Do you work in healthcare or have information about the industry that we should know? Email Amanda at [email protected]. For confidential conversations, ask Amanda for her number on Signal.

How would you describe your job to someone who doesn’t work in tech?

Like many other CEOs, I wear various hats. Our jobs primarily come down to change management and problem-solving. We’re constantly navigating opportunities or challenges for the business, where we must always lead our teams through problem-solving and change based on what’s best for the company, our employees, and our customers.

As president and CEO of clinical effectiveness at Wolters Kluwer Health, I have the pleasure of working in a dynamic industry like healthcare, where I solve daily problems and lead our efforts to reduce care variability and provide the best care everywhere with assistive technologies. This includes software solutions that provide on-demand, evidence-based clinical guidance for healthcare professionals and patient engagement built on our UpToDate medical content written and reviewed by more than 7,000 physician authors and section editors.

What’s the most compelling tech project you’ve worked on, and why?

The most compelling tech project I’ve worked on is one we recently completed at Wolters Kluwer Health. We integrated our clinical decision support, drug reference, patient engagement, and drug data solutions to create a unified user experience for clinicians when working with patients. This was a major and important step in addressing the needs of healthcare systems and the growing diversity of where patients get care.

Keep reading at Tech Brew.—AS

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