In Davidson, North Carolina, chronically ill community members will have increased access to essential services. In West Chester, Pennsylvania, more of the local uninsured population will be able to participate in a non-opioid pain management program.
Those city’s free health clinics, along with nearly 130 others from California to Connecticut, will be better able to meet their community’s health needs thanks to nearly $3 million in grants from CVS Health and its Foundation to the National Association of Free & Charitable Clinics (NAFC) and their members.
The grants furthers Aetna and CVS Health’s commitment to building healthier communities by investing in health at the local level, as these clinics will help better manage chronic disease, provide more wraparound services to address the social determinants of health, support treatment and prevention of substance abuse, including opioids and tobacco, and more.
Ranging from $10,000 – 20,000 each, the grants will be distributed to Free & Charitable Clinics in California, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia and Washington.
“Taking on these root causes of poor health will help us create lasting change towards health equity in America,” – Nicole Lamoureux, President & CEO of the NAFC.
The new funds bring the company and the CVS Health Foundation’s total contribution to NAFC to nearly $8 million since 2015.
Supporting Aetna and CVS Health’s combined goals of improving outcomes and lowering costs, more than 17,000 patients across the country had access to needed health care in 2018 as a result of last year’s NAFC grants funding. Two grantees alone saved their local hospitals $9.7 million by providing primary care to patients who would otherwise rely on the emergency room.
For more information on how the Free and Charitable Clinics will be utilizing their grants to improve community health, visit www.cvshealth.com/NAFC.