Community Health Services, a nonprofit healthcare center in Aspen, has requested $90,000 in bridge funds — or short-term relief funds — to support women’s health services that have lost funding from recent federal cuts, through 2025. The request was made at a Pitkin County commissioners Meeting Tuesday, and awaiting approval.

According to Logan Hood, the executive director of Community Health Services, the Aspen organization is facing $148,000 in losses due to recent federal cuts in health services. CHS primarily lost funding for Title X programs which supports breast and cervical cancer screenings, reproductive and sexual health programming, and family planning services. 

CHS, since its founding in 1971, has served under-represented communities and has helped individuals regardless of citizenship status, insurance, or ability to pay. 

“We provide affordable public health preventive services, so that includes things like family planning and contraception, breast and cervical cancer screening, prenatal care, immunizations, STIs … we do screenings and treatment, and all the programs we provide are confidential,” Hood said. “We see anyone, regardless of their ability to pay.”

According to the meeting’s agenda, in total, CHS requested $28,449 from Pitkin County Public Health, $20,862 from Eagle County Public Health, $12,213 from Garfield County Public Health, $11,700 from the Health Community Fund — a grant program — and a combined $16,740 from the towns of Snowmass Village and Aspen. The remaining $58,000 that was lost to the cuts will come from outside donors and CHS’ reserves.

“(The cuts are) not coming from programs, at least for now, like immunizations or prenatal care,” Hood said. “It’s specifically for women’s health. It’s really targeting women’s health and so the chunk is much greater than the request I’m asking.”

Because CHS and MFCH are some of the few local medical centers that take Medicaid and Medicare, the cuts to those public health insurance programs will also impact CHS’ and MFHC’s revenue. According to Hood, with fewer patients having Medicaid to pay for treatment, CHS will lose a substantial and sustainable flow of income. The extent of the loss has yet to be seen.

“There’ll be kind of a loss of revenue on both sides, in terms of the revenue we can realize from providing those patient services, and also, we could probably anticipate an influx of newly uninsured patients,” said Dustin Moyer, the CEO of Mountain Family Health Centers.

At the moment, it is up to the CHS board of directors to decide whether or not the above-mentioned programs would be suspended or cut. 

“As these things are changing so rapidly, I don’t have all the answers about what the end of the year is, but I will say, being around for as long as we have, we have built up a reserve, and that’s why we’re not asking our partners to commit to the full amount,” Hood said.

Another possible change that Hood notes is that public health services might have to restrict non-citizens from receiving what is called “public benefit,” or programs supported by the government that provide basic services like food, healthcare, and housing. 

According to Moyer, MFHC lost about 30% of its Title X funding. He also said that many healthcare centers still don’t understand the impacts of the bill that proposes these restrictions. In part, this is because it was released so recently on Thursday, July 10. 

According to Hood, these restrictions could even include legal immigrants who have historically qualified for public benefit. Also according to Hood, healthcare centers like CHS might have to start requiring income or citizenship verification before serving patients. 

According to Hood, CHS has historically never taken into account citizenship status. The final decision on whether non-citizens can receive public benefits has not been clarified yet. Hood notes that because CHS is a nonprofit, they might have access to more exceptions in these federal orders.

Hood said that if they can make the $148,000 through the support of grants, donors, and their own reserve, there will be no delays in the services provided. The Pitkin County Commission has declared that the request meets the highest priority for funding from the Regional Grantors Collaborative. 

“(The request) addresses a time-sensitive funding loss that directly impacts critical, community-aligned public health services,” the RGC stated in their recommendation. “CHS is the sole prenatal provider for many Medicaid and Cover All Colorado patients in the upper valley and offers essential cancer screenings, STI services, adolescent and oral health outreach, and immunizations to thousands of residents annually.”

CHS has received donations from local businesses such as the Aspen Thrift Store, as well as other private donors. Hood is hopeful that they will meet the required money to sustain their services.

According to Moyer, the cuts to Title X funding make up a less significant portion of his budget than it does for CHS, and therefore could be less impactful on their services.