Virginia Health Care Foundation (VHCF)

Health access grants These grants primarily underwrote the salaries of 43.00 FTE behavioral health professionals, dentists, nurse practitioners and physicians at community health centers, free clinics and other health access organizations throughout Virginia in FY24, enabling them to provide 53,010 patient visits to uninsured Virginians.

VHCF launched a multipronged Brighter Days Ahead initiative to attract more behavioral health BH providers to shortage areas and to underserved populations. Its most significant component is increasing the number of school-based health centers where low income children can obtain needed mental health services. Another component is a collaborative effort with three other statewide organizations to improve the mental health and well-being of Virginias health safety net clinicians.

Grants for the salaries of 53 medication assistance caseworkers 40.05 FTEs, who applied for free prescription medicines from Patient Assistance Programs for their uninsured patients with chronic diseases, generating 146 million in free medications for 11,088 uninsured patients in FY24. They also helped obtain discounted low cost generic medicines when free ones were not available obtained free eyeglasses and certain medical supplies and helped eligible patients apply for Medicaid.