CELO COMMUNITY, N.C. — On a 15-degree morning in January, a clinic in the Appalachian Mountains of North Carolina began to fill up with patients. An older couple in flannel pajamas sat together in the waiting room. A toddler waved as Patricia Hall walked past him, a stethoscope draped over her neck. The family physician waved and smiled back. But in the privacy of a conference room, her mood shifted. She is often bogged down with paperwork and can’t get patients timely appointments with specialists. She also fears that a health care worker shortage affecting her clinic — and many others across the nation — will only get worse. Hall’s clinic, the Celo Health Center, is one of seven locations that make up the Mountain Community Health Partnership, which was supposed to receive up to $10 million over the next decade through Making Care Primary, a federal program to improve primary care, especially in rural areas, by providing payments for physicians to address patient needs. Her organization planned to use the money to hire staff, build better connections with local specialists, and buy more vehicles to shuttle patients to appointments, according to its CEO, Tim Evans. Then, in March, clinic administrators received an email during the Department of Government Efficiency’s whirlwind of federal cuts: The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services would soon shutter Making Care Primary, a year into what was supposed to be a 10-year program. Nearly 700 practices in eight states enrolled in Making Care Primary. North…
