As part of a new federal testing push, community health centers can "order" at-home test kits on a weekly basis for distribution to underserved populations in their area. The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), the federal entity that oversees community health centers, announced in December that HUD communities should be able to access test kits for distribution to residents via their community health centers. Juliana Bilowich reports that many LeadingAge housing members reported that this process is not yet working because health centers either don’t know about the ability to order/distribute tests, don’t respond to providers, didn't order enough tests to share with providers, or didn't think they should be partnering with providers. LeadingAge has shared this feedback with the relevant federal agencies, who are reinforcing the message to health centers that they should be partnering with HUD housing communities to distribute tests.
For individuals seeking to access the free test kits offered through the Administration, providers are discovering that once one resident from a property address requests tests, others from the same property address are then precluded from accessing the tests. LeadingAge has reported this challenge.
In addition, a telephone number will soon be released so that those without online access capabilities can request testing kits.
Should you wish to access test kits for residents to self-administer, there are two steps you should take:
LeadingAge will use the results of the anonymous survey to let HUD and HRSA know which health centers may need some prompting to form better partnerships with you on test kit access.
To clarify, while participating in the test kit distribution effort is not required for community health centers, those receiving test kits have been strongly encouraged by their federal agency to distribute them to partners, including HUD communities. LeadingAge hopes to gather specific feedback for HUD and HRSA to prompt better health center partnerships with housing operators.
An article about test kit access is available here. Feel free to reach out directly to Juliana Bilowich at jbilowich@leadingage.org for assistance.