The U.S. Congress is currently negotiating a massive coronavirus stimulus bill to help businesses, individuals, health care providers and first-responders. UCA has submitted this letter to Congress, and we ask our members and industry constituents to take action today.  Congress needs to hear from you that urgent care centers and their providers are front-line responders during this pandemic and need assistance to make sure that they can continue to serve their communities. 

The only way for Congress to understand the dire situation that urgent care centers across the country face is for you to tell them.

Take a moment TODAY to contact your U.S. Senators and Representative and ask them to provide direct funding to front-line health care personnel and providers, including urgent care centers and providers.

Call your members of Congress this morning. Don’t wait until it’s too late.

Call the Capitol switchboard at 202-224-3121. Ask to be connected to your Senator’s office. Then dial back to be connected to your other Senator and Representative.

The message to your members of Congress is:

ensure the final stimulus bill directly supports urgent care centers and medical providers

Another way for you to reach congressional offices at this time is via email or through your own personal relationships with members of Congress and their staff. UCA also encourages you to send messages to your members of Congress using social media.

Steps for Communicating your Message on Twitter

1.   Log onto Twitter and create an account if you don’t already have one.

2.   Search for the Twitter handle for your senators and representative.

3.  Tweet @ your members of Congress using the following sample social media posts.

• @xxxx Urgent Care Centers need help and need it now. Support direct financial relief to urgent care centers and providers in #COVID relief package. #UrgentCareOnTheFrontLines
• @xxxx Urgent Care Centers need emergency funding for supplies, tests and personnel in #COVID relief package. #UrgentCareOnTheFrontLines
• @xxxx 80% of urgent care centers don’t have tests to meet demand. 72% report surge in symptomatic patients.  Urgent care centers need help now. Support direct financial relief to urgent care centers and providers in #COVID relief package. #UrgentCareOnTheFrontLines

Steps for Sending an Email to your Members of Congress:

1.  Find your representative and senators at www.House.gov and www.Senate.gov.

2.  Navigate to the home pages of your senators and representative to find contact information. You can email most members of Congress directly from their website.

3.  Compose your message using your personal experience to make a compelling argument.

4.  Incorporate the following talking points into your email:

• Let them know that you are a constituent.
• The Urgent Care Association estimates that urgent care centers stand to lose $2.5 billion over the next 12 weeks.  Urgent care centers and their providers need access to direct financial relief. Please support at least $100 billion in direct relief to health care providers and facilities, including urgent care centers and providers.
• Urgent care centers and their providers are on the front line working to diagnose and mitigate the spread of COVID-19.
• 80% of urgent care centers report that they don’t have the necessary COVID tests to meet demand, and 72% report they are experiencing a surge in symptomatic patients.  In addition, the lack of protective personal equipment (PPE) is threatening the ability of urgent care centers to keep their doors open to care for patients.
• Without immediate steps, many urgent care centers may need to close during the crisis and many could go out of business and will be unable to care for patients when supplies do become available.
• Immediate action must be taken to protect providers and patients. Support steps to increase production of PPE and create an emergency fund to cover the loss of revenue being experienced by urgent care centers and other providers due to testing costs, increased costs associated with higher staffing levels and necessary backfilling, as well as sourcing and purchasing additional and potentially more expensive supplies and equipment.
• Urgent care centers have the capability to manage triage from hospital emergency departments for non-emergency, acute care needs. Urgent care centers, like other providers, are challenged by nursing and support personnel who cannot come to work because of school closures. Direct funding support is needed for front line health care personnel and facilities so health care workers can still report to work when schools are closed.

We expect this package to move quickly, so it is CRITICAL that you take action TODAY.