School health clinics provide New York students with vital care. Here’s why a payment overhaul could change that.
HEALTHBEAT/ NEW YORK
Health Policy
Eliza Fawcett
April 28, 2025
For Panagiotis Sotiropoulos, a physician assistant, most days bring nosebleeds, ankle sprains, and headaches. There’s diabetes to control and asthma attacks to manage — sometimes so severe they require use of oxygen tanks.
To provide all this care, Sotiropoulous isn’t in a hospital or an urgent care facility. He’s just down the hall from where his patients, who range from 11 to 19 years old, spend most of their time.
Sotiropoulos is the medical provider for a school-based health center in the South Bronx.
“As soon as I walk out of the clinic, it’s like I’m in a different world,” he said. “I smell the food from the cafeteria, I see kids dressed up in uniforms.”
About 250 in-school clinics like this are scattered throughout New York state, reaching roughly 250,000 students in underserved rural and urban areas. But providers and advocates of these clinics fear that this system of care could soon be jeopardized due to a state overhaul of how school-based health centers are paid through the state’s Medicaid system.
