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H H S Department of Health and Human Services
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
Health Resources and Services Administration

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National Health Center Week – August 11-17, 2013

Increasing Access to Affordable, Cost Effective, High Quality Care

For more than 45 years, community health centers have delivered comprehensive, high-quality preventive and primary health care to patients regardless of their ability to pay. During that time, community health centers have become the essential primary care medical home for millions of Americans, including some of the nation’s most vulnerable populations.  

With a proven track record of success, community health centers have played an essential role in national recovery and reinvestment efforts and will play a key role in implementation of the Affordable Care Act.

Delivery of Care:  Increased Access to Health Services

In 2011, 1,128 community health centers operated more than 8,500 service delivery sites that provided care to approximately 20.2 million patients in every State, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and the Pacific Basin.

This network of community health centers has created one of the largest safety net systems of primary and preventive care in the country with a true national impact.

  • Community health centers, supported by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), treated approximately 20.2 million people in 2011, nearly two-thirds of whom are members of ethnic and minority groups. Thirty-six percent have no health insurance; approximately one-third are children.
  • One out of every 15 people living in the U.S. now relies on a HRSA-funded clinic for primary care.
  • Community health centers are an integral source of local employment and economic growth in many underserved and low-income communities. Total health center employment is more than 138,000 individuals nationwide, and health centers added more than 25,300 jobs over the last three years.
  • Community health centers employ more than 9,900 physicians and more than 6,900 nurse practitioners, physician assistants, and certified nurse midwives in a multi-disciplinary clinical workforce designed to treat the whole patient through culturally-competent, accessible, and integrated care.

Community health center quality of care equals and often surpasses that provided by other primary care providers.  A programmatic emphasis on quality improvement as well as community-responsive and culturally appropriate care has also translated into impressive reductions in health disparities for community health center patients. Community health centers also reduce costs to health systems; the community health center model of care has been shown to reduce the use of costlier providers of care, such as emergency departments and hospitals.

The Affordable Care Act: The Essential Role of Community Health Centers

The Affordable Care Act established the Community Health Center fund that provides $11 billion over a 5-year period for the operation, expansion, and construction of health centers throughout the Nation.

  • $9.5 billion is targeted to:
    – Support ongoing health center operations.
    – Create new health center sites in medically underserved areas.
    – Expand preventive and primary health care services, including oral health, behavioral health, pharmacy, and/or enabling services, at existing health center sites.
  • $1.5 billion supports major construction and renovation projects at community health centers nationwide.

Community health centers are poised to play an essential role in the implementation of the Affordable Care Act.  In particular, community health centers emphasize coordinated primary and preventive services or a “medical home” that promotes reductions in health disparities for low-income individuals, racial and ethnic minorities, rural communities, and other underserved populations.  

Community health centers place emphasis on the coordination and comprehensiveness of care, the ability to manage patients with multiple health care needs, and the use of key quality improvement practices, including health information technology.  The community health center model also overcomes geographic, cultural, linguistic and other barriers through a team-based approach to care that includes physicians, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, nurses, dental providers,  midwives, behavioral health care providers, social workers, health educators, and many others.

Rooted in a commitment to community-based, patient-centered care, community health centers continue to focus on comprehensive services that meet the varying needs of their patient populations including disease management and coordination, prevention and patient education activities, and outreach. 

Celebrating America's Health Centers, Powering Healthier Communities.