HHS Awards $101M for New Community Health Centers Across U.S.

On Tuesday, HHS announced that it will use about $101 million in Affordable Care Act money to fund 164 new community health centers in California and other states, as part of an effort to boost access to care, FierceHealthcare reports.

Background

Community health centers are not-for-profit health care organizations that offer care to medically underserved populations and bill based on patients' ability to pay (Small, FierceHealthcare, 5/5). The centers also have helped U.S. residents enroll in health coverage through the ACA's exchanges, according to Healthcare Finance News. There are about 1,300 CHCs across the U.S., and about 22 million patients receive care through them.

New Funding

The funding will allow new community health centers to be established in 33 states and two U.S. territories. HHS expects the new centers will enable about 650,000 additional U.S. residents to access care (Morse, Healthcare Finance News, 5/5).

In California, 23 groups have received more than $14 million to serve 117,582 new patients. The grants in California ranged from $333,333 to Bell Gardens-based Family Health Care Centers of Greater Los Angeles to more than $1 million to Commerce-based JWCH Institute (HRSA, 5/5).

HHS Secretary Sylvia Mathews Burwell said the funding "will enable more individuals and families to have access to the affordable, quality health care that health centers provide," which "includes the preventive and primary care services that will keep them healthy" (FierceHealthcare, 5/5).