Community Health Centers

What are community health centers?
America's Health Centers are private, not-for-profit, consumer-directed health care corporations which provide high quality, cost-effective, and comprehensive primary and preventive care to medically underserved and uninsured people.

These community-based providers are also commonly referred to as Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs) because they meet rigorous federal standards related to quality of care and services as well as cost, and they are qualified to receive cost-based reimbursement under Medicaid and Medicare law.

There are more than 1029 community-based Health Centers in operation today. Collectively, these centers serve as a health care safety net for more than 11 million patients (4.4 million of whom are uninsured) through 3,200 delivery sites in urban and rural underserved communities in all fifty states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, Guam, and the US Virgin Islands.

What services do Health Centers provide?
Health Centers focus on wellness and early prevention, the keys to cost. Health Centers provide more than just treatment for illness or episodic conditions. They offer comprehensive, "one-stop" services and a "health care home" for patients in their communities.

Like all good family doctors, Health Centers provide ongoing care and health management for families and individuals throughout their lives. Health Centers are staffed by more than 6,000 physicians, together with thousands of nurses, dentists, other health professionals and volunteer staff.

Health Center services generally include primary care visits, health education, disease screening and control, case management, laboratory services, dental care, pharmacy services, substance abuse counseling, and social services. Many offer evening and weekend hours for working families, provide care at multiple sites, use mobile clinics to reach rural and other hard-to-reach populations, and employ multi-lingual staffs. All Health Centers have a 24-hour system for after-hours calls and emergencies.

Are Health Center services free?
Health Center services are not free. However, to ensure that income or lack of insurance is not a barrier to care, patients who are not covered by public or private insurance are charged on a sliding fee scale according to income.

For less than 1 dollar per day for each person served (less than $350 annually), Health Centers provide quality primary and preventive care to low-income, uninsured, and underinsured individuals and families. Many studies have shown that Health Centers are less expensive than HMO's and private physicians. Through reductions in hospital admissions and less frequent use of costly emergency room visits for routine services, Health Centers save the American health care system nearly a billion dollars each year.