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ACA Community Health Center Funds Increase Quality of Care

By Sara Heath

Under the Affordable Care Act (ACA), community health centers have seen tremendous growth, receiving funding to expand their services and healthcare sites to provide help to more individuals who may otherwise go without care. In honor of National Health Center Week, the department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) Secretary, Sylvia M. Burwell, announced another $169 million to be awarded as a part of the Community Health Center Fund. This money will be awarded to 266 new healthcare center sites to bolster their growth and range of services.

This money comes after a $101 million award given earlier this year by the Community Health Center Fund to build 164 new healthcare sites. In total, the Community Health Center Fund has provided funding to construct at least 700 new healthcare sites, which serve nearly 23 million people. The sites that received this most recent award are expected to serve approximately 1.2 million patients.

“Across the country, health centers have provided a source of high-quality primary care for people in rural and urban communities for 50 years,” says Mary Wakefield, Acting Deputy Secretary. “These Affordable Care Act funds build on the strong legacy of the health center program and provide even more individuals and families with access to the care they need the most.”

Community healthcare centers provide healthcare to rural areas where there tend to not be enough doctors to treat patients and hospitals are few and far between or underfunded. Because of this lack of access to healthcare, patients often go without care, which results in the need for emergency care, which is often costly. Community healthcare centers decrease that issue by providing individuals in rural areas with access to primary and preventative care.

Community health centers play an enormous role in cutting overall healthcare spending. Health centers underscore the importance of primary care and regular check-ups to low-income individuals. By providing this kind of regular, preventative care, community health centers diminish the need for unnecessary emergency care. By utilizing patient-centered care, national health centers are putting care in the patients' control

“In health centers across the country, providers are working as teams to coordinate their patients’ care,” writes Secretary Burwell. “As a result, patients are put in the center of their own care – empowered, educated and engaged to take charge of their health.”

This higher level of patient engagement and primary care is evidence that community health centers are shifting to value-based payment alongside other healthcare providers. By engaging in care-coordination for each patient, community health centers provide the best experience possible for patients, despite the fact that those patients are often sicker than most.

“Health centers meet some of the highest standards for coordinated, quality care,” Secretary Burwell writes. “In fact, today over 69 percent of health centers are recognized by national organizations as patient-centered medical homes, the most promising model of high-quality primary care.”

As community health centers continue to receive funding, their breadth of services will continue to expand. The HHS says this will not only benefit those treated at these centers, but the healthcare system as a whole as standards for quality care and patient-centered primary care become the norm for all healthcare providers.