About Health Centers

What are health centers?

Health Centers:

• Are non-profit, community-owned health care organizations that serve all individuals, with or without insurance, and regardless of ability to pay
• Serve communities that lack access to high quality, affordable health care services;
• Provide high quality, affordable medical and preventive health services, and often provide on-site dental, pharmaceutical, behavioral health, and substance abuse services; 
• Are located in communities where health care is needed but scarce; and
• Provide services that increase access such as transportation, translation, and case management.
• Are cost effective, reducing costly emergency, hospital, and specialty care visits, and save the health care system $24 billion each year nationally

How are health centers different?

Health Centers:

• See ALL patients, with or without insurance, and regardless of ability to pay
• Provide hours of operation that meet the need of the patients/populations being served
• Offer access to services after regular hours of operation
• Provide sliding fee discounts to patients whose income is less than 200% of the FPL*
• Have a board of directors that is comprised of:
• Volunteers from the community
• At least 51% consumers of the Health Center
• Non-Consumer members representative of the community
• Board members that represent the population(s) being served (race, ethnicity, etc.)
• Must be located in a Medically Underserved Area (MUA) and serve a Medically Underserved Population (MUP)
• Serve individuals that find it hard to access health care due to language/cultural, financial, geographical, and other difficulties
• Tailor services to fit the special needs and priorities of their communities, and provide services in a linguistically and culturally appropriate manner
• Offer services that help patients access health care, such as transportation, translation, case management, health education, and chronic disease management
• Are cost effective, reducing costly emergency, hospital, and specialty care visits, and save the health care system $24 billion each year nationally.

What types of health centers are there?

Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs) are public and private non-profit health care organizations that meet certain criteria under the Medicare and Medicaid Programs, and receive funding under Section 330 of the Public Health Services (PHS) Act. There are four types of health centers:

• Community Health Centers serve a variety of underserved populations and areas.
• Homeless Health Centers reach out to homeless individuals and families and provide primary care and substance abuse services.
• Migrant/Seasonal Farm worker Health Centers serve migrant and seasonal agricultural workers.
• Public Housing Primary Care Programs serve residents of public housing and are located in or adjacent to the communities they serve.

Federally Qualified Health Center Look-A-Likes are health centers that have been identified by the Health Recourses and Services Administration (HRSA) and certified by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) as meeting the definition of a “Health Center” under Section 330 of the PHS Act, although they do not receive grant funding under Section 330.
Sources: Bureau of Primary Health Care (BPHC) http://bphc.hrsa.gov; National Association of Community Health Center’s (NACHC) Wyoming Health Center Fact Sheet 2008. www.nachc.com