The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced Friday the availability of approximately $700 million to help build, expand and improve community health centers across the United States.
The funds, authorized by the Affordable Care Act, will support renovation and construction projects, boosting centers’ ability to care for additional patients and creating jobs in those communities. Community health centers are an integral source of local employment and economic growth in many underserved and low-income communities.
This announcement has two funding opportunities for community health centers. One will provide approximately $600 million to existing health centers across the country for longer-term projects to expand their facilities, hire more employees and serve more patients. The second funding opportunity emphasizes shorter-term projects and will provide approximately $100 million to existing health centers to address immediate facility needs.
“For many Americans, community health centers are the major source of care that ranges from prevention to treatment. These funds will expand our ability to provide high-quality care to millions of people while supporting good paying jobs in communities across the country,” said HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius in a statement.
Health centers improve the health of the nation’s vulnerable populations and underserved communities by ensuring access to primary healthcare services. Currently, more than 8,100 service delivery sites around the country deliver care to nearly 20 million patients regardless of their ability to pay.
Community health centers also provide high-quality jobs in communities nationwide. In 2010, they employed more than 131,000 individuals, including 9,600 physicians, 6,400 nurse practitioners, physicians’ assistants and certified nurse midwives, 11,400 nurses, 9,500 dental staff, 4,200 behavioral health staff, and more than 12,000 case managers and health education, outreach and transportation staff. Since the beginning of 2009, health centers have added more than 18,600 new full-time positions in many of the nation’s most economically distressed communities.
Over the next five years, the ACA provides $11 billion in funding for the operation, expansion and construction of U.S. community health centers. This expansion of sites and services will help community health centers to increase the number of patients receiving care, regardless of their insurance status or ability to pay.