Community Health Centers Receive Quality Improvement Grants
September 03, 2018
Just over one year ago, I wrote about the Department of Health and Human Service’s (“HHS”) $105 million award to support 1,333 federally qualified health centers (“Health Centers”) across the United States improve the quality of comprehensive care provided to patients. It seems like déjà vu, as it was announced last month that HHS set aside $125 million in quality improvement grants to be allocated among 1,352 Health Centers. A list of recipients can be found here.
Health Centers receive funding through the Health Resources and Services Administration (“HRSA”), a branch of the federal government with a primary purpose of delivering comprehensive healthcare to patients who cannot otherwise afford such care. Treatments offered at Health Centers, include, without limitation, physician services, homebound visits by nurses in geographic locations where home health agencies are sparse, and clinical psychology services. The overarching goals set by HRSA with respect to Health Centers are to:
- Make available high quality healthcare treatments and ancillary services, including education and transportation to facilities;
- Offer care at affordable rates and charge patients in accordance with a practical scale;
- Have community stakeholders serve on the governing boards to communicate the specific needs of the locality; and
- Create a patient-centered foundation to address the diverse needs of the medically underserved.
In accordance with those goals, the grants are designed to improve Health Centers. Specifically, the funds will be used for “[e]xpanding access to comprehensive care, improving care quality and outcomes, increasing comprehensive care delivery in a cost-effective way, addressing health disparities, advancing the use of health information technology, and delivering patient-centered care.”
Speaking on the new grants and reflecting on the preceding year, HRSA Administrator George Sigounas, MS, Ph.D., said “[n]early all HRSA-funded health centers demonstrated improvement in one or more clinical quality measures from the year prior, and these funds will support health centers’ work to improve the quality of care they deliver in their communities around the country.”
As healthcare costs continue to rise in many parts of the country, eligible patients have an alternative route to obtain affordable healthcare without the burdens associated with visiting the local hospital. Health Centers are a bright spot in an otherwise gloomy healthcare system.