HARRISBURG — The Pennsylvania Association of Community Health Centers (PACHC) shared the critical importance of Pennsylvania’s Community Health Centers during a press conference on May 8.

“PACHC represents the largest network of primary health care providers in the commonwealth,” said Shelley Riser, PACHC President and CEO. “Pennsylvania’s community health centers – also known as federally qualified health centers or FQHCs – are serving nearly 1,000,000 patients annually in 55 counties with more than 475 sites in underserved rural and urban areas throughout Pennsylvania. One in 13 Pennsylvanians count on a community health center as their health care home.”

Community health centers provide affordable quality care, including medical, behavioral and dental care, vision services, pharmaceutical services, and other critical health enhancing services. The profile of patients served includes: · 87.54% of the patients are at or below 200% of the Federal poverty level.

· 13.95% of patients are uninsured. This number is expected to grow as Pennsylvania and the country undergo the Medicaid Unwinding.

· 48.28% of patients are on Medicaid or CHIP.

However, community health centers across Pennsylvania are struggling with narrowing margins and increased costs throughout their organizations. They must cover the costs of caring for the uninsured, often inadequate Medicaid reimbursement, and the costs of necessary but unreimbursed services to help the patients they serve get well, stay well and do not require higher cost ER or hospital care.

Covering the costs of care and ensuring access to care have become even more challenging because of increases in the price of goods, services and workforce, as well as diminished revenue from the 340B Drug Savings Program that was created to help safety net organizations like FQHCs to stretch scarce resources.

“Pennsylvania’s Community Health Centers are requesting $50 million in funding in the Pennsylvania State Budget (FY 2024-25) to assist us in covering the costs of providing care to uninsured Pennsylvanians and to assist in covering additional unfunded costs, such as community health workers, transportation, care coordination, technology costs, and more,” said Manal El Harrak, vice chair of the PACHC Board of Directors and CEO of Sadler Health Center Corp in Central PA. “Pennsylvania is one of only four states in the country that doesn’t financially support this critical safety net and we can no longer carry this burden alone.”

A sufficient and high-quality workforce is another key component of access to care, with more than 5,300 full-time staff currently employed at health centers in Pennsylvania. The Pennsylvania Primary Care Loan Repayment Program, administered by the PA Department of Health, has proven to be an effective tool to support the recruitment efforts of community health centers and to connect health professionals to this critical network. The program provides funding annually for loan repayment for primary care, behavioral health, and dental providers who serve in underserved rural and urban areas of the Commonwealth. In addition, the Pennsylvania Primary Care Career Center—a partnership of the PA Department of Health and PACHC to match physicians, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, dentists, and other professionals with organizations that provide primary care services—has been key to connecting health professionals with these essential organizations.

State support of Pennsylvania’s FQHCs is fiscally wise. The Commonwealth’s health centers save the health care system an estimated $1.59 billion per year. The Federal Congressional Budget Office recently noted that, “Evidence suggests that such care leads to more cost effective care and ultimately to lower federal spending for the Medicaid and Medicare populations they serve; the use of health care provided by CHCs generally is associated with lower spending in emergency departments, in inpatient hospital settings, and for other outpatient services.”

Manal El Harrack, said, “We couldn’t do what we do—and collectively what we do is provide 3.6 million individual patient visits every year for services—without all the great people who work in Pennsylvania’s FQHCs and the funding necessary to keep our doors open and services available.”

Visit pachc.orgto find a Community Health Center.