HHS Awards More than $8.6 Million for Health Centers to Improve Care Coordination and Become Patient-Centered Medical Homes

Today, Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Sylvia M. Burwell announced more than $8.6 million in funding for 246 health centers in 41 states, the District of Columbia, the Federation of Micronesia and the Northern Mariana Islands. The awards will help to improve quality of care and patients’ and providers’ experience of care through the Patient-Centered Medical Home (PCMH) health care delivery model.

“These awards will help health centers deliver comprehensive care that puts the patient at the center,” said Secretary Burwell. “More families in communities around the nation will have access to medical homes where a range of health care needs, including oral health, primary care and behavioral health services, can be coordinated and met.”

PCMH is a care delivery model designed to improve quality of care through enhanced access, planning, management, and comprehensive care. These awards will provide assistance to health centers to make the changes necessary to achieve, expand and optimize PCMH recognition.

The funding will allow more than 300 health center sites to achieve recognition and more than 200 currently recognized sites to increase their level of recognition or further optimize the use of the PCMH model.

“Currently, over 65% of health centers have achieved some level of PCMH recognition,” said Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) Acting Administrator Jim Macrae. “This funding will help transform even more health centers to be better coordinate care in a way that benefits the patients who need care the most.”

Nearly 1,400 health centers operate about 9,800 service delivery sites in every U.S. state, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands and the Pacific Basin. These health centers employ more than 170,000 staff who provide care for nearly 23 million patients, an increase of 6 million patients since the beginning of 2009.

This funding comes from the Affordable Care Act’s Community Health Center (CHC) Fund, which was extended with bipartisan support in the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act (MACRA) of 2015.