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  • Community Health Centers in an Era of Health Reform: An Overview and Key Challenges to Health Center Growth

    Issue Brief

    Over 1,100 federally funded community health centers play a vital role in ensuring access to health care for a predominantly low-income population in medically underserved communities. Health centers’ ability to provide comprehensive primary care and improve access to high-quality care while holding down health care cost growth has been well-documented. As health reform spurs coverage expansion and efforts to improve quality, the nation’s reliance on health centers is likely to grow. In the Affordable Care…

  • Medicaid and Community Health Centers: The Relationship Between Coverage for Adults and Primary Care Capacity in Medically Underserved Communities

    Issue Brief

    Community health centers play an important role in providing care to uninsured and low-income individuals living in medically underserved communities. They rely on many different revenue sources and, over time, Medicaid has become a central source of funding for most health centers. To better understand how Medicaid influences health center practice, this paper compares the strength of health centers in states that have expanded Medicaid coverage for adults to health centers states with more limited…

  • Community Health Centers: Recent Growth and the Role of the ACA

    Issue Brief

    This brief draws on federal data and our 2016 survey of health centers to provide a 2015 profile of health centers, analyze recent changes in patient coverage and service capacity, and compare health centers in Medicaid expansion and non-expansion states. It also considers the implications of a repeal of the ACA for health centers and the low-income communities they serve.

  • Facing a Potential Funding Crunch, Community Health Centers in Medically Underserved Areas Around the Country Report They Are Considering Reductions in Staffing and Services That Would Limit Patients’ Access to Care

    News Release

    With a key source of federal funding set to expire in September, community health centers across the country are considering steps to reduce staffing, close some locations and eliminate or reduce services as they cope with uncertainty about their future financing, according to a new KFF/GWU survey and analysis.

  • Quality of Care in Community Health Centers and Factors Associated with Performance

    Issue Brief

    This study examines quality among health centers relative to Medicaid managed care organizations (MCOs). Chronic care quality among health centers is high; gaps in women’s preventive care are a concern. Lower-performing health centers have very high uninsured and homeless rates. The expansion of Medicaid and private insurance under the ACA may foster gains in health center quality performance.

  • Profiles of Medicaid Outreach and Enrollment Strategies: One-on-One Assistance Through Community Health Centers in Utah

    Issue Brief

    This brief provides insight into lessons learned from Medicaid and CHIP outreach and enrollment strategies that can help inform implementation of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) coverage expansions by profiling a successful enrollment assistance initiative among health centers in Utah. The brief is part of the "Getting Into Gear for 2014" series examining key implementation issues as states prepare for the ACA coverage expansions. Issue Brief (.pdf)

  • Integrating Physical and Behavioral Health Care: Promising Medicaid Models

    Issue Brief

    Although many people require treatment for both physical and behavioral health conditions, our physical and behavioral health systems typically operate independently, without coordination. Medicaid has a significant stake in addressing this issue because physical and behavioral health comorbidity rates among beneficiaries are high. This brief examines five promising approaches currently underway in Medicaid to better integrate physical and behavioral health care.

  • Primary Care Providers’ Views Of Recent Trends In Health Care Delivery And Payment

    Poll Finding

    A new survey from The Commonwealth Fund and The Kaiser Family Foundation asked primary care providers—physicians, nurse practitioners, and physician assistants—about their experiences with and reactions to recent changes in health care delivery and payment. Providers’ views are generally positive regarding the impact of health information technology on quality of care, but they are more divided on the increased use of medical homes and accountable care organizations. Overall, providers are more negative about the increased…

  • Federal and State Standards for “Essential Community Providers” under the ACA and Implications for Women’s Health

    Issue Brief

    Safety net providers such as community health centers and family planning clinics have served a significant role in the provision of primary care and reproductive health care services to low-income and uninsured people, particularly women. The Affordable Care Act (ACA) has a provision aimed at assuring that newly-insured individuals, as well as those without coverage, can continue seeing their trusted safety net providers, also called Essential Community Providers (ECPs). This brief reviews the definition of…

  • Community Health Centers and Family Planning in an Era of Policy Uncertainty

    Report

    Community health centers play a major role in furnishing reproductive health care to women living in low-income and medically underserved communities. Along with independent freestanding family planning clinics including Planned Parenthood health centers (which also may receive Title X funding), and local public health agencies, community health centers are part of a publicly supported provider network that serve an estimated one in three low-income women. This report, an update of an earlier study conducted in…