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ABOUT COMMUNITY HEALTH CENTERS

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Community health centers provide primary, preventive and dental care, as well as mental health, substance abuse and other community-based services to anyone in need regardless of their insurance status or ability to pay. In Massachusetts, 52 community health centers provide high quality health care to more than 700,000 residents through 184 sites statewide.

In addition to providing comprehensive health services to underserved people, health centers are on the leading edge of addressing some of the most vexing problems of our health care system, including facilitating access to health insurance coverage for low-income residents and eliminating health disparities between racial and ethnic populations.

Unique, Community-Based Care Model
Services
Patients
Quality, Cost-Effective Care
Community Health Centers and Health Reform

Unique, Community-Based Care Model
In 1965, the nation’s first community health center opened its doors in Boston, Massachusetts. Until that time, health services for low and moderate-income people in inner city areas and isolated rural communities were nowhere to be found. In response, community members organized around the need to bring primary care to their neighborhoods. Insisting that they have a voice in how and what care should be delivered to the community, boards of directors that included a majority of health center consumers were incorporated into the model. Today, health center patients continue to drive the mission and work of community health centers.

Services
Community health centers provide primary and preventive health care that is both comprehensive and tailored to the needs of the communities they serve. Staffed by caregivers who speak the languages and understand the cultures of their communities, health center effectiveness is reflected in improved health outcomes for patients, including a significant reduction in infant mortality and low birth weight babies, and an increase in patient self-management of chronic diseases such as diabetes and asthma.

Patients
Massachusetts health centers care for patients of all ages, income levels and racial and ethnic backgrounds, and represent a major source of health care for low-income women and children. Health center patients are disproportionately affected by chronic diseases such as diabetes, asthma and heart disease. In 2006, more than 30 percent of total health center patients had no health insurance; nearly 39 percent were insured by Medicaid; and fewer than 31 percent were insured by Medicare or commercial insurance. Sixty-four percent belonged to an ethnic or racial minority group.

Quality, Cost-Effective Care
Community health centers are receiving increasing attention as a solution for reducing health costs and ensuring health care quality in Massachusetts and across the nation. Staffed by board-certified physicians, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, registered nurses, nutritionists, dentists and a range of other of medical and social service providers, community health centers excel at providing preventive care and chronic disease management in lower cost community settings. These savings are passed on to the state’s Medicaid program and other insurers. For studies on health center quality and cost-effectiveness, please contact the League.

Community Health Centers and Health Reform
Community health centers are playing an important role in the implementation of Massachusetts’ historic health reform law. As the state’s 52 community health centers work to enroll residents into the Commonwealth’s new low-cost health plans, they are offering the newly-insured something equally critical: a health care home – a place where they can access a team of caregivers who come to know them and their health care needs.

Establishing a health care home is the first step in accessing effective, comprehensive health care. According to an August 2007 study on the importance of health care access by the National Association of Community Health Centers and the Robert Graham Center, people who receive routine medical care are better able to prevent sickness, manage chronic illnesses and avert emergency room visits and hospital stays than are people without a regular source of primary care – a health care home. Click here for a copy of this report, Access Granted: The Primary Care Payoff .

For more information on Massachusetts' community health centers, click on Massachusetts Community Health Centers Facts & Issues Brief: A Local Solution for Health Care Reform released March 2007.