FAQ

Answers to Frequently Asked Questions of OPCA

Community Health Centers offer a ‘Health Care Home’ for Oklahomans

·     Presidential Initiatives to Expand Health Centers, Since FY 2001
- Double the number of patients seen in health centers
  - Increase the number of CHCs from 3,200 to 4,400 nationwide
  - Initiatives has strong bipartisan support
  - CHCs have received funding increases while other programs were being cut

·     History of Community Health Centers (CHCs)
  - Began in1966 as part of President Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society Program
    (at same time as Head Start)
  - In existence for over 40 years

·     Core Requirements of Section 330 Requirements of CHCs
    - Federal resources targeted to communities with highest needs
    - Services must be available for all including those who would otherwise have financial, social,
      cultural, and language barriers to accessing health care. All CHCs offer an affordable sliding
      fee scale.
    - Services must include comprehensive preventive/primary care, enabling services, and
       health education.
    - CHCs are directed by governing boards of which at least 51% are patients of the center.

·     CHCs…
   - are public-private partnerships
- must meet local health needs as determined by the community
- must meet national performance standards for high quality care
- depend on a diversity of funding sources including from Medicare, Medicaid, state and local
     governments, private insurance, and patient fees
   - qualify to receive enhanced reimbursement under Medicare and prospective cost-based
     reimbursement from Medicaid with Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC) status

·     How do communities receive CHC funding?
   - Competitive grant process under Section 330 Public Health Service (PHS) Act
   - Grant funds are not ‘seed money’
   - Receive ongoing support based on productivity
   - Nationally these grant fund comprise approximately 20% of health center revenues, or about
     30% in Oklahoma (CY2007).

· CHCs in Oklahoma prior to president’s 5-year initiative:
- 4 grantees; 2 homeless centers

· CHCs in Oklahoma today
- Fourteen grantees (latest award - August 2008)
- Twenty-seven total sites including two homeless centers
(newest site to open in Wetumka by January 2009).

·     CHCs are economic engines for their communities
- Nationwide CHCs have over 104,000 full-time equivalent employees or contracted providers,
     or about 570 FTE in Oklahoma.
- A 2008 study revealed that CHCs provided an estimated $39 million income impact in
    Oklahoma.

For more information about the CHC program and Section 330 health center grants, please call Oklahoma Primary Care Association at (405) 424-2282. ext. 104.