Federal Community Health Center Program

U.S. Health Resources & Services Administrations' Bureau of Primary Health Care administers the $2 billion program for Federally Qualified Health Centers, including community, migrant, Indian and school-based, for the purpose of addressing the health care needs of our nation's underserved populations

Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHC) serve 13 million people in both rural and urban settings at over 4,000 sites.

Of those served over 90% are below 200% poverty and over 60% are racial & ethnic minorities.

Health centers are able to narrow or even eliminate disparities in behavioral health treatment and outcomes by removing common barriers to care and closely coordinating their behavioral health and primary care services.

The FQHCs are beginning to focus on mental and behavioral health (in particular, depression), diabetes and hypertension - conditions in which psychologists play a significant role.

A recent development is the Depression Collaborative that involves clusters of health centers developing a collaborative plan for addressing this health issue along with its role in chronic illness (i.e., cardiovascular, diabetes, asthma, and cancer.)

Health centers are characterized by five essential elements that differentiate them from other providers:

They must be located in or serve a high need community, i.e. "medically underserved areas" or "medically underserved populations";
They must provide comprehensive primary care services as well as supportive services such as translation and transportation services that promote access to health care;
Their services must be available to all residents of their service areas, with fees adjusted upon patients' ability to pay;
They must be governed by a community board with a majority of members health center patients; and,
For more information on this program go to http://bphc.hrsa.gov/chc/