This week — August 9-15 — we’re celebrating National Health Center Week. For the last 50 years, community health centers have delivered comprehensive, high-quality preventive and primary healthcare to patients regardless of their ability to pay. In 1965, the Health Center Program started with just two clinics. Today, there are over 1,300 health centers serving nearly 23 million medically underserved individuals. By overcoming geographic, linguistic, cultural and socioeconomic barriers to care, health centers provide a medical home to one in fourteen people living in the U.S.

More than ever before, hospitals, health systems and community health providers need to understand each other and work together.

Nearly 1,300 FQHCs are delivering care through more than 9,200 clinic locations across the U.S. As primary care providers (PCPs), they are well positioned to work with other local organizations, including hospitals, academic medical centers and public health departments, to identify, address and meet the overall healthcare needs of a community.
	The number of patients treated at FQHCs is skyrocketing, providing further evidence of the rapidly increasing importance of community health centers. Watch this number continue to rise as more Americans become insured and hospitals and community health providers jointly establish patient-centered medical homes.
	FQHCs provide comprehensive preventive and primary care to medically underserved populations. FQHC patients are typically low-income and are disproportionately members of ethnic and racial minority groups. They historically have been uninsured or underinsured, a trend that is changing in many states as a result of the Affordable Care Act. As a group, FQHC patients have a high rate of serious and chronic conditions that can be effectively treated through population health management strategies that include community health centers working in collaboration with hospitals and other providers.
	Hospitals and payers would be wise to begin piloting population health strategies in partnership with community health centers, many of which are becoming accredited as primary care medical homes. FQHCs nationwide are leading the way in reducing costs, in part because as health center utilization increases, avoidable visits to emergency departments decrease.
	More than ever before, FQHCs are looking to diversify revenue streams. In many cases, revenue is shifting toward less dependence on grant funding as some states expand Medicaid services and more patients assume responsibility for their healthcare purchases. FQHC leaders will face new challenges as they take on billing, collections and contract negotiations while continuing to advocate for their patients.
	By providing primary and preventive care to high-risk populations, FQHCs are dramatically reducing the cost of care. Savings to the healthcare system is expected to reach 40 percent by 2019, with federal and state governments being the biggest beneficiaries.