The US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) today announced the release of $338 million to expand services offered at the nation’s community health centers. The money was made available by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act and comes as more Americans join the ranks of the uninsured.
"More Americans are losing their health insurance and turning to health centers for care," said Health Resources and Services Administrator (HRSA) Mary Wakefield, PhD, RN. "These grants will aid centers in their efforts to provide care to an increasing number of patients during the economic downturn."
The grants — titled Increased Demand for Services (IDS) grants — will be distributed to 1,128 federally qualified health center grantees. Health centers will use the funds over the next two years to create or retain approximately 6,400 health center jobs.
Grantees submitted plans explaining how the IDS funds would be used. Strategies to expand services may include, but are not limited to, adding new providers, expanding hours of operations or expanding services. The funds will provide care to an additional 2.1 million patients over the next two years, including approximately 1 million uninsured people.
Health centers deliver preventive and primary care services to patients regardless of their ability to pay; charges for services are set
according to income. Health centers served more than 16 million patients in 2007, about 40% of whom had no health insurance.
The IDS awards are the second set of health center grants provided through the Recovery Act. On March 2, President Obama announced grants worth $155 million to establish 126 new health centers. Those grants will provide access to health center care for 750,000 people in 39 states and two territories.
To see a list of grantees by state, visit the HHS [removed]Web site[/removed].
Source: Health and Human Services
