This week, Aug. 9-15, is National Health Center Week, recognizing that Community Health Centers have provided quality, affordable care for the past five decades, and are increasingly becoming the go-to medical home for growing numbers of working and retired Americans.
As more Americans obtain health-insurance coverage, an emerging issue is the shortage of places to go to receive primary and preventive-care services. Community Health Centers are part of the solution.
What began as a modest demonstration program in the mid-1960s has evolved 50 years later into the largest and most successful primary-care system in the country. Since their inception, Community Health Centers have demonstrated impressive results in reducing infant mortality, improving immunizations rates, developing programs for early screening and treatment of cancer and managing chronic conditions such as obesity and diabetes.
Community Health Centers have evolved an approach to delivering care that is cost-effective and helps reduce health disparities. The care provided in these clinics is comprehensive, holistic and patient-centered and provides access to support for a variety of health-care needs.
Typically, Community Health Centers provide access to varied primary health-care services directly or through a robust referral system and may include oral health, pharmacy, mental-health and substance-abuse treatment, women’s health and much more.
Community Health Centers also go beyond simple health-care delivery to support patients and resolve problems that can affect community health such as nutrition, joblessness and homelessness. Locally, our communities benefit from these comprehensive clinic structures with our own Community Health Centers at La Plata Integrated Healthcare in Durango, and now, Cortez Integrated Healthcare.
Currently, there are more than 1,200 Community Health Centers, with over 8,000 service delivery sites across the country serving nearly 20 million patients.
It is estimated that Community Health Centers save the U.S. health-care system more than $24 billion every year in reduced overall costs from preventable hospitalizations and avoidable emergency room visits – a figure that dwarfs the federal investments made in their operations.
Millions of patients representing all walks of life receive care at Community Health Centers nationally.
The centers accept Medicare, Medicaid, CHP+ and self-pay patients, as well as contract with insurance companies in an effort to be able to provide accessible health care for a broad range of people in the community.
Community Health Centers depend on federal support to provide care to the uninsured and underinsured or those on public insurance such as Medicare or Medicaid.
Our representatives, Congressman Scott Tipton and Sens. Michael Bennet and Cory Gardner, have consistently supported Community Health Center funding to improve access and reduce barriers to care. We are grateful for their support federally and for the support of the many community members who have supported Axis Health System in bringing Community Health Centers to the region.
We would like to take this opportunity to say thank you to all those who support the Community Health Centers and the impact they make in our communities.
Ellen Stein is director of development for Axis Health System, a not-for-profit health-care organization making a meaningful difference in the health of Southwest Colorado residents by integrating all aspects of health care and treating the whole person. Reach her at 335-2257 or estein@axishealthsystem.org.
