HHS Secretary Sylvia M. Burwell announced that over $260 million in funding is going to 290 health centers in 45 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico. The funding will be used for facility renovation, expansion, or construction.
Since 2009, health centers have added 6 million patients and serve 23 million people each year. Today, nearly 1,400 health centers operate 9,800 service delivery sites in every state, D.C., Puerto Rico, Virgin Islands, and the Pacific Basin.
The health centers will use the funding to increase their patient capacity and also provide additional comprehensive primary and preventive health services to medically underserved populations.
The awards will allow the health centers to renovate or acquire new clinical space to provide care to over 800,000 new patients nationwide. This investment builds on the $150 million awarded to 160 health centers for construction and/or renovation in 2015.
This funding comes from the Affordable Care Act’s Community Health Center Fund which was extended with bipartisan support in the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act (MACRA) of 2015.
Go to http://bphc.hrsa.gov/programopportunities/fundingopportunities/hiip/2016awards to view the list of awardees.