HHS offering $300M to community health centers

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is providing up to $300 million under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) to help U.S. community health centers expand service hours, hire more medical providers, and add oral health, behavioral health, pharmacy, and vision services.

The funds will allow health centers to expand health services to better serve newly insured patients, according to the HHS. The centers requesting expanded services funds must demonstrate how these funds will be used to expand primary care medical capacity and services to underserved populations in their communities.

"Health centers are key to the Affordable Care Act's goal of expanding access to healthcare," said HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius. "They are critical providers of care and have also been instrumental in linking people to coverage through the Health Insurance Marketplace. Health centers provided enrollment assistance to more than 4.7 million people since last fall."

Nearly 1,300 health centers operate more than 9,000 facilities that provide care for about 21 million patients around the U.S., HHS said. Centers that qualify for the money will get a base sum of $178,000, and an additional $2 per patient and $4 per uninsured patient.