A Plan for Expanding Sustainable Community Health Centers in New York

By

Community Health Care Association of New York State

Funding Area

Primary Care

Date

April 5, 2013

Primary Care

In this NYHealth-funded report, the Community Health Care Association of New York State (CHCANYS) identifies ways New York State’s federally qualified health centers (FQHCs) could provide more than 1 million additional visits and serve hundreds of thousands more patients each year.

Millions of New Yorkers are without ready access to a primary care provider. Many communities throughout New York do not have adequate capacity to meet the current and future health care needs of their residents. In this environment, it is critical that New York State has a rational, data-based plan to help FQHCs build their capacity and expand their reach.

This first-ever plan identifies ways to extract more capacity out of existing centers by increasing productivity and filling vacancies among clinical provider staff. The report also identifies opportunities to increase capacity by expanding the system itself—whether by building new sites for community health centers, deploying mobile medical vans to new areas, or expanding the type of patients served.

Certain regions of New York State are “primary care deserts,” areas with no FQHCs and where demand for primary care far outstrips capacity. The report identifies 16 New York City neighborhoods and 22 counties throughout the State with both the greatest need and the strongest prospects for supporting new health care sites.

Using a rich array of data, the plan enables stakeholders across the State to target investments and policy decisions to achieve greater primary care access for New Yorkers.

On April 22, 2013, NYHealth and CHCANYS co-hosted a briefing to discuss highlights of the analysis and how New York can use the findings to expand the capacity of health centers to serve more patients.

View PowerPoint slides from the briefing.