Joanne Haefner and LaVonne Ansari: Federally Qualified Health Centers Play Key Role
Another Voice / Medical care
Despite the cries about all that is wrong with health care, especially programs designated to assist the poor and lower-income households, there is broad-based, bipartisan support across all levels of government for the continued growth and expansion of federally qualified health centers, including the Community Health Center of Buffalo and the Neighborhood Health Center, formerly the Northwest Buffalo Community Health Center.
Nationally, federally qualified health centers provide health care to more than 23 million people at 8,000 sites. Our respective health centers are serving more and more people, including those using the new location of the Community Health Center of Buffalo on Benwood Avenue and the expansion of the Neighborhood Health Center into the Joseph S. Mattina Community Health Center on Buffalo’s West Side.
These facilities are re-creating how health care is delivered to low-income communities and, more importantly, they are providing access to care when in the past such access was severely limited or non-existent. The only option was the most expensive one — the hospital emergency room.
Federally qualified health centers bring much-needed resources to our community through grants that support care to the uninsured and the underserved. Without such centers, these federal dollars would not come to our community. We regularly report health and financial quality outcomes data to ensure this funding is used wisely and serves as many people in the community as possible.
Every day in our waiting rooms, we witness the value these centers are providing to our community. When people have a place to go for regular care, they use it and stay healthier.
Given the socioeconomics of the communities we serve, we rely on reimbursements from the Medicare and Medicaid programs. We also are fortunate that some of our patients have health insurance. Regardless, as these programs are always susceptible to federal and state budget cuts, we must be vigilant in controlling expenses. We cannot jeopardize our mission to provide care to underserved, diverse and low-income communities.
The strong partnerships established by our centers with community organizations, hospital systems, federal, state and local governments and educational institutions help us meet the unique and diverse health conditions of the communities we serve.
As a result, federally qualified health centers are a vital link in the health care continuum if we are to achieve our collective goals of a healthier community, a more affordable health system and, most importantly, a better quality of life for all citizens.
Joanne Haefner is executive director of the Neighborhood Health Center. LaVonne Ansari, Ph. D., is executive director of the Community Health Center of Buffalo.