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Overview
The
Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA)
within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services,
is the primary Federal agency for improving access to
health care services for people who are uninsured, isolated
or medically vulnerable. HRSA accomplishes its mission,
in large part, by providing grants to community based,
not-for-profit, health care providers, in every state
and U.S. territory, who commit to provide health care
to uninsured people, people living with HIV/AIDS, and
pregnant women, mothers and children or who train health
professionals and improve systems of care in rural communities.
HRSA distributes approximately 90% of its funding in
grants.
Many
of the grants awarded by HRSA, especially those to direct
service grantees, require as a condition of grant award,
that the grantee seek whatever third party reimbursement
might be available to pay for covered services to covered
populations before utilizing grant funds to pay for
services or populations not otherwise covered by public
or private health insurance e.g. uninsured or underinsured
individuals. Thus, most HRSA grantees rely on multiple
sources of funds to maintain their operations, only
part of which comes from HRSA grants. HRSA provides
third party reimbursement resources to its grantees
to help them improve their third party reimbursement
so they can diversify their revenue sources, secure
their long-term viability, improve access to health
care, and maintain or expand their services to vulnerable
populations.
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