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ExpectMore.govExpectMore.gov home pageEXPECT FEDERAL PROGRAMS TO PERFORM WELL, AND BETTER EVERY YEAR.
Program Assessment

Program

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Health Centers

Health Centers improve the health of underserved communities and vulnerable populations by providing access to comprehensive, culturally competent, quality primary care services. Health Centers provide regular access to care, regardless of patients' ability to pay.

Rating

What This Rating Means

PERFORMING
Effective

This is the highest rating a program can achieve. Programs rated Effective set ambitious goals, achieve results, are well-managed and improve efficiency.
  • Evaluations indicate the program is effective at extending access and delivering high quality health care to underserved populations. Health center uninsured patients are more likely to have a usual source of care than the uninsured nationally. Studies indicate that health center quality of care is comparable to and sometimes better than that delivered to the underserved in other settings.
  • The program has demonstrated progress in meeting long-term and short-term performance goals. From 2002 to 2005, the number of patients served increased by 2.8 million. The program has also shown improvement in quality of care and health outcomes such as low birth weight rates, early entry into prenatal care, and management of chronic conditions such as high blood pressue.
  • Collaboration with programs that share common goals has been improved. Activities range from agreements with other Federal agencies to collaborate on prevention and treatment to ongoing partnerships with State, regional, and national organizations that provide technical assistance to health centers.

Improvement Plan

About Improvement Plans

We are taking the following actions to improve the performance of the program:

  • Implementing program-wide collection of core quality of care and health outcome performance measures, including hypertension and diabetes-related outcomes, from all grantees by 2009.
  • Working with Congress to reauthorize the Health Centers Program.
  • Conducting national survey of Health Center users, in collaboration with the National Center for Health Statistics, in order to expand and update information on program performance and impact.

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