Community health centers are public or non-profit clinic sites located in medically underserved, rural, and urban areas throughout the nation. They receive grants under the Community and Migrant Health Centers Program of the US Department of Health and Human Services to provide primary and preventive care to community residents. Community health centers remove common barriers to care by serving communities that otherwise confront financial, geographic, language/cultural and other barriers, making them different from most private, office-based practices. CHCs are:

• Located in high-need areas identified by the federal and state government as having elevated poverty, higher than average infant mortality, and where fewer providers agree to practice;

• Open to all residents, regardless of insurance status, and provide reduced cost care based on ability to pay;

• Tailor services to fit the special needs and priorities of local communities, and provide services based on the advice of local residents, businesses, churches, and other organizations; and

• Offer services that help patients access health care, such as transportation, translation, case management, health education, and chronic disease management.

Health centers are required by law to provide:

• Basic health services related to family medicine, internal medicine, pediatrics, obstetrics, or gynecology;

• Diagnostic laboratory and radiology services;

• Preventive health services including prenatal and perinatal services, immunizations, pediatric eye, ear, and dental screenings, voluntary family planning services, and preventive dental services;

• Emergency medical services;

• Pharmaceutical services as may be appropriate;

• Referral services;

• Patient case management , including counseling, referral, and follow-up services; and

• Services that enable patients to use the health center, such as outreach, transportation, and translation services.

Federal legislation also requires health centers to have governing boards with a representing the community served with a majority of the board members using the center's services.

Who is a healthcare Financial Manager?

The healthcare financial manager is going to become more critical in determining the strategic direction of health care, especially with respect to assessing the financial impact of strategic decisions relative to managed care

What is Role does healthcare play in a community?

IHC was comprised of 15 hospitals and had total assets of about $100 million. Nine years later, in 1984, we had grown to 25 hospitals and created IHC Health Plans, Inc. Today, IHC has $1.3 billion in revenue and assets. We still have the hospitals, we have health plans, and we have just created a new division that we call the Physician Division. We are bringing physician practices into our health plan and a hospital activity to form what we believe is a truly integrated system.

The future of health services is managed care, the concept that as you improve clinical quality, you lower costs. And as you improve