Federal funding will help improve delivery of primary health care services to communities in need, create new job opportunities
WASHINGTON, DC- Today, Pennsylvania’s Senators Arlen Specter and Bob Casey announced that six community health centers in the Commonwealth will receive significant federal funding through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. The grants, totaling $28,622,938, will assist the non-profit, community-directed health care providers who serve low income and medically underserved communities.
“This funding is great news for Pennsylvania and our communities in high-need areas,” Senator Specter said. “The stimulus funding comes at a key time when more Pennsylvanians than ever are relying on community health centers for their basic health care.”
“There are too many communities in Pennsylvania and across the country that are lacking sufficient medical facilities that serve low-income families,” said Senator Casey. “These recovery funds are a step in the right direction toward providing basic health care services to underserved communities.”
The six centers are located throughout Pennsylvania:
• $6,552,799 for Esperanza Health Center in Philadelphia;
• $3,937,796 for Greater Philadelphia Health Action, Inc. in Philadelphia;
• $11,515,000 for Keystone Rural Health Center in Chambersburg (Franklin County);
• $3,250,000 for Southeast Lancaster Health Services in Lancaster;
• $792,700 for Squirrel Hill Health Center in Pittsburgh;
• $2,574,643 for Cornerstone Care in Greensboro (Greene County).
The funding is part of a larger announcement made today by President Obama of nearly $600 million in Recovery Act awards to support major construction and renovation projects at 85 community health centers nationwide and help networks of health centers adopt Electronic Health Records (EHR) and other Health Information Technology (HIT) systems. The awards are expected to not only create new job opportunities in construction and health care, but also help provide care for more than half a million additional patients in underserved communities.
According to the National Association of Community Health Centers, 20 million people are served each year through the more than 7,500 health center delivery sites in the United States. Community Health Centers are a cost effective public investment by reducing costly emergency, hospital and specialty care visits and are estimated to save the health care system between $9.9 to 17.6 billion each year nationally.
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