President Announces Funds for Community Health Centers, PCMH Pilot Project

During a recent White House press conference attended by AAFP leaders, President Obama announced the release of approximately $600 million in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, or ARRA, funds for community health centers, or CHCs, as well as a patient-centered medical home, or PCMH, demonstration project for CHCs.

AAFP President Lori Heim, M.D., of Vass, N.C., and AAFP President-elect Roland Goertz, M.D., M.B.A., of Waco, Texas, attended the Dec. 9 press conference, where Obama announced $515 million in capital improvement funds for 85 CHCs nationwide and another $88 million in funds to help CHC networks adopt electronic health records and other health information technology systems. The funds were awarded through a competitive grant process.

This was the second time in the past two months that Heim has attended an official event at the White House. In early October, Heim; (then) AAFP President Ted Epperly, M.D., of Boise, Idaho; and former AAFP Board Chair Jim King, M.D., of Selmer, Tenn., met privately with President Obama in the Oval Office before attending a gathering on health care reform with a number of other physicians.

According to Heim, the presence of AAFP leaders at the October and November press events underscores the increasingly important role primary care and family medicine have assumed in the ongoing debate about health care reform, a fact acknowledged by the Obama administration and congressional leaders. She noted that the most recent White House event was heavily attended by Republican and Democratic members of Congress, many of whom recognized the importance of primary care.

In addition, Heim and Goertz had an opportunity to meet with U.S. Surgeon General Regina Benjamin, M.D., M.B.A., who also is a family physician, and Mary Wakefield, Ph.D, R.N., administrator of the Health Resources and Services Administration. According to Heim, she and Goertz talked with the federal officials about ways to increase medical student interest in family medicine and building the primary care workforce.

Goertz also attended the gathering as the executive director of the Heart of Texas Community Health Center Inc. in Waco, which received a grant of nearly $5.3 million as part of the new funding initiative. The Heart of Texas Community Health Center consists of 11 sites and served more than 47,000 patients in 2008. With the new grant money, the center will be able to expand services to an additional 4,000 patients, said Goertz.

Overall, CHCs should be able to provide care to more than 500,000 additional patients in underserved areas nationwide with the newly released funds, according to a White House press release.

"These funds are significant," said Heim. "They will make a difference in these communities."

In an unexpected move, Obama also announced the creation of a PCMH demonstration project for Medicare beneficiaries who frequent CHCs. This is another sign of the growing importance of primary care and family medicine, according to Heim and Goertz.

"Family medicine is being heard and listened to, and we are seeing things happen," said Goertz. "The fact that medical homes are going to occur and the pilots are going to be expanded is essentially evidence that we are getting much more traction in the policy arena and the model of care we believe is effective for the future."