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Community Health Care Association of New York State (CHCANYS)

Ensuring New York’s Fair Share: Securing Federal Dollars to Support the Growth of New York’s Community Health Centers

Successful implementation of Federal health reform will require a substantial increase in primary care capacity, both for the influx of newly insured people and to ensure a strong safety net for those who remain uninsured.

Expanding Health Care Coverage

Grantee Name

Community Health Care Association of New York State (CHCANYS)

Funding Area

Expanding Health Care Coverage

Publication Date

December 2012

Grant Amount

$398,562

Grant Date:

August 10, 2010 – February 18, 2011

Print

Successful implementation of Federal health reform will require a substantial increase in primary care capacity, both for the influx of newly insured people and to ensure a strong safety net for those who remain uninsured.

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act made community health centers (CHCs) a cornerstone for increasing primary care access. In New York, the expected number of individuals served by CHCs is expected to double to nearly 3 million by 2015. In August 2010, the Health Resources and Services Administration released a request for proposals to solicit applications for funding to create new CHC New Access Points (NAPs) throughout the country. With support from the New York Health Foundation (NYHealth), the Community Health Care Association of New York State (CHCANYS) provided immediate technical assistance to select CHCs applying for the NAP funding opportunity. Eleven of the centers that received this technical assistance from CHCANYS secured a total of $25.6 million in Federal funding over five years, a 64-fold return on NYHealth’s investment in the CHCANYS grant.

Read an article by NYHealth Senior Vice President David Sandman and Communications Director Maureen Cozine on NYHealth’s successful effort to help community health centers secure Federal funds through the NAP program.

Outcomes and Lessons Learned

  • Identified 15 CHCs in four regions of the State to receive assistance;
  • Hired a national consultant with expertise working with CHCs and the Federal grant process to serve as project director;
  • Created a NAP Resource Center and provided the following three-prong technical assistance, data development and analysis, health care and business plan vetting, and grant-writing support;
  • Contracted with the University of Albany School of Public Health’s Center for Health Workforce Studies to develop individualized data sets that demonstrated need within the proposed service areas;
  • Contracted with Capital Link to complete an economic impact analysis as well as market and workforce assessments for each applicant;
  • Provided intense, individualized review of applicants’ health care plans and contracted with McGladrey, a nationally recognized accounting and financial consulting firm, to review the business plans; and
  • Worked with each health center applicant to determine their grantwriting capacity and connect health centers to qualified, experienced grant writers.
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