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Community Health Centers’ Journey Through the Pandemic

This collection highlights the financial challenges faced by California's Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs) during the COVID-19 pandemic, and how they adapted to keep serving patients. It also highlights policy changes that are needed to stabilize FQHCs so they can continue to play their vital role in providing care to Californians with low incomes.

External Resource

Surviving COVID-19: Charting a Postpandemic Path for California’s Community Health Centers

This webinar, sponsored by the Community Clinic Association of Los Angeles County, the California Health Care Foundation, and the California Primary Care Association, discusses how California’s community health centers can chart a new path after the COVID-19 pandemic.

CHCF senior program officer Carlina Hansen is one of the speakers.
External Resource

California Federally Qualified Health Centers: Financial & Operational Performance Analysis, 2016-2019

This report from Capital Link, a CHCF grantee, provides an aggregate financial and operational profile of California’s Federally Qualified Health Centers, highlighting multi-year statewide trends and median outcomes.
Publication

Holding On: How California’s Health Centers Adapted Operations and Care for Patients During the Pandemic

February 2021
Capital Link, Aurrera Health Group
This paper identifies several key factors that enabled California’s health centers to manage the financial strain exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic while continuing to serve patients at a time when accessing health care involved new and unanticipated challenges.
Publication

The Pandemic’s Financial Impact on California’s Community Health Centers: Largest Centers Suffer Significant Losses

March 2021
Capital Link
Whether measured by revenue size, number of patients, or number of sites, the largest health centers bore the brunt of the financial losses experienced across California's health centers between April and December 2020.
Publication

Risky Business: California Health Centers Weakened by the COVID-19 Pandemic Prepare for the Future

June 2021
Carol Backstrom, Lauren Block, Allison Coleman
Telehealth, Workforce
California's Federally Qualified Health Centers experienced many financial challenges as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. This report summarizes policy options that have the potential to improve FQHC stability, address health equity, and ensure access to a broader range of services in the long term.