Community-Based Health Centers (CHCs) provide access to case-managed,
family-oriented preventive and primary health care services for people living in medically underserved communities. Utah's CHCs are:

Responsive . . . Each health center is governed by a local board of directors. The majority of board members are center patients who live in the community.

Improving Access and Reducing Health Disparities . . . CHCs provide care for individuals and families who may not have access to other providers, such as rural/frontier residents, the working poor and uninsured, as well as vulnerable and high-risk populations (i.e., pregnant women, migrant and seasonal farm workers, homeless, elderly and persons with HIV/AIDS).

	CHCs served over 88,000 Utah residents in 2006.
	CHCs provide culturally appropriate services, including translation.
	The rate of low birth weight babies delivered by Utah's community health centers is 4.0 percent, compared to the State of Utah rate of 8.1 percent.

Cost-Effective . . . CHCs provide high quality care through a proven cost-effective model. National studies demonstrate that CHC patients:

	Have an average annual cost of care that is over 10 times less than the average per capita spending on personal health care.
	Health center Medicaid patients are 19% less likely to use emergency rooms for primary care treatable conditions.

Accountable . . . CHCs meet high standards of accountability through oversight by local boards of directors and the U.S. Public Health Service.

	91% of CHCs in Utah maintain JCAHO accreditation for ambulatory care facilities.
	Health centers maintain a regular schedule of financial audits and regular Federal reviews.

CHCs' services are provided on an ability-to-pay basis. Medicare and Medicaid, as well as other insurance, are billed for those with coverage. Patients are charged on a sliding-fee scale to ensure that income or insufficient insurance coverage are not barriers to care.