Community health centers are playing an important role in the implementation of Massachusetts' historic health reform law. As the state's 49 community health center organizations with more than 280 total access sites work to enroll residents into the Commonwealth's new low-cost health plans, they are offering the newly-insured something equally critical: a health care home - a place where they can access a team of caregivers who come to know them and their health care needs.
Establishing a health care home is the first step in accessing effective, comprehensive health care. According to an August 2007 study on the importance of health care access by the National Association of Community Health Centers and the Robert Graham Center, people who receive routine medical care are better able to prevent sickness, manage chronic illnesses and avert emergency room visits and hospital stays than are people without a regular source of primary care - a health care home. Click here for a copy of this report, Access Granted: The Primary Care Payoff.
For more information on Massachusetts' community health centers, click on Massachusetts Community Health Centers Facts & Issues Brief.
