MPCA News

Supporting Montana’s Community Health Centers

In 2007, the State Legislature is being asked to consider providing state money to support Montana’s Community Health Center (CHC) network.  The Montana Primary Care Association, through House Bill 406 sponsored by Representative Edith Clark of Sweetgrass, is proposing a $2 million annual appropriation to support the development of new Community Health Centers and to stimulate the expansion of services in existing centers.  Passage of the bill would place Montana alongside 36 other states that already support their CHCs with state funds.

Many Montana communities would like to establish a Community Health Center, and a number of communities have applied to the Health Resources Services Administration (HRSA) for a CHC start-up grant – some on multiple occasions.  Yet Montana communities have had no success since 2003 in securing a grant for a new CHC.  The primary cause of these disappointments is the competitive scoring system used by HRSA, which provides a competitive advantage to clinics that are already up and running.  House Bill 406, known as the “Montana Community Health Center Support Act” is designed to help Montana communities overcome that barrier.

The bill would establish a pool of state funds to be made available to Montana communities wanting to establish a CHC.  The competitive grants would be awarded using the same set of guidelines found in Section 330 of the Public Health Services Act (which guide HRSA approval of CHCs).  The state grants would allow sliding scale primary care clinics to “incubate” in Montana on state funds, and would allow them to become competitive for federal community health center funds thereafter.

In addition to the benefit of creating new health centers, the bill would also provide new primary care services to approximately 16,000 Montanans.  Most of these new services would be provided at the new health centers developed under HB 406, but the bill also contains funds for expanding services, such as mental health and dental, at existing health centers.

The legislature has not yet acted on the measure.  The bill is currently pending in the House Appropriations Committee.

Montana Primary Care Association 1805 Euclid Avenue Helena, MT 59601 Phone: (406) 442-2750 Fax: (406) 449-2460