HRSA Health Center Program Evaluation

The UCLA Center for Health Policy Research (CHPR) was selected for the past seven years by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) to evaluate the Health Center Program, which provides comprehensive primary and preventive care to the nation’s medically under-resourced communities, regardless of the ability to pay.

HRSA Health Center Program Evaluation

UCLA CHPR evaluates HRSA’s Health Center Program, the nation’s largest primary health care safety-net system

For nearly 60 years, Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA)-funded health centers provide care to low-income and uninsured patients in the United States. Health centers are unique in the comprehensiveness of services they provide and their mission to provide care to everyone regardless of the ability to pay. For the past seven years, the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research’s Health Economics and Evaluation Research (HEER) Program has evaluated health centers on emergent healthcare priorities and assess the impact of specific policy or program shifts on health centers in access, quality, cost of services, and health equity using nationwide data.

Led by HEER Program Director Nadereh Pourat, PhD, the project produces peer-review articles that covers topics such as medical homes, health disparities, quality of care, variations in and access to care. Over 20 articles have been published since 2017.

Health Centers at a Glance

14,000+

sites are operated by nearly 1,400 health centers across the United States

30 million +

low-income and uninsured patients were served by health centers in 2021

22 million

COVID vaccines have been administered by health centers during the COVID-19 pandemic, with 72% of these vaccines having gone to patients of racial and ethnic minority backgrounds.