Iowa PCA Blog

There is rare political agreement that our healthcare system should reward high quality patient outcomes rather than paying solely for the number of patient appointments a provider schedules. This is often referred to as the shift from volume to value. Community health centers (CHCs) are already known for providing high quality care at lower costs than other providers. Like last year, Iowa’s CHCs have been awarded multiple Quality Improvement Awards (QIA) by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA). Federally mandated and compelled by their mission to treat anyone, regardless of insurance status or ability pay, Iowa’s CHCs treated more than 226,000 patients in 2019 at 86 delivery sites across the state. As they have had to contend with the COVID-19 pandemic, these awards are a testament to the value CHCs provide in Iowa and across the country.