About NACHC
Our Mission

The National Association of Community Health Centers (NACHC) was founded in 1971 to promote efficient, high quality, comprehensive health care that is accessible, culturally and linguistically competent, community directed, and patient centered for all.

What We Do
NACHC:

Serves as the leading national advocacy organization in support of community-based health centers and the expansion of health care access for the medically underserved and uninsured.

Conducts research and analysis that informs both the public and private sectors about the work of health centers, their value to the American health care system and the overall health of the nation’s people and communities – both in terms of costs and health care outcomes.

Provides training, leadership development and technical assistance to health center staff and boards to support and strengthen health center operations and governance.

Develops alliances and partnerships with the public and private sectors to build stronger and healthier communities and bring greater resources to and investment in community health centers.

NACHC also works closely with chartered State and Regional Primary Care Associations (PCAs) to fulfill their shared health care mission and support the growth and development of community-based health center programs.

About Health Centers

America’s Health Centers owe their existence to a remarkable turn of events in U.S. history, and to a number of determined community health and civil rights activists who fought more than 50 years ago to improve the lives of Americans living in deep poverty and in desperate need of health care.

Among those determined to change these conditions was H. Jack Geiger, then a young doctor and civil rights activist who, while studying in South Africa, witnessed how a unique community-based health care model had brought about astonishing health improvements for the poorest citizens of that country.

What is a Community Health Center?

Since the nation’s first health centers opened in 1965, expansion of the federally-supported health center system to over 1,400 organizations has created an affordable health care option for more than 28 million people. Health centers help increase access to crucial primary care by reducing barriers such as cost, lack of insurance, distance, and language for their patients. In doing so, health centers provide substantial benefits to the country and its health care system.

Health centers:

Provide highly efficient and cost-effective care, generating $24 billion in savings for the health care system annually.

Increase access to timely primary care, playing a role in reducing costly, avoidable emergency department (ED) visits and hospital stays. The average cost for a health center medical visit was less than one-sixth the average cost of an ED visit in 2012.

Deliver a broad array of primary and preventive care services, including screening, diagnosis and management of chronic illnesses such as diabetes, asthma, heart and lung disease, depression, cancer and HIV/AIDS.

Reduce mortality, health disparities and risk of low birth weight with the care they deliver.

Offer numerous enabling services such as transportation, translation, case management and health education in order to ensure their patients are receiving the care they need.

NACHC’s Community Health Institute (CHI) & EXPO attracts more than 2,200 health center experts and decision makers, from a diverse set of professional disciplines, representing more than 1,400 organizations in 11,000 delivery sites serving more than 28 million patients nationwide.

The CHI EXPO is the largest NACHC exposition featuring more than 150 exhibiting companies. With all exhibitors receiving a complimentary full-conference registration, this conference offers unlimited networking and client-building opportunities.

Source: Event Website