2017 Federally Qualified Health Center Client Potential Data Now Available

After the end of every calendar year, Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs) are required to report patient utilization, including zip code of residence and primary payor for services. During the next several months, the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) processes and aggregates health center utilization data, publicly released in early September.

Gary Bess Associates (GBA) announces the availability of 2017 FQHC utilization data by zip code and by payor. This is the most comprehensive geographically-specific utilization dataset we have to assess unmet need for medical services for low-income, Medicaid, and uninsured populations in the U.S. In the next month, GBA further processes the utilization data into street-level estimates of unmet need, which helps our clients identify and target underserved geographical pockets and to deliver affordable primary health care to residents.

For the past four years, our clients have relied on GBA to provide the latest and most reliable neighborhood-specific data on the potential for new patients with FQHC clinic expansions. This version of GBA’s proprietary FQHC health service dataset promises to be the most comprehensive and reliable yet developed.

In its data processing, GBA includes reliable estimates of college student adults (likely served by college health centers), undocumented residents (likely ineligible for Federally-funded care), and FQHC penetration rates to make scientifically-based estimates of the number of underserved residents in a neighborhood that are likely to be attracted to an FQHC environment.

If you have questions or would like to explore the use of this powerful dataset for planning and service expansion, please call Warren Jensen at 530-877-3426 or warren@garybess.com.