As part of the Federal Health Resources and Services Administration’s (HRSA) Service Area Competition (SAC), the agency is reaching out to Health Center Program award recipients to review service area patient targets. This request may be confusing for some; the process simply helps HRSA confirm that the patient targets they have on record match those of each health center. This pre-SAC verification identifies inconsistencies that may affect grantee’s next SAC award. It is therefore important that health centers verify and update, if necessary, their patient targets numbers as soon as they can. The deadline to review targets is April 19.
Gary Bess Associates can help verify whether a health center’s patient targets match those recorded with HRSA. Should health centers identify an inconsistency, GBA is available to assist in guiding health centers to modify their patient projections with HRSA before the deadline. HRSA has stated that it may tie “future funding for a service area to that progress,” which suggests that making accurate reports is important for maximizing future funding.