Federal Funding Opportunities

FQHCs have an incredible opportunity to expand their scope of services and serve more uninsured and underserved persons due to President George W. Bush’s New Access Point Initiative. This 5-year initiative announced in August 2001 and calls for $1.2 billion of additional funding under the Section 330 program to double the number of federally funded Health Center access points and the dramatically number of persons served by federally funded health centers. At the end of the 5-year period it is expected that BPHC will allocate funding for 1,200 new or expanded health center sites that will serve 6 million new patients. All new access point applications are awarded grant funding through a nationally competitive application review process administered by BPHC and HRSA.

Of the 1,200 new sites it is expected that 630 will be new access points and 570 will be health center expansions. Of the 630 new access points, 420 will be expansions of existing health centers and 210 will be new start community health centers. So over the 5 year program, approximately 80% of all new funding is expected to go to existing FQHCs. The New Access Point grants provide for a maximum award of $650,000, and the Expansion grants carry a maximum award of $550,000.