Strengthening the Safety Net

Key Fact

Starting in 2011, the U.S will invest $11 billion, over five years, in the nation’s community health centers to expand access to health care in communities where it's needed most. 

Source: The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, signed into law March 23, 2010

Now, more than ever, we are committed to being an ally to the safety net to ensure that all Californians have access to effective and affordable health care. In the coming years, low-income Californians will have more choice in who provides their primary medical care. We are working with community clinics to make sure they are seen as providers of choice in this new environment.  

We have also broadened our approach to include working with county governments, public hospitals, and other local safety net providers to create coordinated and integrated systems of care at the local level. Through this work, we are helping the safety net offer seamless, well-coordinated care for the most vulnerable Californians.

 

 

 

Coordination and Integration

California’s safety net is challenged because it is not an organized “system” of care.  Providers are often working in silos, with limited ability to share patient information or coordinate with each other about the range of primary care, specialty care, behavioral health, and social services needed to keep people healthy.

 

 

Transformation

We believe a well-rounded approach to advancing the community clinic field is necessary to move our grantees towards long-term success. Community clinics must transform to successfully compete in the new landscape. To do this, the Foundation provides research, core operating grants, leadership development programs and technical assistance. With these field-building approaches, the community clinic field, as a whole, will experience the transformation needed to achieve success.

 

Core Operating Support

Through our Clinic Core Support Initiative, we have provided more than $5 million to the state’s community clinics in 2011.  Over the last six years, we've invested over $50 million in more than 200 community clinics, free clinics, tribal clinics, and clinic consortia.

In an effort to better understand the impact core support funding has had on individual clinics and the safety net as a whole, the Foundation commissioned LFA Group to develop and administer a long-term evaluation plan. In 2007, a baseline assessment was completed and released to the field.  The follow-up evaluation, Clinic Core Support Initiative: Follow-up Evaluation Findings (December 2009) sheds light on the impacts and trends of core operating support over time.

Visit our What We Fund page for information about Blue Shield of California Foundation’s open funding opportunities.