Enabling Services at Community Health Centers – A Crucial Factor in Building Sustainable Health Care Homes

Enabling services are non-clinical services such as case management and health education that are provided to patients to support health care delivery and facilitate access to care. Enabling services are an essential component of quality comprehensive services provided by community health centers (CHCs). Our previous research demonstrates that enabling services are likely to promote better management of chronic diseases and result in better health outcomes. However, enabling services are often jeopardized by political and financial pressures; likely due to the fact that little is known about these critical services. Using 2000-2008 data from the Health Resources and Services Administration's Uniform Data System, this presentation will provide a systematic review of enabling services provided at CHCs nationwide, including information on patient and clinic characteristics, staffing, and costs associated with providing the services. Further, this presentation will identify factors that might affect provision of enabling services by comparing statistics of CHCs that provide the most enabling services with national average data. The information is useful for CHC leadership and policy makers as they seek ways to guide effective resource allocation and strengthen centers' capacities to improve access and health care quality. It also supports CHCs' advocacy efforts of enabling services reimbursement and funding by showing the amount of resources dedicated to these services. Overall, the presentation supports the statement that enabling services provided at CHCs play an indispensible role in building sustainable health care homes, particularly for medically underserved populations who face multiple financial and cultural barriers in access to health care.