The NJPCAs primary goal is to provide for the expansion and provision of quality, cost-effective, and efficient primary healthcare through community health centers while seeking new and expanded revenue sources for these services.
There are 23 FQHCs that operate 135 sites in neighborhoods throughout the state, including school-based and mobile sites in each of the 21 counties of New Jersey. Community Health Centers provide healthcare services to over half a million New Jerseyeans annually.
The New Jersey Primary Care Association (NJPCA) is committed to fostering collaboration among the Health Centers to ensure access to comprehensive healthcare services. The NJPCA will achieve this through:
In 2015, Community Health Centers celebrated 50 years of providing healthcare nationwide. Community Health Centers are uniquely American in that they reflect the personalities of the communities they serve, utilize creative problem-solving techniques, and provide high-quality healthcare for all since 1965. New Jerseys Community Health Centers have proudly served our Garden State communities since 1989.
In the State of New Jersey, Community Health Centers are the major providers of comprehensive primary health care. Community Health Centers are often referred to as federally qualified health centers or FQHCs and are funded and qualified by the federal government, specifically Sections 330/329 of the United States Public Health Service Act.
Community Health Centers were started in 1965 in Massachusetts and Mississippi as a way of providing healthcare to those who did not have access to healthcare or were not able to afford it. The mission of the Community Health Center has always been to be part of the community, providing care within the community as a contributing member while serving as a good neighbor.
In New Jersey, that mission still continues today. There are 23 Community Health Centers and that operate 135 satellite sites in communities across the state provide care in neighborhoods, schools, and homeless shelters throughout New Jersey, including Atlantic, Bergen, Burlington, Camden, Cape May, Cumberland, Essex, Gloucester, Hudson, Mercer, Middlesex, Monmouth, Morris, Ocean, Passaic, Salem, Sussex, Union, and Warren counties. These neighborhood Community Health Centers continue to provide much-needed care to the most impoverished citizens in the state. Although the services of each Community Health Center vary in size and composition, each Center is tailored to the physical, psychosocial, nutritional, and health education needs of their communities, their neighborhoods.
All FQHCs are staffed with qualified Board-certified or Board-eligible physicians representing a broad array of medical specialties and are subject to stringent federal regulations in all operational areas. Most FQHCs are located in high-density, urban areas and in rural areas with a large, diverse base of ethnic and minority residents.
Approximately 1,900,000 patient visits are made annually to New Jerseys FQHCs by over half a million users. Typical services include internal medicine, obstetrics, gynecology, pediatrics, geriatrics, medical and surgical subspecialties, laboratory, podiatry, pharmacy, x-ray, dental, and mental health services.