Last week, Congress passed the FY 2012 Omnibus Appropriations Act, a bill that will fund the Health Centers Program to not only maintain current federal grant support for ALL existing Health Centers, it will also provide enough additional funding to extend access to care to nearly 1.5 million additional people in need of care. In the simplest of terms, the Health Centers Program will receive a nearly $200 million increase to grow and expand care to those most in need.

This legislation will allow HHS to fund applications from among the more than 900 applications submitted in Dec 2010.  These applications remain active until summer 2012.  HRSA has not announced how many will be funded nor when it will announce the new awards.  It is unlikely that another NAP opportunity will become available until the last quarter 2012, for funding in FY 2013.

To read the full statement from NACHC President and CEO, Tom Van Coverden, visit the NACHC website.