The Health Resource and Services Administrations (HRSA) Bureau of Primary Health Care (BPHC) funds health centers that provide primary and preventative health care to diverse underserved populations. These include people who face barriers in accessing services because they have difficulty obtaining transportation to the health enter. Health centers address this issue in various ways, including: providing rides to/from the health center in center-owned vans; providing clients with public transportation vouchers; and/or providing clients with cab fare from a “taxi fund.”

Health centers are required to provide transportation services as part of the center’s “enabling services.” Specifically, the enabling services section of the health center authorizing legislation includes transportation within the definition of “required primary health services.” It is HRSA’s policy that health centers covered under section 330 must provide services that help ensure access to basic health care, including services that enable patients to access health center services, such as transportation.

In CY 2003, nearly 95 percent of health centers reported that they provided transportation services either on site, by paid referral or by referral but not covered. Nearly 57 percent of health centers provide transportation services on site. The size of funding for the health center program is currently around 1.7 billion.

The statutory language pertaining to transportation provisions within this program is found within the following citation(s): 

The statutory language pertaining to transportation provisions within this program is found within the following citation(s): 

42 U.S.C.A. § 254b

www.bphc.hrsa.gov