2025 Annual Report
A Port in a Storm: Community Health Centers
“Access to health care” is an often-used term. It can relate to a number of factors—how affordable your care is, if you have health insurance, or if you have transportation to the doctor’s office. Whatever the context, the ability for all people to have high-quality care is central to improving community health outcomes. That’s why the Health Foundation has been committed to strengthening Federally Qualified Health Centers for decades.
Federally Qualified Health Centers, or FQHCs, are community-based providers that offer comprehensive primary and preventive care to anyone, regardless of their ability to pay or health insurance status.
Because of recent federal legislation that will institute new paperwork requirements for Medicaid coverage in 2027, hundreds of thousands of people in our region could lose health insurance over the next few years. As a result, FQHCs will be more important than ever.
More New Yorkers are Turning to FQHCs
From the most rural communities to dense city centers, FQHCs are providing the full continuum of health care services across western and central New York. As of 2025, there are eight FQHCs in western New York with 41 sites, and 50 sites in central New York.
The growth in the last few decades of FQHCs in our region can be attributed in part to a has grown exponentially. In WNY, the number of FQHC patients grew from 25,559 in 2007 to 127,107 in 2021. In CNY, FQHC patient totals grew from 82,000 in 2012 to 91,000 in 2022.
The Health Foundation has also funded several assessments to measure the strength of FQHCs and their ability to meet the community’s health needs. The most recent assessments in western and central New York found several areas where the safety net can be strengthened:
- Workforce challenges
- Technical infrastructure limitations
- Need for increased cross-sector collaboration
- Funding and reimbursement challenges
Solutions to these challenges are complex and take long-term commitment, but investing in the strength of community health centers—especially during a time when health care access is being threatened—is essential for the wellbeing of people across the lifespan.
The Health Foundation’s two population focus areas, older adults and children ages zero to five, rely frequently on FQHCs. In fact, a higher percentage of older adults in our regions rely on them for care compared to the national and state averages. To learn more about how we are funding age-friendly approaches at FQHCs, see this story on The Chautauqua Center’s Caring for Caregivers work.
Maternal health is a core service for many community health centers as well. An initiative funded by the Health Foundation in 2025 is seeking to improve maternal health care access on Buffalo’s East Side.
The Full Continuum of Culturally Informed Maternal Health Care
The care team at FQHC Jericho Road Community Health Center delivers around 450 babies a year in Buffalo. Culturally appropriate, whole-person care is core to their mission.
“As a center that includes a focus on healthy pregnancies and babies, it’s second nature for our team to consider the whole woman, the whole family, when we provide care,” said Allana Krolikowski, MD, CEO of Jericho Road.
That’s why last year, the Jericho Road team engaged with Buffalo Center for Health Equity (BCHE) on a Health Foundation-sponsored project to make sure they were well equipped to deliver culturally appropriate care—an essential part of reducing racial health disparities.
By working together, Jericho Road and BCHE are building on their shared strengths: a commitment to high-quality health care for everyone and strong connections and trust within Buffalo’s Black community. The program is increasing access to prenatal, maternal, and behavioral health care through community ambassadors and targeted outreach.
Dr. Krolikowski shared that a new maternal health ambassador, Shairee Lentini, is already on board and working in the community. Shairee is helping Black moms know their options for strong reproductive and maternal health care. This can include pre-conception, prenatal, labor and delivery, and postpartum care.
Hear from Shairee in a recent video from Jericho Road:
FQHCs in the Era of Medicaid Cuts
FQHCs accept patients regardless of their insurance status and typically offer sliding scale fees based on need, making them a welcoming option for people of all socioeconomic backgrounds.
However, having a significant number of people lose their health insurance will have long-term repercussions not just on individuals, but the organizations who serve them. That coverage loss is expected to begin when new “community engagement” requirements for Medicaid go into effect in 2027—a result of federal legislation passed in 2025.
According to the Community Health Center Association of New York State, Medicaid accounts for over 42 percent of community health center funding in the state. Cuts to Medicaid will harm the ability of safety net providers to provide lifesaving care.
Dr. Krolikowski notes that FQHCs everywhere will be examining where they might have to cut services and staff as a result of reduced Medicaid enrollment in the coming years.
“How much can you truly do that you know is good for the patient, good for the family, good for the community, when all of a sudden you start getting less and less funding in the door?”
