Welsh Mountain Health Center is a Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC), a non-profit community based health organization. An FQHC provides comprehensive primary health, oral, mental health and substance abuse services to persons in all stages of the life cycle.
As an FQHC, Welsh Mountain operates under a Board of Directors comprised of at least 51% of HHC patients and functions under the supervision of the Bureau of Primary Health Care or BPHC.
FQHCs were originally to provide comprehensive health services to the medically underserved to reduce the patient load on hospital emergency rooms. They now bring are the primary health care providers to the underserved, underinsured and uninsured people of the United States including migrant workers, and non-citizen visitors and guests.
FQHCs are typically located in areas where there are not enough physicians to serve the community and/or where existing clinical providers are not accessible to the underserved populations.
FQHCs are not free clinics but do provide their services to all persons regardless of ability to pay. FQHCs charge their services on a community board approved sliding-fee that is based on patients’ family income and size.
