Research
National Research
As the nation's largest primary care network, community health centers are at the heart of a large body of research detailing health centers' contribution to improvements in access to health care. Visit the National Association of Community Health Centers to read summaries of a number of health center research studies.
The Uniform Data System (UDS) is an annual reporting system used by all federally-funded health centers to report data on utilization, patient demographics, insurance status, managed care, prenatal care and birth outcomes, diagnoses, and financing. UDS assists with program management, policy development and overall accounting for the programs. It is maintained by the Health Resources and Services Administration's (HRSA) Bureau of Primary Health Care's Office of Data, Evaluation, Analysis and Research. National and state-level data is available through this website.
State & Local Research
TACHC is the primary source for information about Texas Community Health Centers. For a summary of the most recent Texas-specific UDS data, view our fact sheet. You can also view this health center service delivery site map to see the distribution of health center sites throughout Texas. To learn more about each center, the population it serves, and the services it offers, click here.
TACHC also produces policy papers that analyze the impact of both federal and state policies on health centers. To access these papers, click here.
Contributing to the Body of Community Health Center Knowledge
Through a partnership with Brandeis University, TACHC is conducting research on the cost effectiveness and quality of care of Texas community health centers in the Medicaid program relative to other providers, and pinpointing organizational factors associated with health centers that perform especially well on these two dimensions. The research compares community health centers as a usual source of care for Medicaid patients to private physician offices and hospital outpatient departments. A key objective of the study is to understand the organizational systems and structures that promote cost-efficient care and how these conditions can be replicated across the safety-net delivery system. For an overview of this study and its key findings, click here.
