Tester Helps Secure Over $850,000 for Community Health Centers Across Montana

(U.S. Senate) – Senator Jon Tester announced today that 17 local community health centers will receive $864,468 from the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) Community Health Center (CHC) fund.

“The future of rural health depends on the quality of our community health centers,” Tester said. “These centers are the first and sometimes only source of care many rural families have access to, so supporting these centers is critical to keeping these communities healthy.”

The funding for these grants comes through the Health Resources and Services Administration’s (HRSA) Health Center Cluster grant program, which is one of many programs that distributes ACA funding to community health centers across the country.

The specific allocation of awards is as follows:

• Billings: Riverstone Health – $70,807
• Billings: Montana Migrant Council, Inc. – $46,504 
• Butte: Southwest Montana Community Health Center – $61,067
• Chinook: Sweet Medical Center, Inc. – $42,246
• Cut Bank: Glacier Community Health Center, Inc. – $44,146
• Great Falls: Cascade City-County Health Department – $46,914
• Hamilton: Sapphire Community Health, Inc. – $40,397
• Hardin: Bighorn Valley Health Center – $43,114
• Havre: Bullhook Community Health Center, Inc. – $47,349
• Helena: County of Lewis & Clark – $50,680
• Kalispell: Flathead City – County Health Department – $56,147
• Lewistown: Central Montana Community Health Center, Inc. – $43,500 
• Libby: Northwest Community Health Center – $50,833
• Livingston: Community Health Partners, Inc. – $64,407
• Miles City: Custer County Community Health Center, Inc. – $42,030
• Missoula: Partnership Health Center – $67,509
• Shelby: Marias Healthcare Services, Inc. – $46,818

After holding his inaugural Rural Health Summit back in May, Tester has worked to improve rural health services and support community health centers across the state. In June, he announced over $1 million in funding for community health centers in Billings, Libby and Hardin.

These 17 community health centers also received more than $1 million from the ACA’s Community Health Center Fund earlier this month.

Tester has fought hard to strengthen the ACA, condemning partisan attacks on the program and introducing bills to help ease the program’s financial burden on small businesses. He also voted for the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act (MACRA) of 2015, which reauthorized the HRSA’s Health Center Cluster grant program, originally established by the ACA.