Tester Secures Nearly $1.2 Million for Montana Community Health Centers

Funds will help improve oral health care infrastructure at four Montana centers

(Livingston, Mont.) – Continuing his years-long push to ensure all Montanans have access to affordable health care, U.S. Senator Jon Tester today announced $1,191,355 in Department of Health and Human Services grants for four Montana community health centers. These grants come as funding for community health centers is again set to expire on November 21 if Congress does not act.

“These funds will help ensure our community health centers can continue to meet the needs of Montanans, even when dysfunction in Washington once again threatens their ability to provide care to folks across our state,” said Tester. “These centers are absolutely critical to the health and safety of Montanans, and Congress needs to do its job and reauthorize sustainable community health center funding.”

Montana ranks 43rd in the nation in oral health, and these funds will be used to help health centers to expand their oral health service capacity through new infrastructure enhancements such as modernizing existing facilities, purchasing dental and radiology equipment, increasing oral health integration in to centers’ primary care, and procuring mobile dental units to increase access to care.

The community health centers receiving funding are as follows:

• Bighorn Valley Health Center (Hardin): $300,000
• Community Health Care Center (Great Falls): $300,000
• PureView Health Center (Helena): $300,000
• Partnership Health Center (Missoula): $291,355

Tester has been a steadfast supporter of community health centers and improving Montanans’ access to health care. He was instrumental in crafting a bipartisan budget deal that reauthorized and increased funding for community health centers last year. In March, Tester was recognized for the second year in a row as a national champion for community health centers and an advocate for Montana’s patients and medical professionals by the National Association of Community Health Centers.

Earlier this year, Tester cosponsored the Community Health Investment, Modernization, and Excellence Act to mandate annual increases in community health center funding for the next five years. He was the only member of Montana’s delegation to vote to fund community health centers last year.