Lenders coalition launches to help CHCs

A new advocacy group launched in October may aid community health centers in obtaining affordable financing options for capital projects.

The Lenders Coalition for Community Health Centers (LCCHC) was founded by 17 community development financial institutions (CDFIs), including Capital Link, Primary Care Development Corporation and Opportunity Finance Network. Advisory members include the Kresge Foundation and the National Association of Community Health Centers (NACHC).

[See also: Community health centers receive $728M in federal grant money]

The LCCHC will advocate for policies that support and strengthen community health centers and the ability of CDFIs to help finance community health centers’ growth.

“There’s been a developing relationship between the two sectors – health centers and CDFIs – over the last number of years, but CDFIs, maybe in the last year, have realized (the need to) come together as a group to see what we can do as a coalition because we can all identify where there are gaps or challenges that health centers face in accessing capital,” said Allison Coleman, chair of the LCCHC steering committee and CEO of Capital Link.

And the need for funding for capital projects is great, said Dan Hawkins. Capital Link did an assessment of capital needs of community health centers and determined that at least $13 billion is needed in order to facilitate the anticipated post-Affordable Care Act growth from serving 22 million patients currently to 40 million.

“… the health centers are not used to dealing with … big finance and that’s where Allison and Capital Link and the Lenders Coalition are a crucial bridge,” Hawkins said, because it’s big finance that community health centers will need to turn to since federal grant funding for capital projects is not expected in the near future.

[See also: Community health centers hurt in states rejecting Medicaid expansion]

While LCCHC is advocating on the federal level, it’ll also be doing outreach to educate community health centers about what CDFIs can offer, said Dan Lowenstein, senior director of public affairs for the Primary Care Development Corporation. 

“Let’s just say there’s a risk averse position that a lot of health centers take to growth,” he said. “If there’s money through grants to grow, they will take it and they will expand. That’s not always available any more. A lot of this is educating health centers to seek opportunities using a responsible level of leverage and see the possibilities in terms of patient growth that will help them expand their business and to help them meet their mission.”