For over 25 years Maine Primary Care Association has worked to strengthen and sustain Maine’s Primary Care Safety Net. Our Federally Qualified Health Centers and Indian Health Centers provide high quality primary care to underserved areas and underserved populations of the state where healthcare options are limited, and access to barriers would otherwise prevent the delivery of the right care at the right time in the right place.

Maine Primary Care Association offers a number of opportunities through our SEARCH Program (Student/Resident Experiences And Rotations in Community Health) for students and residents to experience medicine in an underserved primary care setting in Maine. Our host sites can be found throughout the state and offer placements for the following primary care disciplines:

MPCA is extremely proud to represent the collective voices of our community health centers as they represent the healthcare options available to all, regardless of insurance coverage or the ability to pay. These health centers with support from MPCA continue to find ways to increase their services and capacity to respond to the growing need of the communities they serve, despite rising costs in the delivery of healthcare.

Maine’s Primary Care Safety Net has increased the availability of services including dental care and mental health, in addition to raising the bar in the delivery of care offered to patients through the adoption of quality improvement initiatives and health information technology.

Our Services

To support our health centers as they continue to make Maine a healthier state, MPCA has coordinated a variety of services and programs which enhance everything from individual patient care to statewide policy efforts. Our efforts include:

• Advocating to support community health centers, residents in medically underserved areas and uninsured or underinsured populations

• Coordinating programs to increase services offered at health centers and access to programs for patients who might otherwise go without due to out-of-pocket expenses

• Managing the installation of Electronic Practice Management and Electronic Medical Record applications in addition to providing technical support

• Guiding and supporting health centers with the adoption of quality improvement initiatives which directly enhance patient care and overall health center performance

• Actively recruiting medical staff to work in health centers

• Leading health centers in developing emergency preparedness (EP) plans, effectively introducing health centers to partners in the EP arena at the local, county, regional and state level

• Providing teaching opportunities to health centers through medical student and resident rotations

Outcomes and Achievements

Through our own initiatives and in collaboration with Maine’s community health centers and national, statewide and community partners, MPCA has successfully:

• Provided access to healthcare to assist 700 uninsured or underinsured residents in obtaining nicotine replacement therapy, nearly 1,000 uninsured women with screenings for breast cancer and nearly 800 for cervical cancer

• Prepared Maine’s community health centers to assist patients with meeting the citizenship and identity verification requirements for Medicaid under the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005

• Assisted dozens of local non-profit organizations in the healthcare field in overcoming demanding workloads by recruiting and placing additional staff on-site through our AmeriCorps program

• Managed over 20 Electronic Practice Management and Electronic Medical Record installations at FQHC sites across the state

• Assisted 18 community health centers in the adoption of the Care Model and related quality improvement initiatives proven to increase health center efficiency and health outcomes while reducing emergency room visits

• Recruited dozens of clinical providers to Maine’s community health centers

• Organized emergency preparedness efforts for FQHCs and tribal health centers to ensure a coordinated response and increased safety in our local communities should a disaster occur

• Organized over 500 pre-clinical and clinical rotation placements in our FQHCs