How community health centers can unlock immediate and sustainable revenue through value-based care

Community health centers (CHCs) are under intense financial pressure. Even as they continue to deliver high-quality, community-driven care, many are being squeezed by forces outside of their control, including:

Lack of reliable revenue. The past year—marked by government shutdowns, last-minute continuing resolutions and the passage of HR.1—has only highlighted how unstable funding can be.

Delayed compensation. CHCs often wait 18 months or more to be paid for work that has already been completed and has driven success in their contracts.

Lack of capital to invest in technology and population health. Tracking and managing deliverables across disconnected contracts requires analytics, tools and staff time that many health centers simply don’t have in reserve. Making those investments without guaranteed returns can be risky.

At the same time, community health centers are uniquely positioned to thrive under value-based care (VBC). CHCs already deliver care at lower cost—on average 24% less per Medicaid patient than other providers—while maintaining strong quality outcomes. Their holistic approach, which often includes behavioral health, dental services, and connections to community-based supports that address social determinants of health, means they are already doing the work that VBC is designed to reward.

So why isn’t every community health center already benefiting financially from value-based contracts?

"The work health centers do is really everything that the U.S. healthcare system wants every provider to do, but they're not getting paid in the same way."

- Cesar Herrera, Co-founder and CEO, Yuvo Health

The risk barrier

In addition to limited upfront capital, the most financially meaningful VBC arrangements involve downside (or two-sided) risk. In these contracts, providers can earn a share of savings when they meet quality and cost goals, but they must also repay a portion of overspending if costs exceed agreed-upon limits.

For Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs), there’s an even bigger hurdle: regulations prevent them from directly entering into contracts with downside risk.

Moving from barriers to participation

This is why CHCs are partnering with Yuvo Health. 

Yuvo acts as the risk-bearing entity on behalf of its partner health centers. Yuvo provides upfront and quarterly incentive payments, manages payer contracts and relationships—all unified under a single set of metrics, and supplies the tools and the team to shoulder the administrative burden.

As Dr. Miriam Vega, former CEO of Joseph P. Addabbo Family Health Center, puts it:

“Our partnership with Yuvo couldn’t come at a better time to continue to try and maximize reimbursements, because the states are still not being great to community health centers in terms of payments.”

Immediate return on value-based care investments

When a CHC partners with Yuvo Health, new revenue opportunities begin right away. Some are funded directly by Yuvo, while others—such as risk-adjusted premiums—are enabled through the partnership.

CHC revenue opportunities enabled by Yuvo Health

Yuvo Health VBC incentive pool

Health center partners receive reliable monthly payments and quarterly incentives that are transparent and in their control. Each payment reflects their work across quality, care management, access and more—without waiting 18+ months to be paid.

Shared savings

With Yuvo’s population health, technology and performance teams supporting partners’ value-based performance, 100% of any shared savings outperformance is made available to every CHC.

Risk contracting

CHCs benefit from more meaningful contracts over time, with Yuvo Health taking on downside risk. Health centers can move along a glide path from upside-only arrangements to full risk and global capitation.

CHC revenue opportunities enhanced by value-based care 

These additional revenue streams do not replace the following traditional payments. On the contrary, the focus on preventive care, optimizing data analytics for targeted outreach and interventions, and overall quality improvement involved in value-based care—work where health centers already excel—often enhance traditional payments as well. 

PPS payments

Health center partners continue to own their Prospective Payment System (PPS) and Fee-For-Service (FFS) payments. Yuvo Health never takes over these contracts. Incremental visits and gap-closure activities may create PPS upside.

QIP payments

CHCs keep 100% of their Quality Incentive Program (QIP) payments from health plans, with potential upside from quality and gap-closure work.

‍Strength in numbers

Beyond revenue, Yuvo’s model gives community health centers a stronger voice with payers. By joining a larger collective, individual CHCs gain leverage they could not achieve alone.

As Mary Ellen Diver, CEO of Advantage Care Health Centers, explains:

“By joining the Yuvo collective, we’re now in an entity with ten times that many patients, which really increases our clout when we’re at the table with managed care plans.”

A more sustainable path forward

With the right value-based arrangement, community health centers can access more predictable, sustainable revenue for work they’re already doing—allowing them to reinvest, expand services, and care for more people in their communities.

You don’t have to be a large health system to benefit from value-based contracting. Through Yuvo Health, CHCs of any size can access contracts designed around how they already work—so they can keep doing what they do best: serving their communities.

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