HCC Continues to Perfect Collaboration and Collective Impact
The Health Care Collaborative (HCC) of Rural Missouri is a vertically integrated rural health network, comprised of more than 55 member organizations that serve Lafayette County and surrounding areas. HCC member organizations provide their own distinct products and services, while working together to meet the needs of the community. HCC directly employs 75 people. It advocates for improvements related to medical, dental and behavioral health; overall health and wellness; and health care workforce recruitment.
In 2013, HCC took over management of two rural health clinics and converted them into Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs). The change to FQHC status provides access to different funding streams that better fit the needs of their communities and allows the clinics to be financially sustainable. HCC later opened two additional FQHCs to deliver care in shortage areas. HCC is the only rural health network in the United States with FQHCs. Its Live Well Community Health Centers have four locations in Missouri: Buckner, Carrollton, Concordia and Odessa. HCC’s origins as a grassroots network addressing social factors in health drive a unique perspective, philosophy and culture, as it moved into the clinical care delivery space.
Over the past decade HCC’s community-based programs have grown to include case management, counseling and assessment, health education, transportation, translation services, rural health professional recruitment and health insurance enrollment. The HCC board—with representation from the local public health department, critical access hospital, community mental health center, dental school and nursing school—brings different perspectives to projects while taking the position that the community owns the programs and services.
HCC is addressing social factors and community needs in a patient-centered, community-based, collaborative approach to deliver value. It has committees addressing key areas such as homelessness, food access, transportation and newly released incarcerated individuals. Through a collaborative effort, HCC identifies common issues that impact the communities it serves and works toward addressing these issues with an innovative approach. Learn more at https://hccnetwork.org.
