In partnership with the Meharry Medical College and Johns Hopkins University Press, NACHC is excited to provide NACHC members with special, no-cost access to the Journal of Health Care for the Poor and Underserved (JHCPU). This member option allows NACHC members to access the JHCPU journal content without logging in to the JHCPU site. As a reminder, please do not share your member credentials with anyone outside of your organization, as only one sign-on can occur from each NACHC member at a time.
Published quarterly, the Journal of Health Care for the Poor and Underserved is a peer-reviewed journal dedicated to examining contemporary health care issues facing medically underserved communities. The Journal has been in existence for over 20 years and addresses critical topics in health care, including health care access, quality, costs, legislation, regulations, health promotion, and disease prevention in relation to underserved populations in North and Central America, the Caribbean, and sub-Saharan Africa.
The Journal is widely recognized for its strong focus on community health, showcasing strategies, analysis, and innovations, including those developed by Community Health Centers.
Call for Papers for a Special Supplement of JHCPU on Policy Impact and Innovations in Community Health Centers
Deadline for submission: June 15, 2026
The National Association of Community Health Centers (NACHC) and the Journal of Health Care for the Poor and Underserved (JHCPU) issue a Call for Papers on the theme, Policy Impact and Innovations in Community Health Centers.
As our nation’s largest primary care system, community health centers (CHCs) currently care for 52 million people or 1 in 7 Americans, including 1 in 3 in rural America. Over the past 60 years, through bipartisan support, CHCs have built a “policy quilt” of federal, state, and local legislation that supports at least 80% of their funding (e.g., 330 grant funding, Medicare Prospective Payment System or PPS, Medicaid Prospective Payment System or PPS, 340B drug pricing, National Health Service Corps, Federal Tort Claims Act or FTCA, Teaching Health Centers). CHCs cost only $60B or around 1% of US health care spending to serve 14% of the US population with affordable, comprehensive, and effective primary care. Despite having a workforce of over 330K+ in over 17+ locations, they continue to have funding and workforce challenges that will require further policy impact and innovations.
This special supplement, sponsored by the National Association of Community Health Centers (NACHC), focuses on understanding the past and present “policy quilt” of federal, state, and local legislation that supports CHCs. We invite data-driven manuscripts and innovative commentaries on how past, current, and future federal, state, and local policies affect CHCs, including positive and adverse consequences for access, financing, and outcomes.
NACHC’s goal is to promote and publish this supplement concurrently with its Policy and Issues Forum (P&I) in February 2027, which will include a supplement-focused learning session.
Submissions should focus impacts and innovations of federal, state, and local policies on CHCs. Topics of interest include but are not limited to:
- 330 Grant Funding
- Medicaid Prospective Payment System (PPS) and related policies, including expansion, managed care, value-based care, eligibility, and work requirements
- Medicare Prospective Payment System (PPS) and related policies, including value-based care, Medicare Advantage, and alternative payment approaches
- 340B Drug Pricing policies, including impacts on medication access, service expansion, and financial stability
- National Health Service Corps and other workforce policies, including Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA), staffing capacities/gaps, scope of practice, care models, and integration of primary care with oral health, behavioral health, pharmacy services, and community health workers
- Teaching Health Centers and other workforce pipeline policies and initiatives, including allied health workers, community health workers, and other training programs
- Financial effects of federal, state, and local policies, especially on revenue stability, payer mix, and funding shifts
- Access and utilization effects, especially on patient volume, service mix, and system gaps
- Quality and outcomes effects, especially on chronic disease, preventive care, behavioral health, mortality and morbidity, vital conditions, and community health
- Rural access and impacts due to hospital closures, sustainability of mobile services, and availability of primary care training programs
The editors will prioritize empirical, evaluative, and innovative studies and commentaries in predominantly CHC settings, including but not limited to quasi-experimental, implementation, and economic analyses. Manuscripts should report quantitative and qualitative outcomes related to access, utilization, workforce, financial, health, and/or clinical performance where feasible. Descriptive reports must include operational metrics and clear analytic frameworks. Populations of interest are those with limited resources and systemic factors affecting health. Studies should focus on patients who experience barriers to care or have greater health and non-clinical needs.
Original research, health services and policy analyses, implementation studies, and economic evaluations are welcome. See the Journal’s Information for Authors for details on article types. Please note that policy papers may be written as Research Papers, Brief Communications, or Commentaries. This supplement will contribute a rigorous evidence base on how key federal, state, and local policies strengthen CHC capacity and outcomes to inform future federal, state, and local decision-making.
All submissions will undergo double-blind peer review by two or more experts in the field previously unacquainted with the work. Reviewers are not notified that the paper is being considered for a supplemental issue.
The cover letter accompanying a submission for the supplement should identify it as being for the NACHC supplement on Policy Impact and Innovations in Community Health Centers and should clearly state which type of paper (Research Paper, Brief Communication, Literature Review, Commentary, Report from the Field) it is.
For any questions, please reach out to Virginia Brennan, PhD, MA, Editor-in-Chief, JHCPU, [email protected].