Your health center’s scope of project includes your HRSA-approved health center sites, services, providers, service area, and medically underserved populations served.
The Health Center Program Scope of Project Policy Manual (Scope Manual (PDF - 693 KB)) is the primary health center scope of project policy.
Sites
Sites include both “Service Sites” and “Other Sites.” A service site is a location, approved by HRSA, where a health center provides required primary or additional health services on behalf of the health center. Other sites are locations that do not meet the service site criteria, but where health centers carry out activities that support the Health Center Program scope of project. For more information, please refer to the Scope Manual (PDF - 693 KB), Chapter 5: Sites, Section B: Criteria Required for Service Sites and Section E: Requirement for Documenting Other Sites.
Services
All health centers must provide a set of required primary health care services. In addition, a health center may provide additional health services to meet the needs of its patients. For more information, refer to the Scope Manual (PDF - 693 KB), Chapter 3: Required Primary and Additional Health Services, Section B: Criteria Required for In-Scope Services.
Providers
Providers are clinical staff who deliver required primary or additional health services to patients on behalf of the health center. For more information, refer to the Scope Manual (PDF - 693 KB), Chapter 8: Providers, Patients, and Visits, Section A: Providers.
Service area
A service area is where most of a health center’s current patients live. The health center ensures that the service area has specific boundaries that reduce barriers to care and is a size that allows access to services for everyone living in the area, including identified medically underserved populations in that area. For more information, refer to the Scope Manual (PDF - 693 KB), Chapter 2: Medically Underserved Populations, Special Medically Underserved Populations, and Service Area, Section B: Service Area.
Medically underserved population
Health centers must serve a medically underserved population or one or more special medically underserved populations. Medically underserved populations are located in an urban or rural area designated by the Secretary as having a shortage of personal health services or a population group designated by the Secretary as having a shortage of such services. Special medically underserved populations include migratory and seasonal agricultural workers, homeless populations, and residents of public housing. For more information, refer to the Scope Manual (PDF - 693 KB), Chapter 2: Medically Underserved Populations, Special Medically Underserved Populations, and Service Area, Section A: Medically Underserved Populations and Special-Medically Underserved Populations for more information.
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