The Charles B. Wang Community Health Center (CBWCHC), founded in 1971, is a nonprofit organization and Federally Qualified Health Center in New York City. The Health Center provides primary health care to members of the community with a focus on Asian Americans. There are six locations in Lower Manhattan and Flushing, Queens, all of which are opened 7 days a week. In 2023, the Health Center served more than 59,000 patients and 285,000 service visits. The Health Center's staff are fluent in Mandarin, Cantonese, Taishanese, Shanghainese, Hokkien, Vietnamese, and Korean. The Health Center serves all patients regardless of language, immigration history, insurance status, or ability to pay.
History
CBWCHC started in 1971 by a group of volunteers who organized the Chinatown Health Fair in New York City. About 2,500 community members participated in the fair. The volunteers next organized a free clinic in a space donated by the Church of Our Savior on Henry Street and the Chinatown Health Clinic opened that same year. It was renamed the Charles B. Wang Community Health Center in 1999.
As the free clinic grew, donations funded the expansion to a new location at 89 Baxter Street in 1979. With this new location, more patients were being seen and treated. This new location was opened seven days a week with a full staff of doctors and nurses. Now with a stable structure, patients were able to return for check-ups and continual care.
As part of the Lyndon Johnson Administration's War on Poverty, neighborhood health centers were created to provide health and social services in poor and underserved communities. Through the 1970s, Congress authorized funding for community, migrant, and public housing health centers. In 1989, Congress passed the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act which consolidated these funding streams and created the Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHC) program. This allowed qualified health centers to fully cover the cost of treating uninsured patients. With this Public Health Service Act, the Health Center was more capable of providing care to a larger scope of the community.
Services
References
External links
- Official website
