The Role of Family Planning Centers As Gateways to Health Coverage and Care

Family planning centers are the main interface with the health care system for many of the clients they serve. Increasingly, centers are leveraging that reality to connect clients not only to insurance coverage but also to needed health care beyond what the centers provide directly. This unique role could serve as a critically important stepping stone toward a sustainable path for the family planning provider network in the emerging health care landscape. The nationwide network of more than 8,000 publicly funded family planning centers provides contraceptive and related services to more than seven million women a year. (1) One in four women who obtain contraceptive services in the United States--including half of poor women accessing contraceptive care--does so at a publicly funded family planning center. These women receive other important, related care as well, including Pap tests, breast exams, and testing and treatment for STIs. One in three women who get tested for HIV does so at a family planning center.