New and Noteworthy

Learning Collaboratives

Capital Link’s Learning Collaboratives are designed to help increase the capacity of health centers in a peer-to-peer learning format. Conducted through a series of webinars, virtual discussions, and in-person meetings facilitated by Capital Link, our Collaboratives are focused on topics such as planning and financing capital development projects or forming non-traditional partnerships with organizations to address Social Determinants of Health. Learning Collaboratives are offered free of charge with support from the Health Resources and Services Administration.

Current and upcoming Learning Collaboratives include:

Capital Expansion for Health and Housing Partnerships

CSH (Corporation for Supportive Housing) and Capital Link have launched a new learning collaborative for health centers interested in expanding their health services in collaboration with housing facilities. These facility collaborations are aimed at addressing gaps in a community’s housing and health infrastructure and provide opportunities to advance health centers’ engagement in social determinants of health. Learn more here.

Capital Projects: Planning, Financing, Completing

Designed to assist health centers that anticipate the need for a capital project during the next one to five years, this learning collaborative will provide practical direction and tools for planning, financing, and completing a capital project. Through a series of monthly interactive learning sessions conducted between March and August 2018, participating health centers will be provided with guidance to successfully navigate the process of building or renovating facilities. To facilitate these learnings, Capital Link will provide a variety of valuable tools and resources, both publicly available and Capital Link-developed, throughout the collaborative. Interested health centers still have time to apply! Learn more here.

For more information on our Learning Collaboratives, please contact Jonathan Chapman, Director of Community Health Center Advisory Services, at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Advancing Financial Strength

Another way health centers are utilizing learning communities to improve their performance and increase access to care is through Capital Link’s Advancing Financial Strength (AFS) technical assistance program. AFS provides health center staff from all levels of the organization with financial and operational benchmarking assistance, tools, and training with the goal of strengthening health center business operations and financial health.

How Does AFS Work?

At the start of the program, participants are provided with a Performance Evaluation Profile (PEP), a customized diagnostic tool to help them to better understand their own financial and operational performance as well as how they compare to other health centers in the region and state. Participants then attend a series of trainings, described below, which serve as a platform for sharing best practices and building knowledge. In the final phase of AFS, participants may receive customized technical assistance in implementing changes for performance improvement. 

AFS Program Results

In pilot programs conducted in 2016 and 2017, AFS participants accomplished the following:

• Implemented changes and best practices around financial systems, revenue cycle management and billing, alignment with new reimbursement methods, team-based care, and patient and staff satisfaction

• Incorporated billing and financial performance metrics/measures based on benchmarking

• Made strategic changes to optimize performance processes that will strengthen health center finances

• Outsourced revenue cycle management function to focus on core business

• Implemented work flow improvements to improve team dynamics and care coordination

• Transitioned to shared services options to reduce costs and increase efficiencies

• Increased access to care through implementation of improved scheduling models

To learn more about the AFS program, please contact Mark Lurtz, Senior Director of Partnership Development at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or 636-244-3082.