News Wise
ALBANY, N.Y. (July 8, 2025) — Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs) are a crucial component of the dental safety net and provide oral health services to those who might not otherwise have access to needed care, including low-income individuals, the uninsured and Medicaid beneficiaries.
A new study from the Oral Health Workforce Research Center at the University at Albany’s Center for Health Workforce Studies examined factors influencing the delivery of oral health services at FQHCs. The findings, recently published in the spring issue of the Journal of Public Health Dentistry, shed light on how workforce capacity, federal funding and Medicaid policy shape access to dental care for underserved populations across the United States.
The researchers analyzed data on FQHC utilization from 2012 to 2021 to evaluate trends in oral health services at over 1,000 FQHCs nationwide. Their results indicate that capacity-building steps such as investing in skilled providers and improving infrastructure indeed enable more people to access essential health services. In short, if you build it, they will come.