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Contact: Christine Mulvin
513-458-6621

SBHCs are partnerships between schools and community health organizations to provide healthcare services on-site at the school. At the SBHC, students can receive a variety of healthcare services—physicals, check-ups, examinations, dental care, medication supervision, and behavioral health care—or be referred to other providers in the community for additional care. 

“The Health Foundation funds 15 SBHCs in our 20-county service area,” said Don Hoffman , president and CEO.  “Every indication told us SBHCs were making a difference, but we wanted concrete data to know for sure.”

The Health Foundation developed two studies to look at the impact of SBHCs.  The first study evaluated how SBHCs affect students’ health status, use of healthcare services and attendance. The second study looked at how the healthcare costs for students enrolled in the Medicaid program changed before and after the centers opened.

“The results cemented what we already knew to be true,” said Hoffman.  “SBHCs do impact communities by improving access to healthcare.”

Healthier Students

During the study, 588 students from four schools with SBHCs and four schools without described their health status using the PedsQL, a survey that measures children’s health. The Health Foundation then compared these scores to the scores of “healthy children” and “chronically ill children,” as defined by Dr. James Varni, developer of the PedsQL.

In Year 1, all of the children rated their health lower than those of “healthy children,” and SBHC users rated their health at the same level of “chronically ill children,” regardless of whether they had a chronic illness. By Year 3, however, SBHC users had the highest health status rating of all three groups.

SBHCs Don’t Increase Healthcare Costs

Not only did the study reveal healthier students, SBHCs did so with no significant increase in healthcare costs. 

After the SBHCs opened, students in schools with SBHCs cost the Medicaid system about the same amount of money as the students in schools without SBHCs. However, the students in schools with SBHCs used different types of services. For example, students in schools with SBHCs used more Early Periodic Screening, Diagnosis, and Treatment (EPSDT); dental; and mental health services than students in schools without SBHCs. Although EPSDT and dental services are relatively cheaper, mental health services can be costly. However, these higher mental health costs were offset by a reduction in prescription drug use by students in schools with SBHCs. So while students in schools with SBHCs received more of some types of services, they used less of other types, and they cost the system the same amount as students in schools without SBHCs.

Helping African American Children Get Needed Care

Prior to the SBHCs opening, African-American students in schools with SBHCs had much lower total Medicaid costs. This indicates that they were probably not getting the care they needed. By the end of the cost study, African American and Caucasian students had about the same total Medicaid costs.

Eight SBHCs and the schools using their services participated in the outcomes study. Four were in Kentucky and four were in Ohio . Four were in urban areas, and four were in rural areas. Four schools without SBHCs—two each from Kentucky and Ohio and two each in urban and rural areas—served as a comparison group. There were over 7,500 students who participated in this study. Four of the eight SBHCs and all four schools without SBHCs participated in parent-child surveys. There were 588 parent-child pairs who completed the surveys each year over a three-year period.

To view the entire report or to learn more about School-based Health Centers, please visit www.healthfoundation.org/sbhcstudy.

The Health Foundation of Greater Cincinnati is an independent foundation dedicated to improving community health and access to health care for vulnerable populations. The Foundation awards grants to non-profit and governmental organizations for selected health programs and activities in Cincinnati and 20 surrounding counties in Ohio , Kentucky and Indiana . In 2004, the Health Foundation invested $10.5 million to support local health care programs that address the objectives of the Foundation's four focus areas and general community health.  For more information about The Health Foundation of Greater Cincinnati , please visit http://www.healthfoundation.org.

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