LORI USCHER-PINES, JESSICA L. SOUSA, COLLEEN M. MCCULLOUGH, SHIRLEY DONG,
KANDICE A. KAPINOS
Telehealth Visits in
Health Centers Serving
Low-Income Patients in
California
Final Results from the Connected Care
Accelerator Initiative (2022–2024)
F
ederally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs) are outpatient health centers that provide pri-
mary care and limited specialty-care services to nearly 30 million low-income patients (Farb,
2023). Prior to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, FQHCs rarely deliv-
ered audio-only or video telehealth visits (Uscher-Pines et al., 2021). However, with both
temporary and permanent policy changes to facilitate telehealth use at the state and federal levels,
telehealth has become an important modality of care (Uscher-Pines et al., 2022; Uscher-Pines et al.,
2021; Uscher-Pines et al., 2023). In 2023, approximately 9 percent of FQHC visits in the United
States and 20 percent of FQHC visits in California occurred via video or audio-only visits delivered
into patients’ homes (Health Resources and Services Administration, undated-b).
Recognizing that the pandemic had rapidly accelerated the adoption of telehealth in safety net
settings, including FQHCs, the California Health Care Foundation (CHCF) first launched the Con-
nected Care Accelerator (CCA) program in July 2020. This program provided funding from 2020 to
2024 for dozens of large, multisite health centers in California. Participating health centers received
funding, tools, and, in some cases, hands-on technical assistance to enhance their virtual care offer-
ings. To facilitate an evaluation of the impact of CHCF’s investment in capacity building, health
centers committed to submitting data on an annual basis. Using a standardized reporting tool, they
reported on the video, audio-only, and in-person visits delivered to patients receiving primary care
and behavioral health services (Uscher-Pines et al., 2022). RAND and other evaluation teams have
published numerous reports on trends in telehealth visits at CCA health centers to inform evolving
telehealth policy in California and nationally (Uscher-Pines et al., 2022; Uscher-Pines et al., 2023;
Research Report
