Sadler Health Center Urges State Support for Community Health Centers

HARRISBURG, Pa. (May 8, 2025) – Sadler Health Center CEO Manal El Harrak joined the Pennsylvania Association of Community Health Centers (PACHC) yesterday to emphasize the urgent need for state funding to support federally qualified health centers (FQHCs) – or community health centers – across the commonwealth.

“Community health centers provide affordable quality care – including medical, behavioral and dental care, vision, pharmaceutical and other critical health-enhancing services,” said El Harrak, who also serves as vice chair of PACHC’s board of directors. “We are the backbone of the primary care system, but the backbone is crumbling.”

Community health centers across Pennsylvania are facing growing financial pressures due to narrowing margins and rising costs. They must absorb the expenses of caring for uninsured patients, navigate inadequate Medicaid reimbursement and provide essential but unreimbursed services that help patients stay healthy and avoid costly emergency or hospital care.

Rising costs for goods, services and workforce needs have made it increasingly difficult to cover the expenses of care and maintain access for patients. At the same time, declining revenue from the 340B Drug Savings Program – a crucial tool for helping FQHCs stretch limited resources – has further strained operations, making sustainable, high-quality care more challenging to provide.
“Pennsylvania’s community health centers are requesting $50 million in state funding in the fiscal year 2025-26 budget to assist us in covering the costs of providing care to uninsured Pennsylvanians and to assist in covering additional unfunded costs, such as community health workers, transportation, care coordination, technology costs and more,” El Harrak said. “Pennsylvania is one of only four states in the country that doesn’t financially support this critical safety net, and we can no longer carry this burden alone.”

El Harrak concluded, “We couldn’t do what we do – and collectively what we do is provide 3.6 million individual patient visits every year – without all the great people who work in Pennsylvania’s FQHCs and the funding necessary to keep our doors open and services available.”

About Pennsylvania Association of Community Health Centers
The Pennsylvania Association of Community Health Centers (PACHC) is a statewide membership services organization representing community health centers – the largest primary care network in Pennsylvania and the nation – and other safety net providers that care for nearly 1 million Pennsylvanians at more than 475 delivery sites in rural and urban communities across the commonwealth. Visit pachc.org to learn more.

About Sadler Health Center
Sadler Health Center provides comprehensive health care services to more than 12,000 patients per year in Cumberland and Perry counties. As a community health center, Sadler is committed to offering affordable health care to all, including those who are uninsured and underinsured. Services at its main centers include medical, dental, vision, behavioral health, addiction recovery, pharmacy, lab testing, nutrition, insurance enrollment and community resource connections. Sadler also recently opened an Express Care walk-in clinic for minor illnesses and injuries at its Mechanicsburg location. To learn more, visit sadlerhealth.org.