Maine Primary Care Association (MPCA) is a membership organization representing the collective voices of Maine’s Community Health Centers (CHCs), which provide high-quality, primary and preventive medical, behavioral health, and dental services for 1 in 6 Mainers. For more than 40 years, MPCA has advocated on behalf of Maine’s healthcare safety net and the hundreds of thousands of patients Maine’s health center network serves each year. MPCA and its health center members are available to provide subject matter expertise and stories of Maine people impacted by the challenging healthcare issues of the day.

The Community Health Center (CHC) model provides a paradigm for how Maine should think about primary care delivery in a post-pandemic world. Health centers have built their care delivery standards around the notion that a true health home finds a way to address patients as the complex and whole human beings that they are. Rooted in its mission, CHCs promote health equity, while identifying ways to increase efficiency, improve quality of care, and seek innovations in care delivery. They are patient-driven, led by local boards, and staffed by professionals dedicated to providing access to high quality health care for all Mainers. Community health centers are also an important factor in rural economic development; they provide local jobs, spur local spending, and support local health care access and availability - all of which are critical to robust communities.

As a result, Maine’s CHCs also work to find cross-sector opportunities to address these issues. This approach informs our 2025-2026 state and federal policy priorities.

Policy & Advocacy Mission Statement

MPCA works to promote state and federal policies that enhance access to affordable, high-quality, and equitable health care for all, as well as policies that strengthen the operational and financial viability of Maine’s FQHCs.

 

System Transformation

MPCA works to advance key statewide initiatives that center the FQHC perspective in primary care and health system innovations and directly engage health centers in program design.

Key Objectives

  • Advocate for increases to primary care and public health investment to support health equity and improved access to healthcare.
  • Maintain leadership role on state level care and payment transformation and re-design efforts and expand involvement on coalitions and committees throughout the state that focus on systems change.

 

Access and Equity

MPCA supports polices that expand access and equity to health care for all Maine people.

 Key Objectives

  • Advocate for, and address emergent threats to, key programs and legislation critical to FQHCs and the services they offer as providers of choice and the healthcare safety net in Maine.
  • Support policy efforts that address social drivers of health (SDoH) and ensure that SDoH are taken into consideration in the development of new policies and legislation.
  • Advocate for the protection of the 340B Drug Pricing Program for covered entities at the state and federal levels.
  • Support efforts to improve access to oral health care, behavioral health care, and telehealth.

 

Workforce

MPCA supports policy efforts to address both current and future workforce challenges for FQHCs at the state and federal levels.

Key Objectives

  • Support research and legislation to benefit all parts of the primary care workforce.
  • Advocate for legislation that supports the primary care workforce through recruitment, retention, and resiliency programs.

 

Partnerships

MCPA works with state and federal-level partners to advance shared policy goals.

 Key Objectives

  • Continue FQHC education initiatives with key stakeholders including legislators, administrators, partner organizations, businesses, etc.
  • Expand MPCA representation on coalitions and committees throughout the state to augment FQHC perspective.
  • Continue to develop and promote the CHC Ambassador Program to grow a network of advocates across Maine.

 


Policy Contacts:
Darcy Shargo, Chief Executive Officer
dshargo@mepca.org

Bryan Wyatt, Chief Public Affairs Officer
bwyatt@mepca.org

Hannah Hudson, Director of Policy
hhudson@mepca.org