Photo courtesy of ICHS
SEATTLE — In a time when long-term funding is in question for community health centers, which are essential to providing healthcare to high-need communities, International Community Health Services (ICHS) was ranked the top performing federally-qualified community health center in all of Washington state in Medicaid Cost and Quality by the Washington Health Alliance.
The ranking in the Where You Live Matters: Community Checkup 2024 report is based upon quality and cost measures compared across the state’s best performing health care providers.
“ICHS received the lowest in our Medicaid cost utilization,” said Wendy Kim, ICHS Quality and Accreditation Manager. “That meant that we really took care of our patients. They weren’t going to hospitals for their care. They weren’t overspending on costly, unnecessary medical treatments. [Their health needs] were all taken care of here at ICHS.”
ICHS provides health services to over 30,000 patients with care provided in more than 70 languages. 47% of ICHS patients were on Medicaid insurance plans—almost double the rate of Washington state’s share of population covered by Medicaid according to the Kaiser Family Foundation.