(HOWARD, SD) – Horizon Health has achieved gold status as an Advocacy Center of Excellence (ACE) from the National Association of Community Health Centers (NACHC). An ACE is a community health center which has created a culture of advocacy throughout its organization that includes sharing the mission of community health centers with national, state and local policymakers.
The ACE program is coordinated through NACHC. Earning a gold ACE requires a high level of dedication and prioritization of advocacy efforts and gives Horizon membership to an elite group serving as an example to other community health centers, according to the ACE award letter from NACHC. Horizon actively partners with the national health center association and the state primary care association, which in South Dakota is the Community Health Association of the Dakotas, on federal and state policy issues impacting Horizon’s clinics and patients.
“Earning the ACE designation at the highest level demonstrates the effort Horizon puts forth to advocate for our patients and communities with our local, state and federal policymakers,” Horizon CEO Wade Erickson said. “The work our clinical and support staff commit to daily is clearly visible to our patients. This award illustrates the heavy lifting done behind the scenes to make sure health care is accessible to our patients now and into the future.”
ACE health centers work to inspire a commitment from lawmakers to invest in the critical care needed in the largely rural areas and underserved populations in the Horizon footprint. To achieve the gold status, health centers complete tasks totaling 75 points. This includes registering a significant percentage of board and staff members as advocates, hosting state and federal lawmakers at health centers and engaging with them on issues on a regular basis, prompt response to action alerts by a certain percentage of advocates and participation in NACHC’s Advocacy Leadership Program.
Horizon received the silver ACE designation in 2023.
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About Horizon Health
For over 45 years, Horizon Health has been providing personalized, affordable, high-quality medical, dental and behavioral health care through a rural, community-based network in South Dakota. Horizon is a Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC) that serves the medical, dental and behavioral health needs of South Dakotans in rural, medically underserved areas through over 80,000 patient visits annually in 27 community health centers. For more information, please visit www.horizonhealthcare.org.