Alan Nicholas

Virginia Health Care Foundation

Founded in 1992, the Virginia Health Care Foundation is a non-profit, public-private partnership. Its mission is to increase access to primary health care for uninsured and medically underserved Virginians. VHCF's vision is for all Virginians to have the medical, behavioral health, and dental care they need - preferably via health insurance - otherwise, through a well-financed, professionally run healthcare safety net (HSN; free clinics and community health centers) and via a sufficient and well-distributed health workforce. To that end, VHCF takes a multi-faceted approach, working on the following five fronts: 1) Maximize the number of Virginians with state/federal sponsored health insurance coverage; 2) Create or expand HSN practices to provide free or low-cost care for uninsured and medically underserved Virginians; 3) Increase the number and improve the distribution of needed health professionals throughout the state; 4) Introduce and promote innovative service delivery models and best practices within the HSN (BH integration, Population Health, tele-mental health, are recent examples); and 5) Engage in health policy/systems development (e.g., adding adult dental benefit to Medicaid).