Community health centers — outpatient clinics established explicitly for low-income, uninsured and publicly insured patients, as well as migrant workers and the homeless — are a major component of the United States' health care safety net. These freestanding clinics may can be operated by private nonprofits, local public health departments, public hospitals, or partnerships between local governments and nonprofit organizations.

In 2007, an estimated 1,002 community health centers operated 6,208 different sites. A major goal of these centers is to provide primary care to persons who might otherwise seek care in local emergency rooms, further burdening financially strapped hospitals.

The Health Resources and Services Administration, a department of the Department of Health and Human Services, oversees this large network of clinics. Most of them are Federally Qualified Health Centers, a designation that entitles them to federal grants under section 330 of the Public Health Service Act (PHS). However, a growing number are designated "FQHC Look-Alike" clinics, a designation that entitles them to some, but not all, federal benefits.

Today, the nation's community clinics are challenged by both financial cutbacks due to a recession and uncertainty over health reform.