These are common questions and answers related to the service area patient target.
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Overview
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How do you use the patient target?
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We are committed to ensuring continuity of primary health care services for patients who are currently being served within each service area. By publishing the patient target, we support fair competition and ensure that applicants are aware of the number of patients expected to be served in the service area. We monitor awardees’ progress towards patient target achievement annually through the Budget Period Progress Report.
(Updated: July 2025)
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What is the difference between the patient target and my patient projection?
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The patient target is the number of patients that we expect to be served in the service area. We provide this number on the SAC Service Area Announcement Table when a service area is announced for competition.
The patient projection is the number of unduplicated Health Center Program patients an applicant commits to serving. You include this projection on Form 1A: General Information Worksheet (Service Area Competition (SAC) or New Access Point (NAP) applications) or the Patient Impact Form (supplemental funding applications). To be eligible for SAC, you must project to serve at least 75 percent of the advertised patient target.
Once awarded, your patient projection becomes the patient target for your service area during your period of performance.
(Updated: July 2025)
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How do you calculate the patient target?
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For the fiscal year (FY) 2026 SAC, the patient target is the total number of patients reported in the 2024 Uniform Data System (UDS) by the currently funded health center for the service area.
For Health Center Program awardees that are scheduled to submit a FY 2026 Budget Period Progress Report (BPR), the patient projection that you included in your FY 2024 or FY 2025 SAC application will be auto-populated as the patient target in your BPR.
(Updated: July 2025)
Adjustments
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What if my patient projection is less than the patient target for my service area?
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You must propose to serve a minimum of 75 percent of the patient target to be eligible to apply for the service area. If your SAC application patient projection is lower than 95 percent of the patient target, you should reduce the federal request for funding according to the table below. If your application does not include the appropriate funding reduction, we will make it prior to your award.
Patient Projection Compared to Patient Target (%) Maximum Funding Request 95-100% of Patient Target No funding reduction 90-94.9% of Patient Target 1.2% funding reduction 85-89.9% of Patient Target 2.5% funding reduction 80-84.9% of Patient Target 3.7% funding reduction 75-79.9% of Patient Target 5% funding reduction Less than 75% of Patient Target Ineligible application (Added: June 2024)
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Can I adjust my patient target during my Period of Performance?
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No. The patient projection that you include in your SAC application will be your patient target throughout your period of performance. Use your BPR narrative to discuss challenges in meeting your patient target. You will have the opportunity to adjust your patient target when your Period of Performance ends and you complete a new SAC application.
(Added: July 2025)
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I am an existing health center and have submitted a change in scope (CIS) request to add a new site. Will the new patient projections for this site be added to the patient target?
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No. If you apply to SAC during FY 2026, the patient target will only include the total number of unduplicated patients that were reported in the 2024 UDS data for the service area.
(Updated: July 2025)
Achievement
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What is the period for assessing patient target achievement?
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If you receive a four-year period of performance in FY26, the assessment period is calendar year 2028.
(Updated: July 2025)
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How do you measure patient target achievement?
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We use the UDS report (unduplicated number of patients served) to measure progress and patient target achievement.
(Added: June 2024)
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What if my health center does not achieve the patient target by the required date?
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We monitor progress towards patient targets each year when UDS data is submitted. If a health center shows a downward three-year patient trend for two consecutive SAC periods of performance, we may compete the area in the next SAC competition with a different funding allocation or patient target.
(Updated: July 2025)