Model State Supported AHEC project

The Area Health Education Centers Program consists of the Basic/Core Area Health Education Centers (BAHEC) Program and the Model State Supported Area Health Education Centers (MAHEC) Program. Each AHEC Program awardee (recipient school) must contract with its AHEC Centers to coordinate training in a specific geographic area. This program concept represents an organized system of educational incentives to be used by academic and community-based health science center leaders. The actual awardee must be a school of medicine, either osteopathic (OD) or allopathic (MD), or an incorporated consortia made up of such schools or the parent institution(s) of such schools. With respect to States in which no Area Health Education Centers AHEC Program exists, i.e., either BAHEC or MAHEC, a school of nursing is eligible to apply. All programs must start at the Basic level, where the planning should reflect the projected growth of the project and include the anticipated number of Centers at the conclusion of this first phase. In the Basic AHEC Program, emphasis is placed on the initial development and implementation of multi-disciplinary, community-based training programs and the establishment of AHEC centers in one or more service areas of a state. The AHEC centers contract with the awardee school to coordinate and facilitate the training of health professions students, primary care residents and providers, and 9_12th grade health careers students. The AHEC Centers in partnership with the awardee and other health profession schools develop community-based training programs at health service delivery sites in rural, underserved, and other areas in the AHEC Center region. An awardee institution may receive up to twelve (12) years of BAHEC Program support to establish a statewide or multi-county participants/trainees, the number of Centers remains stable at the MAHEC level. The MAHEC programs remain responsive to health workforce needs reflected in local, state or Federal priorities. These partnerships collectively focus on results that improve the supply, distribution, diversity, and quality of health care providers. These outcomes should be followed by an increased access to quality health care providers and services by consumers of these services who reside in rural and other medically underserved areas.