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Boston Mountain Rural Health Center is chasing a share of Arkansas’ $209 million in new rural health funding to expand its services, including a new obstetrics program, its chief executive said today.
CEO Debbie Ackerson told the Chamber of Commerce State of Healthcare event that the federally qualified health center wants to use the money to broaden care across rural north-central and northwest Arkansas. She said the state landed the funding for its first year and that health organizations are now applying.
“This funding is meant to transform health care,” Ackerson said.
Arkansas received the money for year one, split across four initiatives with a separate grant application for each, Ackerson said. She said Boston Mountain is applying and that the funding would let it grow. She pointed to plans for an obstetrics program the center does not now offer.
The center was established in 1994 and is one of the federally qualified health centers created starting in the 1960s to fill gaps in rural care, Ackerson said. She said it now reaches 12 counties, as far out as Deer in Newton County. She said the centers are often the only health care option in the communities they serve.
The center accepts all patients, whether they carry private insurance, Medicare, Medicaid or no coverage at all, Ackerson said. She said part of its funding helps uninsured patients and those who meet federal poverty guidelines, who can receive a full range of services for as little as $10 based on income.
“Everyone has a right to affordable, accessible health care,” Ackerson said.
Ackerson said the center’s providers do not know what kind of insurance a patient carries, or whether they have any, and that every patient receives the same care. She said federally qualified centers are paid somewhat more for Medicare and Medicaid patients, which helps cover those who cannot pay. She said that is how the model keeps people from falling through the cracks.
Beyond primary care, the center runs three dental clinics, the closest to Mountain Home in Yellville, and has added medication-assisted treatment for addiction, Ackerson said. She said it folded behavioral health into its primary care clinics to take away some of the stigma of seeking help.
“When you come into our clinics, no one knows who you’re seeing,” Ackerson said.
The center opened its Mountain Home clinic about five years ago, Ackerson said. She called the clinic successful and praised the community.
Nationwide, about 1,400 federally qualified health centers run more than 17,000 sites and serve 32 million people a year, Ackerson said. She said Arkansas centers served more than 320,000 patients last year and that Boston Mountain is one of 12 such centers in the state. The center served 34,000 patients across 150,000 visits in 2025 and ranks among the top 10 percent of federally qualified health centers nationwide, according to her introduction at the event.
Ackerson said the new funding should push providers to work together, and that real change cannot happen without partnerships among hospitals and other health care entities.
