Peer Learning Collaboratives
Member Benefit
ACH Learning Collaboratives
ACH’s Learning Collaboratives (LC) are an educational approach using fresh ideas, inventive thinking, and actions to enhance learning by working together with other health center leaders and experts in the field. Through these collaboratives, ACH unites various disciplines to address the pressing issues facing health centers today, and as community health challenges shift and develop, so do the topics. LCs are an opportunity for ACH’s health center leaders to directly tackle health care challenges and equip themselves with tangible knowledge to enact real change.
Financial Optimization
Join the Learning Collaborative
ACH is excited to launch the ACH Financial Optimization Learning Collaborative beginning in October 2026 through March 2027. In partnership with UnitedHealthcare, this collaborative will bring together ACH members and industry experts to explore emerging reimbursement opportunities, innovative business models, operational strategies, and partnership approaches that can diversify revenue streams and strengthen long-term sustainability for community health centers.
This LC moves beyond awareness of those challenges and into practical, applied solutions that health centers can operationalize to strengthen financial sustainability from the inside out. Participants will explore operational strategies to improve margin performance, optimize staffing and care delivery models, and identify opportunities for greater efficiency without compromising access or quality.
Participants will engage in discussion-based sessions that encourage peer-to-peer learning, strategic problem-solving, and operational innovation. The collaborative will also feature insights from health center leaders, financial experts, and policy specialists to help members navigate the evolving healthcare financing landscape. As an additional benefit to joining the Learning Collaborative, where appropriate and feasible, participants will have the ability to interface with local plan leadership from UnitedHealthcare.
Apply Now
Apply by July 17, 2026
What to Expect
Practice-Based Learning & Action
While webinars are educational presentations where attendees typically submit questions or comments after the presentation, participants in a LC engage as a group to discuss the concepts presented and engage in peer-to-peer learning by sharing ideas, asking questions, debating, and listening to other perspectives. Participants may also develop or pilot tools and resources that are shared in a learning session to help reach their goals.
Upcoming Financial Optimization Learning Collaborative
This Learning Collaborative is designed for ACH members responsible for shaping organizational financial strategy, growth, and long-term sustainability. Recommended participants include Chief Executive Officers, Chief Financial Officers, Chief Business Officers, Chief Strategy Officers, and senior leaders overseeing finance, operations, and business strategy.
Logistics:
The collaborative will include a mix of virtual and in-person convenings. Specific dates, times, and locations to be announced. Additional details regarding participation expectations, session format, and logistics will be shared with selected participants closer to the program launch. In-person participation for the three scheduled in-person sessions – Sessions 1, 3, and 5 – is highly recommended to maximize participation and collaboration.
Planning Dates:
- Application open – by June 15
- July 17 – applications due
- August 1 – selected candidates notified
Learning Collaborative Dates:
- Session 1 (In-Person): Tuesday, October 6 or Wednesday, October 7, 2026 (TBC), align with ACH Innovation Summit in Dallas, Texas*
- Session 2 (Virtual): Tuesday, November 18, 2026
- Session 3 (In-Person): Tuesday, January 12, 2027*, location TBD**
- Session 4 (Virtual): Tuesday, February 9, 2027
- Session 5 (In-Person): Tuesday, March 9, 2027, align with ACH Annual Member Meeting in Washington, DC*
*Video conferencing will be available for those unable to attend in-person.
**The third session’s gathering location will be determined after the application review period is completed, and information will be shared with all participants.
Session Topics May Include:
- New Lines of Business: Providing tools for CHCs to assess outpatient service expansion opportunities with high margins and/or 340B revenue opportunities, such as infusion centers, physical/occupational therapy services, wellness programs, and other service expansions. Experts will help CHCs consider strategies to diversify revenue, strengthen financial sustainability, and meet evolving community needs.
- Sessions will also explore the advantages and disadvantages of investing in these opportunities independently vs. establishing partnerships, joint operating agreements or M&A.
- Special Populations & Emerging Care Models: Examining care models serving special populations (e.g. PACE, infusion services, home health care). Participants may also explore value-based care and innovative models designed to improve care coordination and financial sustainability.
- Peer Learning & Best Practices: Leveraging ACH member experience and case studies to encourage peer-to-peer learning around successful business models, financial strategies, operational performance, and workforce approaches. Participants will also explore how benchmarking, performance analytics, and operational data can support stronger financial and strategic decision-making, including identifying opportunities to improve coding, billing, reimbursement capture, and risk adjustment performance.
- Federal Funding: Understanding federal funding opportunities, including grants, demonstration programs, alternative payment models, and reimbursement initiatives.
- Business Model Comparison: Exploring successful revenue optimization strategies and business models utilized across hospital systems, specialty providers, and other healthcare organizations to identify opportunities that may be adaptable within the CHC setting.
- We may also discuss strategies to build sustainable revenue streams outside of traditional encounter-based reimbursement (e.g. 340B optimization, enabling services billing, and care management fees tied to value-based arrangements)
- Innovation & Strategic Partnerships: Exploring opportunities for health centers to partner with emerging healthcare and technology organizations to expand access, improve care delivery, and support long-term organizational sustainability. Discussions may include partnership structures, innovation pilots, and strategies for evaluating mission-aligned investment opportunities.
Participant Commitment & Expectations
Participants are expected to attend and actively engage in all virtual and in-person sessions, and submit reporting requirements as needed. They must:
- Attend and commit to all learning sessions;
- Participate in individualized study (individual and small group exercises); and
- respond to workshop and LC evaluations.
Note: Participants are required to pay for their own travel, including but not limited to, airfare, hotel, and meals during the in-person sessions in Dallas, TX, and Washington, DC.
