Essential Community Providers

An Essential Community Provider (ECP) is a health care provider that serves high-risk, special needs, and underserved individuals.

The Minnesota Department of Health designates ECPs pursuant to the requirements in Minnesota Statutes §62Q.19 and Minnesota Rules Part 4688.

Those regulations require that ECPs:

• Provide or coordinate supportive and stabilizing services, such as transportation, child care, linguistic services, and culturally sensitive and competent services to its clients.


• Have processes for identifying a need for supportive and stabilizing services and for enabling clients to access these services; and


• Qualify as one of six statutorily specified types of health care providers.

A health care provider that seeks to qualify as an ECP based on nonprofit, tax-exempt status must also:

• Charge for services on a sliding fee schedule based on income; and


• Provide unrestricted access to its services regardless of a client's financial limitations.

Health plan companies must offer provider contracts to all designated ECPs in their service areas.

• Frequently Asked Questions about Essential Community Providers

• Application to be Designated as an Essential Community Provider (Word)

• Minnesota ECPs List  

• Comprehensive list of Minnesota ECP provider locations (Excel)

• Benefits of ECP Designation (PDF)

• Annual Report form (Word)

• Contracting with Health Plan Companies (PDF)

Federally Designated ECPs

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) designates ECPs according to federal requirements specified in QHP. Under that regulation, ECPs are defined as providers who serve predominantly low-income, medically underserved individuals. They include health care providers defined in section 340B(a)(4) of the Public Health Service (PHS) Act and described in section 1927(c)(1)(D)(i)(IV) of the Social Security Act (SSA).

• CMS designated ECPs


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For more information, email health.mcs@state.mn.us.