An essential community provider is a provider that serves predominantly low-income, medically underserved individuals, including a health care provider defined in

• section 340B(a)(4) of the PHS Act; or
• described in section 1927(c)(1)(D)(i)(IV) of the Act as set forth by section 221 of Pub. L. 111-8; or
• a State-owned family planning service site, or governmental family planning service site, or not-for-profit family planning service site that does not receive Federal funding under special programs, including under Title X of the PHS Act,
• or an Indian health care provider, unless any of the above providers has lost its status under either of these sections, 340(B) of the PHS Act or 1927 of the Act as a result of violating Federal law.

To qualify as an ECP, providers must submit an application for CMS to verify eligibility. Eligible ECPs will be included in the ECP list for Qualified Health Plans (both medical and stand-alone dental plans) to contact providers to offer contracts to be in their network.

Types of providers that are eligible for possible inclusion on the HHS ECP List include the following:

• Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs) and FQHC look-alikes
• Dental clinics providing dental services to low-income consumers in low-income ZIP codes or Health Professional Shortage Areas
• Specific types of Inpatient Hospitals: Critical Access Hospitals, Rural Referral Centers, Disproportionate Share Hospitals, Children’s Hospitals, Sole Community Hospitals, Free-standing Cancer Centers
• Indian health care providers (including inpatient hospital services), which include providers participating in programs operated by
  1. the Indian Health Service;
  2. a Tribe or Tribal organization under the authority of the Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act;
  3. an urban Indian organization under the authority of Title V of the Indian Health Care Improvement Act
• Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program providers
• Family planning providers receiving Federal funding under Title X of the PHS Act and not-for-profit or governmental family planning service sites that do not receive Federal funding under Title X of the PHS Act or other 340B-qualifying funding
• Other providers that serve predominantly low-income, medically underserved individuals, including Black Lung Clinics, Community Mental Health Centers, Hemophilia Treatment Centers, Rural Health Clinics, Sexually Transmitted Disease Clinics, Substance Use Disorder Treatment Centers, and Tuberculosis Clinics

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has compiled and maintains a non-exhaustive lists of available ECPs that serve primarily low-income and medically underserved populations: the Rolling Draft ECP List and the Final Plan Year ECP List.

Providers on the ECP list submit an ECP application and are reviewed and approved by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) before inclusion on the lists. Since the ECP landscape changes regularly, CMS generates different versions of the ECP List. The Final ECP List, the Rolling Draft ECP List, and various other ECP lists ensure that Qualified Health Plan (QHP) issuers are have access to eligible ECPs to offer contracts and recruitment requirements. The two main ECP lists used to assist issuers with identifying providers that serve primarily low-income and medically underserved populations and that qualify for inclusion in an issuer's plan network toward satisfaction of the ECP standard under 45 CFR 156.235 are:

The Final ECP List is a static list of available ECPs that shows a snapshot of the universe of ECPs at a particular time.

• The Final ECP List is used to help calculate the issuer's satisfaction towards the ECP requirement and ensure they are not unfairly penalized for failing to contract with facilities not on the final list.
• The Final ECP List does not change throughout the year; providers are not added or removed from the Final ECP List after it has been posted on the QHP certification website.
• This list is released annually for QHP certification, and the cutoff for inclusion on the Final ECP List occurs each year in mid-August.

The Rolling Draft ECP List is a dynamic list that contains the most recent ECP information.

• This active list is continually changing; providers can submit an application to be added to the Rolling Draft ECP List, update their existing information, or remove their facility from the list throughout the year.
• This list is not used for certification requirements since this would create a moving target for issuers.
• Updated at least monthly to include recently approved provider submissions after the Final ECP List cutoff (mid-August) that are eligible for inclusion on the List of Available ECP Write-ins.
• Posted at https://data.healthcare.gov/rolling-draft-list.

Under 45 Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) 156.235, the Secretary of HHS has established criteria for inclusion of a sufficient number and geographic distribution of ECPs, where available, in a Qualified Health Plan (QHP) issuer’s network to ensure reasonable and timely access to a broad range of such providers for low-income, medically underserved individuals in their service areas. To satisfy this ECP requirement, QHP issuers must submit provider data as part of their QHP application, in which they must list the ECPs with whom they have contracted to provide health care services to low-income, medically underserved individuals in their service areas. HHS updates the Rolling Draft ECP List and Final ECP List to assist these issuers with identifying providers that qualify as ECPs to satisfy the ECP standard under 45 CFR 156.235 . If your facility is on the HHS ECP List, Qualified Health Plan (QHP) Issuers can contract with you to help them meet the ECP requirements to submit a successful application for QHP certification.

The current HHS Rolling Draft ECP List, which is a dynamic list that contains the most recent ECP information, can be accessed by visiting the Rolling Draft ECP List webpage.

Coming soon! The Rolling Draft List webpage will have a searchable ECP map!

• The ECP Rolling Draft Dataset, which has the same ECP updates and data, will have links to the Rolling Draft ECP List page with the ECP map

QHP issuers can download the current list of available ECPs in their state for recruitment and contract offers by navigating to the Marketplace Plan Management System ECP User Interface.

The Final Plan Year ECP List can be found on the ECP page of the QHP Certification Website or can be downloaded here: Final PY2027 ECP list coming soon!

The cutoff for new ECPs to appear on the Final ECP List occurs each year in mid-August. CMS accepts annual renewal forms and data corrections all year round.

Prior year cutoffs the Final Plan Year ECP List for example:

• Final Plan Year 2028 ECP List: will accept new applications between August 14, 2025 until mid-August 2026.
• Final Plan Year 2027 ECP List: accepted new applications August 15, 2024 – August 13, 2025.
• Final Plan Year 2026 ECP List: accepted new applications providers between August 17, 2023 - August 14, 2024.
• Final Plan Year 2025 ECP List: accepted new applications between August 18, 2022 - August 16, 2023.

New and renewing submissions approved by CMS appear on the Rolling Draft ECP List within a few weeks.

The renewal form remains open year-round for updates and changes. With our quick confirmation feature, providers without changes can complete your annual renewal faster than before!

Once reviewed and approved by CMS, your form will appear on the Rolling Draft ECP List within approximately one month of submission.

In accordance with section 1311(c)(1)(C) of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), Qualified Health Plan (QHP) issuers, including Stand-alone Dental Plan (SADP) issuers, are required to include within their networks essential community providers (ECPs), where available. ECPs are providers that serve predominantly low-income, medically underserved individuals. Under this same section of the ACA, the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is charged with establishing criteria for certification of health plans as QHPs. One of these criteria is the inclusion of ECPs in QHP and SADP issuers’ networks. Under 45 CFR 156.235, ECPs are defined as health care 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; entities described in section 1927(c)(1)(D)(IV) of the Social Security Act (SSA), including State-owned family planning service sites, governmental family planning service sites, not-for-profit family planning service sites that do not receive Federal funding under special programs, including under Title X of the PHS Act or other 340B- qualifying funding; or Indian health care providers, unless any of the above providers has lost its status under either of these sections, 340B of the PHS Act or 1927 of the SSA, as a result of violating Federal law.

No. Submitting an ECP application through this site or appearing on the HHS ECP List will not impact any grants or funding your facility may receive. If your facility is on the HHS ECP List, Qualified Health Plan (QHP) Issuers can offer to contract with you to help them meet the ECP requirements to submit a successful application for QHP certification. Appearing on the HHS ECP List will not otherwise affect your facility.

Yes, but you can use our new confirmation feature! No more clicking through multiple sections – confirm your information in one step!

To ensure the ongoing status of your facility on the HHS ECP List, you must agree to visit this site each year for the purpose of:

1. Responding to newly added questions; and
2. Updating or confirming facility information (e.g., contact information, services offered, eligibility status, etc.)

You can click the “Review existing information” button after locating your facility on this ECP website to confirm your facility information if nothing has changed.

Windows Users

Opening Files in Windows/Excel

1. Download the desired CSV file and save it to your computer. Do not open the CSV file.
2. Open Excel to a blank workbook/spreadsheet.
3. Open the import wizard by searching Get Data From Text.
4. Select the downloaded file and select Import.
5. Select Delimited.
6. Set Start Import at row as 1.
7. Set File Origin to 65001: Unicode (UTF-8).
8. Check My data has headers and click Next.
9. Set the Delimiters to Comma and click Next.
10. Select Column data format to General and click Finish.
11. Do not change the default values inside the Import Data window and click OK.

Mac Users

Option 1 – Using Mac/Excel (Office 365)

1. Download the desired CSV file to your computer. Do not open the CSV file.
2. Open Excel to a blank workbook/spreadsheet.
3. Click Data tab.
4. Click Get Data (Power Query).
5. Click Text/CSV button.
6. Click Browse.
7. Select the downloaded file and select Get Data.
8. Click Next.
9. Click Load.

Option 2 - Using Mac/Excel

1. Download the desired CSV file to your computer. Do not open the CSV file.
2. Open Excel to a blank workbook/spreadsheet.
3. Navigate to File > Import > CSV File.
4. Select the downloaded file and select Get Data.
5. Set Data Type to Delimited.
6. Set File Origin to Unicode (UTF-8).
7. Add Comma as Delimiter and select Finish.