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 to contract and include in their network of providers to ensure reasonable and timely access to a broad range of such providers for low-income individuals in accordance with 45 CFR 156.235.

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.

Since the ECP landscape changes regularly, CMS generates different versions of the ECP List. The Final PY2026 ECP List, the Rolling Draft ECP List, and various other ECP lists ensure that issuers are not unfairly penalized for failing to contract with facilities that have closed or become ineligible after the Final ECP List has published. The two main ECP lists used to assist Qualified Health Plan (QHP) 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.

• As stated in the Description Sheet for the Final PY2026 ECP List, providers included on this final ECP list reflect providers that initiated their inclusion on the ECP list by submitting an ECP application and were approved by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) through the ECP review process.
• The Final ECP List does not change; providers are not added or removed from the Final ECP List after it has been posted on the QHP certification website.
• Last updated on 4/28/2025. This list is released annually, and the cutoff for 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 PY2026 ECP List cutoff (8/14/2024) that are eligible for inclusion on the PY2026 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 Essential Community Provider (ECP) List for the Federally-facilitated Marketplace can be accessed by visiting the Rolling Draft ECP List page.

The Final PY2026 ECP List (Updated 4/28/2025) can be downloaded here: Download the Final PY2026 ECP List (XLSX, 3.67MB).

The cutoff for the Final ECP List occurs each year in mid-August. CMS will accept forms until mid-August for data corrections and additions to be considered for the Final Plan Year ECP List. For example:

• For the Final Plan Year 2027 ECP List: CMS will accept submissions from qualified providers from August 15, 2024 until August 13, 2025.
• For the Final Plan Year 2026 ECP List: CMS considered submissions from qualified providers between August 17, 2023 until 11:59 p.m. ET on August 14, 2024.
• For the Final Plan Year 2025 ECP List: CMS considered submissions from qualified providers between August 18, 2022, through August 16, 2023.

Submissions approved by CMS appear on the Rolling Draft ECP List within a few weeks after a provider’s submission for preview by both providers and issuers prior to inclusion on the upcoming Final Plan Year ECP List.

The ECP submission process remains open year-round so providers can submit and update their provider data at any time. Your form will be reviewed for inclusion on the Rolling Draft ECP List within approximately one month of submission. This means that if your provider form is approved, your facility will appear on the Rolling Draft ECP List within approximately one month, allowing a Qualified Health Plan (QHP) Issuer to receive credit toward satisfying QHP certification requirements by offering a contract to your facility for the upcoming plan year.

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.

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.)

COMING SOON: 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.