The Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), an agency of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, is the federal agency responsible for funding programs designed to improve the health of the public. Funding community-based health centers to deliver primary care to people regardless of ability to pay is one of HRSA’s premiere strategies.

HRSA initiated funding to establish shared services organizations on the theory that a local association, or consortium, of community health centers would provide the locus for coordination of efforts, greater efficiency in the development and use of resources, and more effective collaboration with other stakeholders in a particular region or healthcare marketplace.

Enabled by this federal funding initiative, the Health Federation of Philadelphia (HFP) was organized in 1982 and incorporated in 1983 to serve as the shared services organization to support local community health centers.