Community health centers' large profits: Is there a federal oversight?

DARLINGTON, S.C. — Just off the deserted town square, with its many boarded-up businesses, people lined up at the walk-up pharmacy window at Genesis Health Care, a federally funded clinic.

Drug sales provide the bulk of the revenue for Genesis, a nonprofit community health center treating about 11,000 mostly low-income patients in seven clinics across South Carolina.

Those sales helped Genesis record a $19 million surplus on $52 million in revenue — a margin of 37% — in 2021, according to its audited financial statement. It was the fourth consecutive year the center’s surpluses had topped 35%, the records showed. The industry average is 5%, according to a federally funded report on health centers’ financial performance.