Leading Florida health care association executive, Andrew Behrman, announces his retirement

President and CEO of the Florida Association of Community Health Centers, Andrew Behrman, is stepping down from his position at the end of the year.

Behrman, who joined the association in September 2002, made the announcement at the association’s annual conference in Fort Lauderdale Tuesday.

“Our association is 40-plus years old. We have been around for a while. We have accomplished a lot of great things. But it’s time for somebody else who can take up the mantle and move us forward,” Behrman said. “So after much consideration, and a lot of discussion with my wife, Robin, who wanted me to do this last year, I have decided to step down at the end of the year.”

Community health centers are low-cost medical clinics located in underserved areas that provide care to people regardless of whether they are insured. The centers offer low-cost dental, medical and mental health care, as well as discounted prescription medications. Some locations offer urgent care and substance use disorder treatment.

Behrman said when he first joined the association nearly 20 years ago, it was a fragmented group with what he described as a “Hatfield and McCoy” relationship with its board of directors. The association, which engages in advocacy efforts at the state and federal levels on behalf of community health centers and promotes public policy that expands access to health care services, had 11 paying members.

He was on the job for just three weeks before being notified by the federal government that funding for the primary care association was going to be cut in half. “We hadn’t done anything the previous three years,” he said.

Today, Behrman said, the association represents every community health center in the state except for two.

“Getting the community health centers back together and pulling people together to literally rework and reorganize and define what we are — that has taken a lot of time. A lot of your effort. A lot of our effort, together,” he said.

“My faith teaches us a word. A statement. It’s “tikkun olam,” and basically it means ‘repair the world,'” Behrman added. “Hopefully a little bit of that was what I was able to bring to the health centers to help you do your job.”