Georgia Highlands Medical Services, Inc.

What Georgia Highlands Medical Services, Inc. does

Georgia Highlands Medical Services, Inc. (GHMS), founded in 1979 in Dawson, Georgia, is a private nonprofit Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC) operating eight clinic locations across Bartow, Cherokee, Dawson, Forsyth, and Hall counties. Originally established as George E. Wilson Memorial Health Services by two Catholic nuns and community members operating out of a double-wide trailer, the organization has scaled to a multi-site, multi-specialty primary care platform serving patients regardless of income, insurance status, or language. Core service lines include family practice, pediatrics, geriatrics, women's health, mental health, express/urgent care, family planning, HIV testing and PrEP, chiropractic care, on-site laboratory, radiology and mammography, and case management/support services — supported by an on-site 340B Highlands Pharmacy in Cumming and a school-based health center at Cumming Elementary.

GHMS operates a technology stack anchored by eClinicalWorks for electronic health records and the healow app for patient portal access, telehealth delivery, and appointment scheduling. The organization is NCQA-recognized as a Patient-Centered Medical Home (PCMH) and operates as a Health Center Program Grantee under 42 U.S.C. 254b with Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA) coverage as a deemed U.S. Public Health Service Employee. Approximately 60% of staff are bilingual in English and Spanish, with embedded medical interpreters assigned to each care team.

Revenue is generated through fee-for-service patient care across specialties billed to insurance, Medicare, and Medicaid; 340B pharmacy dispensing; a sliding-fee discount program for uninsured and underinsured patients partially subsidized by federal health center grants; and, more recently, insurance enrollment commissions via Georgia Access. The model is direct-to-consumer: patients access services through owned clinic locations, walk-in express care, scheduled visits, telehealth, or community outreach programs. Leadership comprises a full C-suite (CEO Todd Shifflet, CMO Dr. Swapna Madhavan, CFO Stephen Brown, COO Yolanda Nabors, CHRO Christy Buffington, CIO Cristy McAdams) governing under a community-resident board of directors.

Name

Georgia Highlands Medical Services, Inc.

Legal name

Georgia Highlands Medical Services, Inc.

Website

https://ghms-inc.org

Company type

Private

Founded year

1979

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

51–100 employees

Short description

Georgia Highlands Medical Services is a nonprofit Federally Qualified Health Center operating eight clinic locations across five Georgia counties, delivering comprehensive primary, specialty, and pharmacy care to uninsured, underinsured, and insured patients regardless of income or language, with NCQA PCMH recognition and FTCA malpractice coverage.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Community Health Center Services

NAICS

Ambulatory Health Care Services (621), Offices of Physicians (62111), Other Outpatient Care Centers (62149)

SIC

Services-Offices & Clinics Of Doctors Of Medicine (8011), Services-Health Services (8000)

akta.pro primary industry

Community Health Centers (FQHCs & Look-Alikes) (HLAFAGAB)

akta.pro secondary industries

School-Based Health Centers (HLAFAGAG), Retail & Walk-In Primary Care Clinics (HLAFAGAC), Ambulatory Specialty Clinics (Multi-Specialty & Single-Specialty) (HLAFABAA)

Keywords

• Community health services
• Primary care clinics
• Federally qualified health center
• Family medical practice
• Outpatient pharmacy services

Headquarters

HQ city

Dawson

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices8 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Technology or R&D, Infrastructure, Marketing or Sales, Supply Chain

Revenue model

1. Patient Care Services: Fee-for-service healthcare delivery across multiple specialties including family practice, pediatrics, geriatrics, women's health, mental health, and urgent care. Revenue generated through insurance billing, Medicare/Medicaid, and self-pay patients.
2. 340B Pharmacy Program: On-site pharmacy (Highlands Pharmacy) offering discounted prescriptions, generating revenue through pharmacy operations.
3. Sliding Fee Discount Program: Discounted services based on household income and size for uninsured and underinsured patients. Funded partially through federal health center program grants.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels1 record

Marketing channels4 records

Core offering

Georgia Highlands Medical Services is a federally qualified health center (FQHC) delivering comprehensive primary and specialized medical care across eight clinic locations in Bartow, Cherokee, Dawson, Forsyth and Hall counties in Georgia. Services span family practice, pediatrics, geriatrics, women's health, mental health, urgent care (Express Care), telehealth, pharmacy, laboratory, radiology, HIV testing/PrEP, family planning, interpretation, and case management, with a sliding-fee discount program for uninsured and low-income patients.

Product overview

Georgia Highlands Medical Services is a federally qualified health center (FQHC) operating as a unified healthcare delivery platform offering comprehensive primary and specialized medical services. The organization provides a coordinated care model through 8+ locations in Bartow, Cherokee, Dawson, Forsyth, and Hall counties in Georgia. Core services include Family Practice, Pediatrics, Geriatrics, Women's Health, Mental Health, Telehealth, Express Care, Pharmacy, Laboratory, Radiology, HIV Testing/PrEP, Family Planning, Interpretation, and Support Services. Highlands Pharmacy provides in-house prescription services at the Elm Street location. The Patient-Centered Medical Home model integrates various service lines with electronic health records and shared care coordination across all locations.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Highlands Pharmacy: On-site pharmacy services located at the Elm Street location in Cumming, GA, offering prescription discounts and medication consultations.

Products and services

• Family Practice Services Comprehensive family medicine delivered at all centers, providing primary medical care for patients from infants to elderly with internal access to laboratory, pharmacy, and behavioral health services.
• Pediatrics
• Geriatrics
• Women's Health
• Mental Health Services
• Telehealth
• Express Care Extended Hours
• Highlands Pharmacy
• On-site Laboratory
• Radiology and Mammography
• HIV Testing and PrEP
• Family Planning
• Interpretation Services
• Support Services
• Chiropractic Care
• Georgia Access
• Sliding Fee Discount Program

Segments2 records

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature1 record

Partnerships

Two partnerships are on record, tiered core.

• Medical College of Georgia at Augusta UniversitycoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerEducational partnership where Georgia Highlands Medical Services serves as a training site for medical students. Proud educational partner of the Medical College of Georgia at Augusta University.
• Georgia AccesscoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerDesignated Certified Entity for Georgia Access, the state program helping residents find and enroll in health insurance coverage. GHMS has Certified Application Counselors offering guidance and personalized support.

Scale indicators3 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Broad incumbents

• Grady Health System: Atlanta's largest safety-net hospital system with extensive outpatient and primary care footprint including FQHC-look-alike clinics. As a much larger regional incumbent, it competes for the same underserved patient base but with inpatient capabilities GHMS does not have.
• Piedmont Healthcare: Large Georgia-based nonprofit health system with growing primary care and outpatient presence across the same exurban Atlanta counties GHMS serves — a broader incumbent that could pressure GHMS's commercial and Medicare patient share.

Direct peers

• Open Door Community Health Centers: Northern California FQHC with a dozen-plus clinic sites providing primary care, pediatrics, behavioral health, pharmacy, and sliding-fee access to underserved populations — operates a similar mission-driven, multi-site, integrated-services playbook to GHMS.
• Mercy Care Atlanta: St. Joseph's Health System-affiliated FQHC operating multiple clinic sites across metro Atlanta with primary care, behavioral health, dental, and pharmacy services targeted at homeless and underserved patients — directly comparable in mission, funding model, and integrated services.
• Good Samaritan Health Center: Atlanta-based nonprofit FQHC providing sliding-fee primary care, pediatrics, behavioral health, and on-site pharmacy to uninsured and underinsured populations — operating the same community health center model as GHMS in a nearby Georgia market.
• HealthPoint (Washington): King County, Washington-based FQHC running more than a dozen clinic and pharmacy locations with family medicine, behavioral health, dental, and maternal-child services under an NCQA-recognized PCMH model — directly analogous in offering breadth and integrated services.
• Cherokee Health Systems: Large Tennessee-based FQHC operating more than 20 clinical sites across urban and rural settings with integrated primary care, behavioral health, and pharmacy. A useful scale and operating-model benchmark for where a multi-county FQHC platform like GHMS can grow toward.
• Family Health Centers of Georgia: Federally Qualified Health Center serving central and west Georgia with a comparable community-based primary care model including family practice, pediatrics, behavioral health, and an in-house pharmacy — making it the closest geographic comparable to GHMS's operating footprint.
• East Georgia Healthcare Center: Federally Qualified Health Center serving rural east-central Georgia with primary care, behavioral health, and pharmacy services through multiple sites — comparable as a multi-site Georgia FQHC serving predominantly Medicaid and uninsured populations.
• South Central Primary Care Center: Georgia-based FQHC with multiple county locations delivering family practice, pediatrics, women's health, and sliding-fee access — a direct state-level operating peer for GHMS's community health center model.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Facebookfacebook.com/ghmsinc

Compliance2 records

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles16 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds1 record

Investors1 record

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Georgia Highlands Medical Services, Inc.