Five health clinics that provide care to low-income, uninsured people will share a $2.3 million gift from Intermountain Health Care.
The donation to the clinics comes at a time when demand is climbing, with no end in sight. Last year, the number of people seeking charitable care at the clinics climbed 9 percent along the Wasatch Front.
"The trend has been upward and it jumped," said Wes Thompson, who heads charitable services for Intermountain Health Care, which announced the donation Tuesday morning.
IHC either owns or helps support 14 clinics statewide to provide care to the uninsured. Clinics operate in Logan, Ogden, Layton, Salt Lake City, Rose Park, Taylorsville, Provo, Cedar City, St. George and Summit/Wasatch Counties. Last year, the clinics saw 191,000 patient visits.
Part of the problem is an increase in the number of employers who do not provide insurance, said Eligio White, executive director of Community Health Centers. As they find it more difficult to pay premiums, they are shifting the burden to employees, who "can't afford it."
The centers also provide care to undocumented workers, many of whom work two jobs but cannot access programs or insurance, White said.
Thompson said the community health centers provide excellent quality care and help cut down on emergency room visits for routine medical problems. But because of the increase in demand, the community health centers are also "getting tugs and pulls."
The collaboration between the community health centers, IHC and others is "a terrific partnership that goes beyond cash. This is a community problem and we can't look for solutions from the health-care providers only," Thompson said.
In 2003, IHC hospitals and clinics treated 144,297 individual patients on a charitable basis, compared to 132,459 the year before. The value of care exceeded $53 million in 2003, compared to $41 million in 2002. Since 1996, charitable care has grown a whopping 331 percent, according to IHC statistics.
At the Fourth Street Homeless Health Clinic, which serves Salt Lake's homeless population, physicians and others treated more than 6,500 homeless individuals last year, said Allan Ainsworth, executive director. In all, that meant 23,000 separate office visits.
The need has been growing steadily in the last three years, Ainsworth said.
The $2,321,956 will include $1.27 million for the Salt Lake Community Health Centers in downtown Salt Lake and in Taylorsville, $500,000 to the Midtown Community Health Center in Ogden, $471,322 to Mountainlands Community Health Center in Provo and $71,250 to the Fourth Street Homeless Health Clinic.
E-mail: lois@desnews.com