Community health centers and clinics are an important part of the fabric that makes up the safety net for people with no health insurance. They serve needy populations in underserved and low- income communities.
The clinics, some operated by Intermountain Healthcare, others under a federally funded program and still others created and manned by volunteers, take care of thousands of Utahns, according to Terry Foust, IHC Community Clinics director.
The IHC centers average about 30,000 patient visits a year. And in 2004, the last year for which stats are available, the federally funded centers along the Wasatch Front — three in Salt Lake City, one in Ogden and one in Provo — provided more than 155,000 patient visits combined.
Help getting medical care when you don't have insurance and can't afford to pay is the topic of the Deseret Morning News/Intermountain Healthcare Hotline today from 10 a.m. to noon. Calls will be taken by Terry Foust, IHC Community Clinics director; Gayleen Henderson, Utah Department of Health Children's Health Insurance Program manager; Randa Pickle, UDOH health programs specialist; and John McBride, patient account services director at Utah Valley Regional Medical Center. They can talk about charity care, government programs, health clinics that serve low-income and uninsured patients on a sliding-fee basis and more. All calls are confidential.
When the federally funded centers were set up nationally, they were placed in medically underserved communities, which could mean where there were a lack of health-care providers or where the poverty level of the area put health care out of reach. Salt Lake City's centers are in the central city, in Rose Park and In Kearns. Ogden is home to the Midtown health center and Mountainlands is in Provo.
And though their funding is primarily federal dollars, that alone is not enough. They also rely on local and state funding through grants and other programs for part of their operating costs, Foust said. And they provide care to some people who are insured, which also helps.
Intermountain Healthcare's clinics operate much the same way. There are four in the Salt Lake Valley, including one in the Sorenson Multicultural Center, one each in Lincoln and Rose Park elementary schools and a new one that's an urgent care facility at 54 N. 800 West. The latter clinic has X-ray capabilities; the others don't.
There are other health clinics of various types, which all provide charity care or care on a sliding-fee scale based on income, in many parts of the state: Park City, Cedar City and St. George, for example. In Layton, committed volunteers put together the Davis Volunteer Medical Clinic. In Provo, the Utah County Volunteer Care Clinic operates in partnership with the county health department.
Citizenship status is not an issue at the clinics, where the considerations are income, household size and medical need. They ask to see a pay stub — something that has paid off for a few patients in unexpected ways.
"We've had patients who did not know they were insured, but we can see it on their withholding," Foust said. He's not surprised by the confusion. "Health care is a difficult system to navigate. It has its own lingo and terms, let alone the process itself."
All of the clinics are part of a statewide association of community health centers, so they work together to coordinate activities, marketing and public relations, Foust said.
Salt Lake County residents who need care may benefit from a community action program grant that funds the Health Access Project. The original targets were patients who had no health insurance and were using emergency rooms for any care they needed. The idea is to help those folks find primary care, using a large list of volunteer specialists, and in partnership with pretty much all the local hospitals. Now Ogden has a similar program, also funded by grants.
The community health clinics don't provide hospital care, but the staffers work with hospitals to find charity care or donated services if needed. They'll also try to hook people up with hospitals to find out about options for charity care and charge forgiveness before a procedure's even done, something the hospitals prefer.
One of the biggest challenges for those without health care options is prescription drugs. "It's hard when we diagnose something, write a prescription and send them out the door and they can't fill it," Foust said. All the community clinics mentioned will help the patient apply for discounted or free medicines directly through the pharmaceutical manufacturer.
The health hotline tackles a different subject each month on the second Saturday.
E-mail: lois@desnews.com