Community Health Center receives federal grant

PITTSBURG -- The Community Health Center of Southeast Kansas recently received a financial boost from the United States Department of Health and Human Services.

Last week, the CHC/SEK was awarded a $825,981 grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, funds that center officials will use toward funding a local health care reform plan, including the expansion of existing services and the addition of new personnel at the center.

"It could not have come at a better time," CHC/SEK chief executive officer Krista Postai said. "We were very financially stressed when we heard of this (grant)."

The CHC/SEK grant, along with a $512,910 base adjustment that is being provided to 13 federally qualified health centers across Kansas, make up $81.7 million in funds awarded by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to expand services at health centers across the U.S. CHC/SEK is the only Kansas health facility and one of 54 health centers across the nation to receive a portion of funds allocated last week.

"Community health centers like CHC of Southeast Kansas provide access to health care services for families who do not have health insurance," Kansas Department of Health and Environment Secretary Roderick Bremby said in a statement. "This funding comes at a time when it is most needed. Unfortunately during these tough economic times, health insurance is being lost as workers lose jobs."

Postai said grant funds will be used to help staff at the center see more uninsured patients, expand the center's services, hire more staff, and make some modifications to the facility to accommodate these changes.

"This grant helps reinforce that 'medical hope' concept and brings some nice federal dollars into the community," she said. "It's part of health care reform. It gave us extra funding to help add additional resources."

In the near future, center officials will be looking to hire nine new medical staff members, including a pediatrician, a family physician, and a mental health professional. The center, which has a patient list of about 16,000 people, of which 48 percent are children, grew 47 percent last year. Center staff see about 125 new patients each week, Postai said.

"We provide services based on income," she said. "Our goal is to have 20,000 patients in our system as our part of the deal for the grant and I think we can do that."

The federal grant funds will help staff handle the center's growth, the addition of new staff, facility changes, and an increase in the number of uninsured patients who visit the clinic, Postai added.

"We've gone from 35 percent uninsured to 50 percent over the last six months," she said. "The grant is helping us help those who don't have insurance, and it also increases our capacity ... We want to take the pressure off them (uninsured) and provide good quality care."

All grants are funded through the Health Center Program, which helped mroe than 17 million people in the U.S. last year by providing access to comprehensive primary and preventive health care. In Kansas, nearly 55 percent of all health center patients had no insurance coverage in 2008, compared to about 40 percent for patients of these facilities nationally in a typical year, according to a KDHE statement.

Grants awarded last week include $25.6 million to expand medical capacity at 54 existing health centers across the country, helping an additional 230,000 people in 25 states receive primary health care services. The remaining $56.1 million will supplement all health centers' base grant awards to offset rising costs associated with maintaining current service levels.

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act provides $2 billion for grants to health centers over a two-year period. About $500 million will be used to support new health center sites and service areas, increase services at existing sites, and address spikes in uninsured populations. The additional $1.5 billion will be used to support construction, renovation and equipment, including health information technology systems, in health centers and health center controlled networks, the KDHE statement said.