Fresh Healthy Body

An Iowa health care provider is one of 85 community health centers nationwide to receive a significant monetary boost from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, President Barack Obama announced Wednesday.

“… Funding for construction, technology and a medical home demonstration project won’t just save more money, and create more jobs, they’ll give more people the peace of mind of knowing that health care will be there for them and their families when they need it. Ultimately, that’s what health reform is really all about,” Obama said.

Primary Health Care Inc. of Des Moines is slated to receive more than $2.6 million. The nonprofit organization maintains dental and medical clinics in Des Moines as well as a community access pharmacy, HIV services and outreach project. It also operates a medical and dental clinic in Marshalltown.

Although the clinics provide services to patients who have insurance, they specifically cater to those who are uninsured or underinsured. According to their Web site, Primary Health Care Inc. strives “to find and successfully treat medical condition before they become serious enough to require hospitalization or emergency treatment.”

It has also developed several specialized programs.

The Outreach Program specifically targets populations that often fall through the cracks in existing health care.

Health Care for the Homeless is a federally funded program that serves individual, families, street youth and homeless children in a non-traditional clinic setting. A federally-funded program called Enhancement provides mental health and substance abuse care for homeless clients.

The organization has also developed a four-point program for maternal child health that consists of a combination of state and federally-funded programs to provide service to pregnant women, newly expanding families and newborns up to age 6. Their Families in Transition program, which is funded through U.S. Housing and Urban Development, serves both prenatal or parenting families up to a child’s 15th birthday, and allows case workers to link homeless individuals to medical and mental health services as well as affordable and safe living environments.

Clinics that participate in the Outreach Program are located in six different sites throughout Des Moines, placing them within the areas of the community that are experiencing the most need.

To qualify for funding, the health facility had to be a federally-qualified community health center. Grants of $508.5 million were provided through the Facility Investment Program to address pressing health center facility needs. Also, as much as $88 million was made available to help Health Center Controlled Networks improve operational effectiveness and clinical quality in health centers by providing management, financial, technology and clinical support services.

The new Recovery Act funds are the latest in a series of grants awarded to community health centers, which deliver preventive and primary care services nationally at more than 7,500 service delivery sites around the country to patients regardless of their ability to pay.  Across the country health centers serve more than 17 million patients, about 40 percent of whom have no health insurance.