Two R.I. clinics share stimulus aid

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama and the state’s congressional delegates today announced that two nonprofit community health centers in Rhode Island will share more than $2.39 million in federal stimulus aid.
“We have acted quickly to put Recovery Act dollars to good use in communities across America,” the president said in a joint statement this afternoon with U.S. Sens. Jack Reed and Sheldon Whitehouse and U.S. Reps. Patrick J. Kennedy and James R. Langevin.
The money is part of $155 million in grants for 126 community health centers nationwide included in the American American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) that the president announced today as he introduced Kathleen Sebelius, 60, now the governor of Kansas, as his nominee to head the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). “I don’t think anybody has a silver bullet when it comes to health care,” Obama told the White House news conference, according to Bloomberg News. “But what I do know is this: that people of good will collectively recognize that the path that we’re on is unsustainable.”
The Rhode Island grants, and their amounts, are:
• Nearly $1.31 million for the Tri-Town Economic Opportunity Committee in Johnston, most of whose clients come from Burrillville, Foster, Glocester, Johnston, North Providence, North Smithfield, Smithfield or Scituate.
• More than $1.09 million for Northwest Community Nursing & Health Services. Based in the Pascoag section of Burrillville – with satellite locations in North Kingstown, at the former Bayside Family Healthcare, which merged with Northwest in July; and in Foster, where it opened a new clinic in October. (READ MORE)
“I am thrilled to recognize the tremendous work of Northwest Community Health Care, Rhode Island’s oldest community health center,” Kennedy said in a statement today. “The demand for services at community public health centers continues to rise, so this federal assistance comes at a critical time,” he said. Many local families “are dealing with a harsh economic climate; the loss of a job typically means the loss of health insurance since it becomes an expense families cannot afford. … This grant will ensure that vital public health services remain available to those who are in need,” Kennedy said.
The local grants will help the centers to create 55 local jobs, while helping Tri-Town and Northwest to provide comprehensive primary and preventive health care to people in need, including those who have no insurance coverage, the federal officials said.
“The construction and expansion of health centers will help create thousands of new jobs and provide critical assistance to Americans who have lost their job and their health care,” President Obama added. “Health centers, primary care and prevention are at the heart of my plan for an affordable, accessible health care system.”
The ARRA funds awarded to health centers in Rhode Island and nationwide will be administered by the HHS’ Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA). Nationwide, the HRSA has a network of 1,100 health center grantees providing care at more than 7,000 sites, from large facilities to small clinics and mobile vans. In 2007, those centers served 16.1 million patients, about 29 percent whom had no health insurance coverage.
HRSA grants typically account for about 19 percent of a center’s revenue; Medicare, Medicaid and other federal grants and payments account for 46 percent; and the remainder comes from state and local grants, foundation support and patient payments. Charges for services are on a sliding scale, with the poorest patients facing only nominal fees.
Northwest Community Nursing & Health Services, founded in 1909, is the state’s oldest nonprofit community health center. It provides emergency, urgent and routine primary, gynecological, behavioral and dental care to patients from northwestern Rhode Island, nearby Massachusetts and Connecticut, North Kingstown, East Greenwich and West Greenwich. Additional information is available at www.NorthwestHealthCare.org.
Tri-Town Community Action Agency, founded in 1964, is a private nonprofit organization that provides routine and emergency health care, social services and advocacy to needy families and individuals of all ages. Additional information is available at www.tri-town.org.
For more information about the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), or to find an HRSA clinic, go to www.FindAHealthCenter.hrsa.gov.