KHI NEWS SERVICE
TOPEKA, Aug. 31
The U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration has awarded three grants totaling more than $1.3 million to help expand Kansas clinics for the medically underserved.
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GraceMed Health Clinic, Inc. in Wichita received $483,333, the first installment of a three-year New Access Point grant.
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The Kansas Association for Medically Underserved (KAMU) in Topeka received an $80,000 High Poverty County Planning grant to study the possibility of a health center in Anderson County.
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A $750,000 Electronic Health Record Implementation Initiative grant will help four Kansas health centers implement health information technology. This also is the first installment of a three-year grant.
The awards are intended to help people
many with no health insurance
obtain access to primary and preventive health care. The health centers provide care regardless of a person”s ability to pay, with charges for services set according to income.
“Receipt of these competitive grants is excellent news for Kansas. It takes years of hard work to win one of these awards, and the funding will make a difference for our state”s medically underserved for years to come,” said Anthony Wellever, interim executive director of KAMU.
“The health center program is an incredibly effective model of care in terms of both quality and cost. Health centers reduce use of emergency rooms and avoidable hospitalizations. Their patients have improved health outcomes, especially those with chronic diseases like diabetes, and health disparities among racial and ethnic groups are reduced.”
Health centers also provide oral and mental health services to people who have limited or no access to care. Many health center patients have no insurance coverage, while others have inadequate coverage. In Kansas, an estimated 300,000 people are uninsured. The number of persons in the state who are underinsured
unable to afford the cost of insurance deductibles and co-payments
is not known.
HRSA is part of the U. S. Department of Health and Human Services, the primary Federal agency for improving access to health care for people who are uninsured, isolated or medically vulnerable.