Hernando County's Low-Cost Health Services to Grow
Posted on: Wednesday, 28 December 2005, 12:00 CST
By Asjylyn Loder, St. Petersburg Times, Fla.
Dec. 28--BROOKSVILLE -- The Hernando County Health Department will soon expand reduced-cost health care to low-income residents, using a $1.95-million federal grant.
The department will open the Nature Coast Community Health Center at the end of January. The clinic, at the Health Department's headquarters on S Main Street in Brooksville, will offer prenatal care, behavioral health services, expanded dental and primary care services and a reduced-cost pharmacy, said department spokeswoman Ann-Gayl Ellis.
"This new health clinic will allow us to open up to a lot more people, especially those individuals who fall between the poverty level but don't make quite enough to afford traditional health insurance," Ellis said.
The current clinic's services include perinatal health care, a women's health program, as well as some dental and primary care services. The clinic served 30,000 clients in the last fiscal year. Low-income families, for example, a family of four earning between $23,000 and $27,000, qualified for reduced prices.
With the new funding, the clinic plans to offer reduced-cost care to families above that threshold, Ellis said.
The county Health Department won the federal grant because it serves a medically underserved community in two ZIP codes, 34601 and 34614, which span the Brooksville area and northwestern Hernando County, Ellis explained.
Those communities are designated as underserved because of a shortage of primary care physicians, higher incidences of chronic illnesses such as heart disease and diabetes, and a high percentage of families living below 200 percent of the federal poverty level, or $38,700 for a family of four. Within those ZIP codes, 23 percent of the residents do not have health insurance, Ellis said.
The expanded services will be available to all county residents and not just those living within the underserved ZIP codes, Ellis said.
-----
To see more of the St. Petersburg Times -- including its homes, jobs, cars and other classified listings -- or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.sptimes.com.
Copyright (c) 2005, St. Petersburg Times, Fla.
Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.
For information on republishing this content, contact us at (800) 661-2511 (U.S.), (213) 237-4914 (worldwide), fax (213) 237-6515, or e-mail reprints@krtinfo.com.
Source: St. Petersburg Times
Related Articles
- Children Who Lack Continuity With A Regular Health Care Provider Miss Needed Services
- Health Care Retail Clinics Continue Gradual Expansion Through 2012: Deloitte Center for Health Solutions Report
- Market Research Report Pinpoints 14 Sections of Proposed U.S. Health Care Reform Legislation That Will Influence the Nation's Provision of Health Care Interpreting and Translation Services
- TriWest Healthcare Alliance Awarded Third TRICARE Contract, Remains Health Care Contractor for Department of Defense in 21-State TRICARE West Region
- Kokomo Hospitals Implement Indiana Health Information Exchange Clinical Messaging Service
- Coventry Health Care Awards Medicare Pharmacy Services Contract to Medco
- Health Care Leaders Urge Legislature to End State's Code Blue Health Care Crisis By June 1
- Elements of Report on Mental Health Care Within the Department of Defense and Veterans Administration, Focus of Task Force Meeting
- Zix Corporation Renews MVP Health Care for Email Encryption Service Contract
- Health Net Hires Government, Health Care Leader for Business Development; Thomas F. Carrato Joins Federal Services Team
 |
 |
User Comments (0)
RSS Feeds