Community health clinics in Minnesota get a $3.6 million booster

Federal officials said Friday that Minnesota's 16 community health centers would be awarded nearly $3.6 million more in additional funds to expand primary care services for people who are uninsured, geographically isolated or medically vulnerable.

The award was part of a national distribution of $295 million that went to 1,195 community health centers in every state, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands and the Pacific Basin. Sylvia M. Burwell, secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), said in a statement that the money would help Minnesota's health centers reach about 13,700 new patients.

Rhonda Degelau, executive director of the Minnesota Association of Community Health Centers, said the money would be put to a variety of uses.

"It's really an opportunity for all of the community health centers in Minnesota to expand their services in the areas where they see a greater need. It can be medical, dental, behavioral health, pharmacy, vision," she said. "A lot of the clinics are putting it into additional medical providers."

Burrell said that health centers play a significant role in how the Affordable Care Act is attempting to improve access to care. Nationally, nearly 1,300 health centers provide care to more than 21.7 million patients at 9,200 different locations.

They not only act as health care providers, but they also can help individuals get coverage through the Health Insurance Marketplace. According to Burrell, health centers provided enrollment assistance to more than 6 million people in the past year.

Degelau noted that a recent University of Minnesota study estimated that the numbers of state residents lacking health insurance has dropped 40 percent since the inception of the Affordable Care Act. She said that's not reflected in the patients at the community health centers, however.

About 37 percent of the health center patients statewide are uninsured; 42 percent are on Medicaid, Degelau said.

Minnesota's 16 health centers serve 174,593 patients. About a third are white, 28 percent are African-American, 23 percent are Hispanic and the remainder are Asian or American Indian.

Degelau said the centers date to the 1960s War on Poverty. They must operate in federally designated, medically underserved areas. They must accept patients whether or not they have insurance. And more than half of their governing boards must be patients at the centers.

"It's that piece, I think, that really makes the clinics accountable to the community that it serves," Degelau said. "It's become probably one of the most successful federally funded health care programs in the nation."