Press Release

Release Date: July 23, 2004
HRCHC Contact: Communications Department
Telephone: (207) 861-3466
Email: Communications@HealthReach.org

National Health Center Week (August 8 - 14): Spotlight on HealthReach Community Health Centers

(WATERVILLE) — National Health Center Week is celebrated August 8-14 to recognize the service and contributions of community health centers across the country.

The observance of Health Center Week comes at a time when more and more Americans are turning to health centers for medical care. Community health centers provide care to more than 15 million people nationwide. More than 1 million newly uninsured patients have sought care at health centers in the last three years alone. Community health centers constitute a vital safety net in the nation’s health delivery system, bringing doctors and needed primary care and preventive health services into medically underserved communities. Health center patients include patients from all socioeconomic classes. Patients are treated regardless of their insurance status or ability to pay.

“Community health centers nationally have compiled a solid record of success for nearly 40 years of caring for the medically underserved,” says Stephen E. Walsh, MHA. Walsh serves as President and CEO of HealthReach Community Health Centers (HRCHC), and is also the President of the Board of the Maine Primary Care Association. “Studies have found that the quality of care provided at health centers is equal to or greater than the quality of care provided elsewhere,” says Walsh. The Institute of Medicine has proposed tapping health centers to develop national models of practice for the delivery of “stellar” primary care as part of the solution to the national health crisis.

Maine’s community health centers are located in rural communities where care is needed but scarce. HRCHC is the largest system of health centers in the state. The non-profit provides primary health care services to over 38,000 individuals of all ages from Central and Western Maine. The organization’s Central Office is located in Waterville. HRCHC’s health centers are located in Albion, Belgrade Lakes, Bethel, Bingham, Coopers Mills, Kingfield, Livermore Falls, Madison, Rangeley, Richmond and Strong. The Strong Area Health Center also has a Dental Center on-site, and dental services will soon be available at the Bingham Area Health Center.

Like their counterparts across the country, HRCHC’s health centers also improve access by offering services that help patients access health care, such as health education, case management of chronic disease and advocacy for patients who are having difficulty accessing other community resources. At HRCHC, a sliding fee program is available to patients in financial need. As a system of Federally-Qualified Health Centers, a majority of members of HRCHC’s governing Board of Directors are required to be health center patients. This active patient management of health centers ensures responsiveness to local needs.

Health centers also help contain health care costs by providing primary and preventive health services, reducing the need for more costly hospital and specialty care. Health centers provide comprehensive health care for about $1.25 a day per patient served – about 10 times less than average per capita spending on personal health care, according to the National Association of Community Health Centers. Studies show that Medicaid patients at health centers have a 22 percent lower rate of hospitalization than others with alternative sources of care.

HealthReach Community Health Centers is a family of eleven federally qualified, community-based health centers and one dental center located in Central and Western Maine. Dedicated providers deliver high quality, affordable healthcare to 38,000 rural and underserved residents in over 80 communities. A private, non-profit organization with a nearly 30-year history, HRCHC is funded by patient fees, grants and individual donations.