Money for health centers
Federal dollars are flowing to community health centers.
The Maria de los Santos Health Center will use a new $600,000 federal grant to hire more doctors and other health providers for its new facility in North Philadelphia.
Listen: [audio:090529tecenters.mp3]
The new grant will boost the center’s regular funding, but Maria de los Santos and other federal qualified health centers are also expecting a temporary influx of stimulus dollars.
Patty Deitch is president of Delaware Valley Community Health, which operates Maria de los Santos and three other Philly-area centers. She says the Obama administration is investing in community health clinics around the country because they provide quality care whether or not a patient has health insurance.
Deitch: Whatever form health reform takes we are going to be there. You know you just can’t give everybody insurance. A card is only a card, they need to have a place to go to get the health care.
The federal stimulus package allocates $500 million to expand services at existing centers. Another $1.5 billion will pay for brick-and-mortar projects, new equipment and information technology systems.
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