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- But community health centers draw patients for a number of
reasons. They offer "one-stop shopping," which can
include dental care, substance abuse treatment,
- pediatric and prenatal care, and social services. Most
have child care and translators on site for non-English
speakers.
- With the new Massachusetts health insurance law boosting
the number of patients seeking care, community health
centers south of Boston are scrambling to meet
- the demand.
-
- Sign up for: Globe Headlines e-mail | Breaking News Alerts
Manet Community Health Center, which has four locations in
Quincy and one in Hull, is hiring two
- new family care physicians and a nurse practitioner.
Brockton Neighborhood Health Center now stays open two hours
later on weeknights. In February, it hired
- a nurse practitioner, two medical assistants, and two
social workers, and is planning to hire 20 more staff
members in the next six months.
-
- "We've seen a really significant increase in visits
by new patients," said Sue Joss, executive director of
the Brockton health center. "Our phones are
- ringing off the hook for new patients."
-
- The two centers are the only ones directly south of
Boston. But community health centers in Fall River and New
Bedford, which also serve people from this
- region, are experiencing the same increase in demand, and
expanding hours to meet it.
-
- The state's universal health insurance law, which is being
rolled out this year, is bringing formerly uninsured people
into the healthcare system. Many of
- these individuals and families are turning to community
health centers, the locally based nonprofit organizations
that arose from the antipoverty movement of
- the 1960s.
-
- "We are front and center in the new healthcare
legislation," said Kerin O'Toole, spokeswoman for the
Massachusetts League of Community Health Centers.
"We've
- seen quite a surge in demand. Although in many cases
patients could go elsewhere, the health centers offer a
whole range of services you can't get from a
- private provider."
-
- The nation's first community health center opened at
Columbia Point in Dorchester in 1965 as part of President
Johnson's war on poverty.
-
- Similar centers, supported by federal aid and private
grants, opened across the country in poor and medically
underserved areas. Today, the United States has
- more than a thousand centers, 52 of them in
Massachusetts.
-
- Business is thriving. In April, the Brockton center on
Main Street saw a 12 percent spike in patient visits over
last year, and in May, a 9 percent increase.
- A new $16 million center is under construction next to the
cramped downtown facility and is scheduled to open in
November.
-
- Statewide, patient loads at community health centers have
been on the rise. In 2006, centers in Massachusetts saw
760,301 patients, an increase of nearly
- 94,000, or 14 percent, over the previous year.
-
- The surge in demand at community health centers with the
new law was not fully expected. The centers have long been a
safety net in the healthcare system -
- places where people could go whether they had insurance or
not. The insured usually have many choices when seeking
care
-
- Sign up for: Globe Headlines e-mail | Breaking News Alerts
"People are more aware of the community health centers
and the services we provide," said Sheryl
- Turgeon, chief executive officer of Healthfirst, which
draws patients from Fall River and nearby towns.
-
- Community health centers also do outreach for Commonwealth
Care, the new state health insurance program, and visitors
to most centers can sign up for health
- insurance on the spot.
-
- The heavy promotions the state has been doing to get the
uninsured to sign up and take advantage of healthcare also
seems to be a factor in the increasing
- number of visits, according to Toni McGuire, chief
executive officer of the Manet center.
-
- "I think one of the biggest reasons for the increase
is the advertising around Commonwealth Care," McGuire
said. Said Joss of the Brockton center, "There was
- never this kind of publicity around the free-care
pool."
-
- In the past, institutions that treated the uninsured were
compensated by a pool of money administered by the state and
paid into by hospitals and other large
- providers.
-
- Another reason that community health centers are seeing
more patients is that three of the four insurers working
with Commonwealth Care tend to direct
- subscribers to the centers, according to Alan Sager,
director of the health reform program at Boston University
School of Public Health.
-
- Sager said he is concerned that some community health
centers may not be able to hire physicians quickly enough to
meet the demand.
-
- "If health centers were deluged by dozens more
patients every day, how quickly could they respond?" he
asked.
-
- A Massachusetts Medical Society report issued last month
warned of a growing shortage of primary care physicians and
some specialists, based on surveys of
- doctors and Massachusetts residents.
-
- "The community health centers rely heavily on primary
care physicians, and if there is a shortage in the state,
the centers would be exposed to that
- shortage," said B. Dale Magee, president of the
Massachusetts Medical Society.
-
- So far, directors of centers south of Boston say they have
been able to hire qualified staff and otherwise meet the
demands of new patients - in part by
- expansion.
-
- The Manet center recently purchased the building it had
been renting in North Quincy and is eyeing expansion on the
site. The center also opened a clinic at
- Quincy Medical Center.
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- The Greater New Bedford center recently expanded its
downtown facility, more than doubling its square footage.
Brockton's new facility will approximately
- double its patient capacity.
-
- "We're taking a pretty aggressive stance as we get
ready to move into the new building," said Joss.
"It seems right now the demand will be there."
-
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