Triad
Health Systems will open January 1
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Clinic will serve Gallatin, Owen and Carroll counties
A $600,000
federal grant will help fund a regional community health care
center that will soon open in Gallatin County.
Triad Health Systems will open Jan. 1, taking over New Horizons
Medical Center in Warsaw. The facility will serve Gallatin, Owen
and Carroll counties, and will target area residents who are uninsured,
underinsured or cannot afford medical care.
Owen and Gallatin’s New Horizons Medical Center administrator
Bernie Poe said the grant was received through the Health Resources
and Services Administration (HRSA). It is good for one year, and
Poe said Triad is eligible to seek the grant for the next two
years, as well.
If “we do our job and do it right, we can receive the money”
for all three years, Poe said.
Poe said the center is not designed to offer free services, but
will offer sliding-fees for payment, based on a patient’s
ability to pay – an option not now available in the area.
The center will help serve the uninsured and underinsured by allowing
patients to pay what they can for services based on proof of income.
People without insurance often use emergency rooms at area hospitals,
Poe said, because they either can’t afford regular doctor
visits or cannot wait any longer to be treated. In many cases,
he said the costs for treatment is written off by hospitals as
a loss because the patients cannot pay for the services. One visit
to the emergency room can result in a $3,000 to $4,000 bill.
“We don’t have any other options,” he said.
“We can’t let people leave the ER without treatment.”
Poe said a hospital emergency room might lose as much as $1.5
million each year caring for indigent patients who cannot pay
for treatment, because federal law requires that every patient
who comes to an ER be seen by a doctor.
Hospitals in urban areas receive tax support to offset these costs,
but hospitals in more rural areas don’t, Poe said.
“This type of funding is vital in health care,” he
said.
With Triad available, an emergency room physician at another hospital
in the area can send patients to the center for non-emergency
medical treatment. At Triad, the patients may work with a financial
adviser and pay what they can afford.
The grant funding is the result of a 2002 initiative by President
Bush to help fund medical care for people living in “high
poverty” areas, according to the HRSA Web site.
Gallatin County is listed as one of the 13 poorest counties in
Kentucky, Poe said.
Triad is one of 75 health facilities to receive the grant this
year. It is one of four health care centers in Kentucky that will
receive funds. Centers in Corbin and Bowling Green will receive
grant money, as will the Kentucky Housing Corporation.
Poe said he received 50 letters of support from the community
for a rural health care center.
“We are going to meet the health care need,” Poe said.
He said that once the center is established and operating effectively,
it must prove that it is using the grant money wisely and productively
so that administrators can apply to renew the grant. Each center
can receive as much as $1.8 million.
At the end of the three years, the facility can re-apply for the
grant.
Poe said he worked with John Salyer, a representative from U.S.
Sen. Jim Bunning’s office; Matt Stevens, a representative
for U.S. Rep. Geoff Davis; and Adam Howard, a representative with
U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell’s office, to obtain the grant.
“The rising costs of health care put basic medical services
out of reach for many families and seniors,” Davis said
in an e-mail. “With the assistance this grant provides,
Triad Health Systems will strive to meet the medical needs of
underserved and uninsured Kentuckians.”
Bunning also spoke out in support of the center.
“Health centers are an important component in any community’s
health network,” Bunning said in a posting on his Web site.
“This money will go a long way in helping these centers
provide top-quality medical care to Kentuckians.”
Poe credits First Farmers Bank and the Primary Care Association
with helping to write the grant. He also received support from
other areas of the state, including Beattyville, Jackson and Lexington,
and credits Three Rivers District Health Department and the Carroll
County Memorial Hospital with helping to obtain the funding.
Brooke Traylor has worked in the pharmacy at New Horizons for
the past three summers. This year, Poe asked her to help with
the grant process. She researched the grant as well as helped
write it.
“I think (Triad) will improve the quality of life for those
who couldn’t receive adequate health care before,”
she said.
Melody Stafford, nurse and health planner at Three Rivers, drafted
the grant.
“It’s going to be a blessing to these three counties,”
she said.
Stafford said she worked on the grant night and day and had a
lot of help from several people.
“It’s an experience I’ll never forget,”
she said. “I hope to see its effects for years to come.”
Poe said the $600,000, which will pay for medical care that patients
can’t, won’t be enough to meet the needs for all three
counties. But he believes it will go a long way to help.
“The individuals who will benefit from the grant funds are
those who haven’t been able to obtain primary health care,”
Poe said. “We want to be thrifty in our expenditures, so
those people who deserve (help) will get it.”
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