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Neighborhood Clinics Ask Capps to Make a House Call
Facing a projected 10 percent increase in patient population this year, officials from the Santa Barbara Neighborhood Clinics took their case for funding to Rep. Lois Capps. The Santa Barbara Democrat toured the Eastside Neighborhood Clinic, 915 N. Milpas St., on Monday afternoon during her visit home from Washington.
“We were very interested in seeing how the populations we served will be funded by the new legislation,” said Dr. David Chernof, the nonprofit organization’s board chairman.
Given the rise in the ranks of the uninsured, an estimated 57,000 patients will visit the neighborhood clinics this year. The clinics are located on Santa Barbara’s East and West sides, as well as in Isla Vista. In November, the Eastside Clinic’s Dental Center saw about a 1,000 patients.
It’s SBNC’s mission to serve all who come in, said Chernof, regardless of their ability to pay.
According to Capps, the House version of the $888 billion stimulus bill would increase opportunities for people who are eligible for Medi-Cal and COBRA, as well as provide grants for health information technology and increase funding for prevention and primary care.
“If the legislation looks like what we passed last week in the House of Representatives, there’s $500 million designated for community clinics,” Capps said.
The goal, she said, is to get the legislation signed into law by mid-February. This week, the Senate is looking into the legislation and drafting its own bill.
The Neighborhood Clinics, like many organizations that receive funds from the state of California, has been feeling the effects of the economy.
“It’s not just the cuts,” said SBNC executive director Cynder Sinclair. “It’s the (state’s) taking longer to pay.”
While Chernof said the clinics should have adequate cash flow to the end of this month, it’s still unclear what will happen next.
“Not much will happen to us until the end of February as far as state funding, but I wouldn’t count on it because tomorrow something else may happen,” he said.
Write to sfernandez@noozhawk.com
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» on 02.03.09 @ 03:02 AM
Yikes. Using loose numbers: There are an underserved 57,000 patients in our community of, say, 250,000. Extrapolated to 350M US population means that nationwide there are 70M underserved, needy patients? So final tally, if $500M allocated, is about $8 per patient. May not go very far.
The state has a catastrophe looming, which will cause immense suffering to our most needy and ‘trickle up’ to all of us.
» on 02.03.09 @ 04:28 AM
To take D’s comment a step further, this story is a perfect example of why that load of crud Congress passed last week isn’t stimulus but just another spending orgy. How is $500 million for community clinics going to stimulate the economy? Seriously. I’m not being flip or callous but community clinics should fall under health-care spending or social services, and ought to be funded on their own in a separate bill addressing the exact issues the Neighborhood Clinics are confronting They have no business being in a package designed to create jobs. We’re talking apples and oranges here.
Not to mention, just where DID that $500 million figure come from? Is that intended to be $1 million each for 500 clinics? $500K for 1,000? It sounds as if it’s just a meaningless number and Congresswoman Capps should be ashamed of herself for not being better informed since she bills herself as a health-care expert. To me it looks like the Neighborhood Clinics got a photo op ... and zero help.
» on 02.03.09 @ 04:45 PM
Stop pushing everything to government-How sad and selffish we Americans have become. Churches charities, family, friends, neighbors, did a much better job with fellow Americans than social services could ever do—What happen???Government dependency..
» on 02.05.09 @ 09:02 AM
Patients at the medi-cal cIinic pharmacy got a suprise this past week….medical has lowered the number of prescriptions it will pay for from 10 to 7, a thirty percent reduction. The people that receive these benefits are not only the poorest, but if you need 10 prescriptions you are obviously the sickest. This is outrageous…instead of cutting by the type of drug (life sustaining vs. non life sustaining), it is simply done by filling the first 7 and cutting the rest. The patient had
better make sure that the critical drugs are part of the 7 or that they have some money on them to get the others or they are going to be in big trouble that will translate into ER visits and extra tests should they be without those drugs. What a place to cut expenses…right where the poorest and sickest can literally die.
But hey, lets give the city employees a raise!!!
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