New Medical Clinic Will Treat More of Uninsured

Thursday, March 23, 2006

(The Howard County Times) -- A federally funded clinic that will serve the uninsured and the underinsured of Howard County is scheduled to open in Oakland Mills in July, while a volunteer clinic with the same goals prepares to close.

"One goal of ours has always been not to duplicate other services that are in the county," said Pam Mack, executive director of Health Alliance Clinic, which has served the uninsured in the county since 1998 and plans to close in mid-June.

The new, still-to-be-named clinic will be located in the Knoll North Building on Knoll North Drive in Oakland Mills, and will be staffed by two paid physicians, said Richard Krieg, president of the Horizon Foundation, a Howard County philanthropic foundation which led efforts to get the clinic in Howard County.

The clinic will cost approximately $450,000 to open, of which $180,000 will come from the Horizon Foundation. The remainder will come from the federal government, Krieg said.

Patients will pay by ability for the basic health care services and routine checkups the clinic will provide. The clinic will also contain a pharmacy, a diagnostic laboratory, eight exam rooms and some psychiatric services. It will be equipped to serve a patient base of about 3,000, Krieg said. There are about 15,000 uninsured residents in Howard County, according to Horizon Foundation research.

That will be an improvement on the Health Alliance Clinic, which currently serves about 400 patients. The clinic is located on Hickory Ridge Road, behind Howard County General Hospital. Health Alliance Clinic will close to make way for the new clinic, Mack said.

Health Alliance clinic operates three times a week, with two evening sessions and one morning session. The new clinic will operate five days a week from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and some evening hours are also planned, Krieg said.

The new clinic is funded federally through the Health Resources and Services Administration, a division of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. In addition to funding the initial set-up fee for the clinic, the federal government will reimburse the clinic on a patient by patient basis, Krieg said.

The clinic will be developed and administered by Chase Brexton Health Systems of Baltimore. The company received the go-ahead for the clinic in January.

A spokesman for the Chase Brexton Health Systems did not return a call seeking comment.

Health Alliance, which relied on volunteer physicians, opened in 1998 to serve the uninsured and underinsured of the county, Mack said. It only handled chronically ill patients.

After the clinic closes in mid-June, the Health Alliance staff will work to transition their patients to the new clinic, including transferring records and getting patients registered with the new clinic, Mack said.

"We've only been able to see the chronically ill; the new clinic will be able to see patients regardless of the illness," Mack said.

E-mail Mike Santa Rita at msantarita@patuxent.com.