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Community Health Center
Expands into College Station
By REBECCA WATTS

Texas residents with private medical insurance paid an additional $600 in premiums compared with the rest of the nation last year in order to offset an estimated $9.2 billion deficit caused by uninsured residents. 5.5 million Texans are uninsured, placing Texas at the top of the U.S. Census Bureau’s list of the highest number of uninsured residents in the nation. As the cost of premiums and medical services rise, many turn to the community to find alternative ways of meeting their healthcare needs. The Brazos Valley Community Action Agency, in conjunction with the College Station Medical Center, has expanded community healthcare services into College Station in an effort to meet local healthcare needs and provide relief to the over-burdened Bryan location.

Eric Todd, BVCAA Senior Administrator of Health Services said, “We invest in prevention and early intervention so that burden does not fall upon taxpayers.” The Bryan facility currently serves over 16,000 Brazos Valley residents a year and 24% are estimated to be College Station residents
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The College Station Community Health Center offers services on a sliding payment scale for uninsured and underinsured residents of the Brazos Valley. Patients receive health education, treatment and preventative services from highly qualified doctors.

The center’s environment challenges public perception of uninsured healthcare centers. BVCAA’s Administrator of Program Operations, Diane Molina, RN, BSN, said, “It’s really exciting here because it’s a different image. You know a lot of people tend to think of affordable health care and grant funded programs as being housed in dingy parts of town, but we have a really nice place here.”

The College Station location specializes in services for women and children and employs a full-time pediatrician and nurse practitioner in addition to twelve office and clinical staff members. Three additional pediatricians service the clinic on a part-time basis: Dr. Scott Schams, Dr. Ken Matthews and Dr. Jesse Parr from the University Pediatric Association.

Parr said, “The reason I work there is to enable children whose families do not have financial resources to see me in my private office to have access to mental health care. There is a void in the community for provision of mental health services to children who have Medicaid, or SCHIP or simply have inadequate financial resources. This clinic tries to meet that need with the services offered by myself and Dr. Scott Schams.” The BVCAA and UPA have been partners in providing health care for Brazos Valley children for 15 years. Dr. Justin Gayle of Affiliates for Women’s Health in College Station delivered the health center’s first baby earlier this month. Gayle assists the center in meeting women’s health needs.

Linda Vivar, LVN, manager of the College Station clinic, said the Bryan and College Station community health centers have raised the bar for state standards of healthcare for the uninsured and underinsured. In 2002, the clinic qualified as a Federally Qualified Health Center, allowing an upgrade in the services and settings available. This set of government guidelines operates on the principle of 100% accessible and affordable quality healthcare and offers locally owned and operated patient-driven services.

Through additional grant funding, the clinic now has the ability to offer options beyond screening procedures for such health issues as breast and cervical cancer.

“In the past our care stopped at our door -- meaning we didn’t provide specialty care and hospital care,” Todd said. “There were times women with cervical or breast cancer were unable to get care because of the cost. But, for the first time for us, this program gives those women emergency Medicaid coverage for that specific treatment.”

Preventative care is the center of the clinic’s healthcare plan, which the BVCAA hopes will reduce the amount of unnecessary emergency room visits.
“We are going to see the benefits down the line by providing preventative care,” Vivar said. “We may not see the result for 10 to 15 years, but it’s the legacy we’re leaving.”

The clinic is located across the street from the College Station Medical Center, which played an integral role in the existence of the health clinic. The College Station Medical Center donated the equivalent of two years of operating expenses to the College Station Health Center. Tom Jackson, College Station Medical Center CEO, said this donation is a representation of the Medical Center’s devotion to high quality, compassionate health care.

“Several physician leaders on our campus have advocated for years that south College Station needed a community based clinic for women and children,” Jackson said. “The opening of the College Station Community Health Center will assist thousands of women and children throughout our seven-county region. It’s a noteworthy and creative collaboration between the public and private sector.”

Block grants, state grants, private health insurance, Medicaid, and Medicare-enhanced reimbursements provided additional funds for the clinic. As a FQHC, the clinic has a safety net for the uninsured and underinsured patients, but Todd explains there are a few holes in the net. As a result, the clinic relies on private donations to cover the $250 difference between government reimbursements and the actual cost of serving an uninsured patient.