Community Viewpoint: Demand for Free Clinic’s Service on the Rise
By Bob Barlowe
Lynchburg News and Advance
Sunday, May 16, 2010In 1987 when the Free Clinic of Central Virginia was founded by a “forward thinking” group of concerned individuals, no one on the board of directors would have predicted that 23 years later, it would still exist. In fact, it has now served almost 8 percent (more than 20,000 persons) of the service area population (the cities of Lynchburg and Bedford and the counties of Amherst, Appomattox, Bedford, and Campbell) at one time or another. Indeed the greatest hope of that founding board, and every board member who has followed those innovators, was that the Free Clinic would no longer be relevant in 2010 because health care would be available to all in the United States.
Unfortunately, this will not happen for dental care at all, and it will only happen on a limited basis for medical care, even with this legislation. The mission of this Free Clinic was, is, and will still be to provide quality health care (medical, dental and pharmaceutical services) for low-income, uninsured and underinsured people without health insurance, Medicare, or Medicaid for the services being provided. To fulfill this mission objective the Free Clinic has always filled the obvious gaps in our health care safety net to assist those who are falling through the cracks of our state and federally funded health care systems. There will be gaps in the future!
The Free Clinic uses 200 volunteer physicians, 60 volunteer dentists and 25 volunteer pharamacists plus hundreds of other volunteer providers to accomplish this goal. What a wonderful commentary on the quality of life and people in Central Virginia! As our volunteer medical and dental practitioners report, “I am practicing medicine or dentistry the way I was taught with the patient first!”
The clinic now secures $2.5 million worth of free medications for 35,500 prescriptions annually.
We’re also fortunate to have Centra Health as a major partner in helping to provide indigent care. The Free Clinic now either provides or arranges for more than $12 million worth of indigent care services in one calendar year on a $600,000 cash operating budget.
Every $1 donated to the clinic provides more than $20 in services to needy Central Virginians. This is the most efficient “health care” solution known and practiced in the United States.
The latest efforts regarding health care reform in the United States have focused national attention on the issue of health care and health care access. These are very complicated, multi-faceted, sometimes very emotional and almost always political issues.
Possible solutions have been often been distorted and twisted for personal and/or corporate gain. Some key elements such as tort reform have been totally ignored.
For the past two years, I have been asked by many people what will happen to the Free Clinic when health care reform is passed. My answer has been, and is, that the Free Clinic will still be needed by some facet of our population for many years to come.
Many of the key components of the current package won’t even take effect until 2014. One estimate says that there will be as many as 28 million people in the United States still uninsured in 2019. Of the approximately 46 million people currently uninsured in the U.S., more than 5 million receive their health care from the 1,200 free clinics nationally. More than 60 operate in Virginia.
The Free Clinic of Central Virginia does not bill Medicare, Medicaid or health insurance. It does not receive any federal funds. It survives on donations, grants and volunteer services of every imaginable type. Medicaid and Medicare reimbursements are really an issue for another letter. However, they are currently inadequate in Virginia.
The commonwealth currently ranks 42nd in qualifying poor working adults for this program, which may actually help us when payments are averaged out among all the states. As an example, a single mother of two earning $34 per day (or $12,117 per year) does not qualify for services. Any cuts to Medicaid/Medicare payments will simply exacerbate the health care problem in Virginia.
In 2009, the Free Clinic of Central Virginia in Lynchburg provided 18,000 patient visits and more than 35,500 prescriptions to more than 3,800 unduplicated patients. From July 2008 to December 2009, there was a 50 percent increase in the number of patients seeking services from us for the first time. These patients who now utilize the Free Clinic have nowhere else to go to receive affordable, on-going health care and prescription medications at a price that they can afford. Many new patients in 2008-2009 were newly unemployed, some for the first time in their adult lives.
Just think of all the lay-offs right here in Central Virginia.
These new patients often donate their time, services and limited funds to the Free Clinic in numbers larger than the total population. They appreciate what the Free Clinic does for them, and they give back.
Overall, we are well aware of what happens when people do not have access to the health care that they need. It is indeed heartbreaking!
We are thrilled that people are discussing and examining the issue of health care and health care reform from many different angles. However, it will truly take years to effectively sort out these issues, effectively interpret them and/or legislate all the appropriate changes. Actually, I believe that some of the problems in the current health care system cannot even be solved by the legislative process.
Throughout the current changes and for years to come, the free clinics of Virginia (and the United States) will continue to stretch their limited resources to provide that last resort health safety net in our communities. We desperately need your support.
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