THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, September 22, 1994 TAG: 9409220435
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MARIE JOYCE, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Short : 43 lines
Portsmouth is likely to get a federal grant to build a health center for the working poor, a federal official said Wednesday.
``The hope - and indication so far - is it looks good,'' said Scott Otterbein of the U.S. Public Health Service's regional office in Philadelphia.
He said the agency will announce a decision within the next eight days.
The planned center would provide office treatment, laboratory tests, X-rays and inpatient hospital care. It also would offer prenatal care, health education programs and limited pharmacy services.
Anyone could get treatment there, but the primary clientele would be the working poor - people who don't have health insurance but earn too much to be covered by Medicaid, the government program that helps pay for health care for the poor.
Plans call for a permanent, full-time staff, including a doctor, nurse practitioners, health educators, nutritionists, nurses and technicians.
Patients would pay for center services, but their fees would be set according to a sliding scale based on income, said John Schalk, administrative director of the Area Health Education Center Program at Eastern Virginia Medical School. Schalk helped a Portsmouth group with the grant application.
The application was filed by a volunteer board that includes Portsmouth doctors and representatives from government, local hospitals, the medical school, the city health department, social agencies and churches.
The group has asked for about $600,000 but may not receive the full amount.
The Portsmouth center, which could be ready by May, would be the second established in South Hampton Roads in as many years. The Suffolk Community Health Center opened this spring.
The grant is part of a 30-year-old federal program to bring health care to groups who need better access to it. by CNB