Two health centers to open in Chapel Hill

After receiving $3,972,500 from the Affordable Care Act, North Carolina is poised to fund five new community health centers, two of which will be in Chapel Hill.

The Chapel Hill centers will be financed by Piedmont Health Services Inc., a nonprofit health care organization that serves communities facing financial, geographic, language and other barriers. Piedmont received $270,833 from the Affordable Care Act.

Earlier this month, the Health Resources and Services Administration announced that $169 million from the act would fund 266 new community health center sites in 46 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. The purpose of these new sites is to provide comprehensive primary care in underserved communities.

The need for these new centers stems from the presence of individuals in Orange County with unmet medical needs who are not being served by a health care facility. Many of the these individuals seek medical service at the Carrboro Community Health Center, one of Piedmont’s eight primary and comprehensive health clinics.

The health resources agency estimates these new sites will spread health services to more than 1.2 million patients nationwide, administration spokeswoman Elizabeth Senerchia said in an email.

To qualify as a community health center by Health Resources and Services Administration standards, a site must meet 19 requirements, including providing health care in medically underserved areas, being a nonprofit organization, offering services to the community and having a patient-majority governing board.

The Chapel Hill-Carrboro Inter-Faith Council for Social Service’s men’s homeless shelter will house one of the centers, which will open in mid-September.

The other, currently unnamed, will open between Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and U.S. 15-501.

The community raised money to build the health center inside the relocated homeless shelter, but Piedmont is providing all the medical equipment and professionals, said Michael Reinke, the shelter’s executive director.

Reinke said the center will let residents streamline getting assistance by offering dental, family and psychological care for residents.

“There are not a lot of places that exist where you can get assistance in one spot,” Reinke said.

He said private therapists serving in the current homeless shelter on Rosemary Street will likely provide care in the new location.

Piedmont has eight general health care sites across the state, but its only site in Orange County is the Carrboro Community Health Center.

Piedmont aims to make health care affordable for patients with a sliding fee scale that determines the eligibility for discounts according to the patient’s ability to pay. Clinics also have on-site pharmacies where patients can receive medicine for a reduced price.

“It allows us to keep our costs low and to provide quality and comprehensive services to our patients,” said Misty Drake, Piedmont’s chief operating officer.

Drake said Orange County still has pockets of high need for affordable health assistance.

“We felt this was a good opportunity to be more accessible,” Drake said.

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