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Our Executive Director's Monthly Message
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 This is a second communication in an
ongoing series of news items updating you on our agency, Care Resource.
This time, I am particularly pleased to announce that Care Resource was
recently designated as a Federally Qualified Health Center for its
Broward office location and operations, effective March 1, 2009.
A little over a year ago now, we applied for this designation to expand
our work and mission in the community to provide primary medical health
care to underserved individuals in our service area. Our
application proposed to serve all those from adolescents to the
elderly, with of course, a continued special focus on our current work
with those affected by HIV, but also to expand our services overall to
the Gay, Lesbian, Bi-Sexual, and Transgender Community in
particular. This application was the result of a strategic
planning process undertaken by our Board the year prior. This
effort focused on (among other things), what our current strengths and
opportunities were to grow our work in the community where we perceived
there may be unmet needs. When we applied, we learned initially
(last summer) that we actually received a "grant rating" of 94 out of
100 possible points, and while we felt very good about that score, it
was just under the level needed to be funded and designated at the
time, due to financial constraints on the overall monies available, and
the very high number of applicants. It was explained however,
that if more monies were to become available in the same year, we still
might receive an award.
Well . .
. our new President, a few weeks ago, specifically designated
approximately $150 million in new stimulus funds to be allocated to
increase access to health care for the underserved, especially given
our economic times, and the fact that many were losing their jobs and
health coverage. So, we learned subsequent to this, that we along
with 125 other community health center providers, had been designated
as new FQHC's (Federally Qualified Health Centers) and that we had
received funding to expand our work as we had proposed in our initial
application in the Fort Lauderdale area. These funds specifically
are part of the Recovery Act Health Center Cluster Program.
We have worked very hard to secure this designation, and the
"bar" to become designated as an FQHC is extremely high, so we are
particularly proud of this latest accomplishment.
This
designation brings with it many opportunities and benefits, along with
many new responsibilities for us. The benefits include additional
funding ($650,000 per year for the first two years) to expand medical
care services to those who are predominantly low income and in need of
health care services. Again, in our particular case, we will have
a special focus on the GLBT community, as well as those with living
with HIV, but all of course will be welcome. We can also now
access various federal programs which may help reduce some of our
medical-related operating costs for malpractice insurance and
provide lower cost pricing for pharmaceuticals. Our
responsibilities will include ensuring that we provide a fairly
comprehensive array of specified primary health services, and fully
participate in all government insurance programs, along with continuing
our participation with private payers. We will establish a clear
sliding scale fee structure for all patients, based on their ability to
pay, and will enhance our Board to include additional clients and
members of the GLBT community.
We will be
adding several new staff, creating jobs as proposed by the stimulus
funds, and will ensure that they, along with our existing staff are
trained in all aspects of cultural, lifestyle, and clinical issues,
further enhancing our competence to serve our existing and expanding
numbers of new clients. Concurrent with this, we will be moving
our offices in central Fort Lauderdale to a new facility, very near our
current offices, but larger. We
are excited about this new opportunity to expand our work in the
community, especially at a time when it seems so many more are in
need. We will plan to keep you posted on our progress as we move
to implement this milestone project.
Thank you for
continued support in the fight against HIV/AIDS,
Rick Siclari
Executive Director |
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