"Our grass roots is the backbone of the health-center movement and we would not be here today in such full force without them," he said. "We deeply appreciate Allan's tireless work and dedication."

And it's not just helping the impoverished. According to the NACHC, clinics like Fourth Street are the health-care centers for 5,700 people in Utah and 17 million people nationwide — "the other health-care system" that saves the one most people access between $9.9 billion and $17.6 billion a year.

One way they do so is taking pressure off hospital emergency rooms that are geared for trauma but not a cost-effective or efficient way for most patients at Fourth Street to get the primary and preventative care that often intervene before a condition becomes an emergency.

A special task force assigned to spend the next seven months devising ways to improve quality and access to health care in Utah as part of a bill signed Wednesday by Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. is expected to seek input from Ainsworth and others at the clinic. They would have good reason to, according to the White House Office of Management and Budget which calls such clinics "highly effective."

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E-mail: jthalman@desnews.com