Utah's uninsured have a few options

Community health centers and clinics are an important part of the fabric that makes up the safety net for people with no health insurance. They serve needy populations in underserved and low- income communities.

The clinics, some operated by Intermountain Healthcare, others under a federally funded program and still others created and manned by volunteers, take care of thousands of Utahns, according to Terry Foust, IHC Community Clinics director.

The IHC centers average about 30,000 patient visits a year. And in 2004, the last year for which stats are available, the federally funded centers along the Wasatch Front — three in Salt Lake City, one in Ogden and one in Provo — provided more than 155,000 patient visits combined.

Help getting medical care when you don't have insurance and can't afford to pay is the topic of the Deseret Morning News/Intermountain Healthcare Hotline today from 10 a.m. to noon. Calls will be taken by Terry Foust, IHC Community Clinics director; Gayleen Henderson, Utah Department of Health Children's Health Insurance Program manager; Randa Pickle, UDOH health programs specialist; and John McBride, patient account services director at Utah Valley Regional Medical Center. They can talk about charity care, government programs, health clinics that serve low-income and uninsured patients on a sliding-fee basis and more. All calls are confidential.

When the federally funded centers were set up nationally, they were placed in medically underserved communities, which could mean where there were a lack of health-care providers or where the poverty level of the area put health care out of reach. Salt Lake City's centers are in the central city, in Rose Park and In Kearns. Ogden is home to the Midtown health center and Mountainlands is in Provo.

And though their funding is primarily federal dollars, that alone is not enough. They also rely on local and state funding through grants and other programs for part of their operating costs, Foust said. And they provide care to some people who are insured, which also helps.

Intermountain Healthcare's clinics operate much the same way. There are four in the Salt Lake Valley, including one in the Sorenson Multicultural Center, one each in Lincoln and Rose Park elementary schools and a new one that's an urgent care facility at 54 N. 800 West. The latter clinic has X-ray capabilities; the others don't.