Community health centers getting a U.S. booster shot

Dozens of community health centers around the region got a boost Friday when the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced $338 million in stimulus grants nationally to clinics that care for large numbers of uninsured patients.

In Pennsylvania, the department said, 36 organizations will share $9.5 million, giving them the capacity to provide care for nearly 60,000 new patients, including 20,000 uninsured.

Locally, grants went to ChesPenn Health Services in Chester ($220,761) and to nine organizations that run clinics in Philadelphia: Covenant House Inc. ($240,720), Delaware Valley Community Health Inc. ($555,770), Esperanza Health Center ($134,465), Greater Philadelphia Health Action Inc. ($998,180), Public Health Management Corp. ($242,715), Quality Community Health Care Inc. ($249,445), Resources for Human Development Inc. ($246,343), Spectrum Health Services ($225,643), and the Sayre Health Center ($114,584).

In New Jersey, 20 organizations will share $6.8 million, allowing them to care for an estimated 57,000 new patients, nearly 40,000 of whom are uninsured.

Among the recipients are CamCare Health Corp. ($456,000) and Project HOPE ($119,489), both in Camden; AtlantiCare Health Services in Egg Harbor Township ($149,725); Southern Jersey Family Medical Centers in Hammonton ($737,209); and the Henry J. Austin Health Center in Trenton ($341,611).

Three weeks ago, the Department of Health and Human Services announced grants for two new health centers to be operated by ChesPenn Health Services in Upper Darby and Covenant House in the East Mount Airy section of Philadelphia.

All these clinics are known as Federally Qualified Health Centers, a category that requires them to locate in underserved communities and meet governance and care guidelines. Philadelphia's eight city-run health centers are classified differently. - Don Sapatkin