The new Albany County Community Health Clinic opened today; the clinic will be operated by UW and aimed at providing affordable comprehensive care.
“I think it’s going to be a great asset to the college and the community” Joseph Steiner, Dean of the College of Health Science, said.
The new clinic located at 920 E Sheridan St., is intend to serve all Albany county residents regardless of insurance or ability to pay. For residents who are at less than or equal to 200 percent of the federal poverty level will be billed on a sliding fee scale with proof of income, Richelle Keinath, clinic manger, said.
“There is an under served population,” Steiner said. “The application looked at need and we scored quit high for providing primary care to this population.”
Laramie’s downtown clinic offers care for those at 138 percent of the poverty level, but that still leaves a lot of people who can’t get care, Keinath, said.
“A lot of people have trouble finding a primary care physician and there is no where for folks that don’t have insurance if they have problems like a cold or heart disease,” Keinath said. “We feel like we’re filling in a niche.”
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services awarded $2.1 million in a New Access Point grant to the Educational Health Center of Wyoming, in conjunction with the University of Wyoming last December.
The majority of the grant will cover operational expenses such as provider and staff salary and medical equipment. The clinic will also receive enhanced Medicare and Medicaid reimbursements, Steiner said.
“We’re not receiving any money from the university or the state, this clinic is running fully on the grant dollars that we received from the federal government,” Keinath said.
As a comprehensive primary care medical clinic they will be treating most medical conditions.
“We’ll see [patients] for anything from a broken toe to diabetes to heart disease, anything that you would go to your regular doctor for,” Keinath said
Student Health will still serve as the primary care provider for most students. In the future, the new clinic hopes to partner with UW and serve as a back up provider to Student Health. Offering medical assistance in the hour student health is not operational, Steiner said.
In addition to providing medical care, the clinic will help provide training and experience for UW medical students, something that can be hard for medical students to find, Steiner said.
“It helps us,” Stainer said. “ we expect to have our students and our faulty working there.”
The clinic will also have a call system 24 hours seven days a week, so that if someone is concerned about a medical problem over the weekend they can call and speak to a licensed physician, Steiner said.
“Its good their providing health care to the uninsured,” Jordan Bishop, UW enginerring student, said. “I feel like just because they don’t have insurance they still deserve medical care and it will probably help save money down the line.”
