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Contact: Velma Hendershott
President & CEO
InterCare Community Health Network
50 Industrial Park Drive
Bangor, MI 49013
269.427.7937

InterCare Community Health Network Celebrates National Health Center Week 2008

Week of August 10, 2008

Bangor, Mich. - InterCare Community Health Network is celebrating National Health Center Week 2008 (August 10 - 16), a national event recognizing the service and contributions of America’s community health centers. The national focus for this year’s celebration is a new national plan to create more health care centers for the medically under-served.

"Community health centers provide access to primary healthcare services " said Velma Hendershott, President/CEO of InterCare. "National Health Center Week (NHCW) is a time we set aside not only to recognize the work of health centers, but to spread the message that America needs to invest in an accessible and affordable community health system that can reduce disparities, improve health and achieve cost savings in health and prevention."

The celebration comes as health centers across the country launch a collective effort to serve 30 million people by the year 2015. Today, millions of people are struggling with access to basic health care because of local shortages of primary care doctors, according to the National Association of Community Health Centers (NACHC). With this new effort, health centers will nearly double their reach and bridge the widening gap between the need for primary health care services and providers.

Currently, community health centers save the health care system up to $17.6 billion a year and have drawn top ratings as one of the most effective federal programs by the White House Office of Management and Budget. By doubling the number of patients served as projected in this new effort, health centers can generate savings as high as $40.7 billion over the next 8 years.

For the first time this year, NHCW is setting aside one day of the celebration to focus on Farmworker Health Day on Thursday, August 14, 2008. Migrant farmworkers represent a population that is frequently left outside of the mainstream health care system.

InterCare serves six counties in southwest Michigan - two of which, Berrien and Van Buren - rank first and second in the state’s census of seasonal agricultural workers.

"Because our service area is located in the heart of southwest Michigan’s agricultural region, migrant farmworkers comprise a significant portion of our patient population," said Hendershott. "For that reason InterCare offers bi-lingual services, outreach to the camps and mobile services to help workers and their families stay in good health while they are here in Michigan."

InterCare will celebrate National Health Center Week with free screenings at each of its health centers and with visits by elected officials including Rep. Tonya Schuitmaker who will visit the Bangor site on August 14.

Founded in 1973, InterCare Community Health network is part of a national primary care safety net that serves more than 16 million people in 3,000 health centers everyday. Federally funded and nonprofit, InterCare serves communities and migrant farmworkers in six counties in southwest Michigan: Allegan, Berrien, Cass, Kent, Ottawa and Van Buren.

For more information about National Health Center Week visit www.healthcenterweek.org. For more information about InterCare Community Health Network visit www.intercare.org.

QUICK FACTS ABOUT THE NATION’S COMMUNITY HEALTH CENTERS

• America’s Health Centers serve as the health care safety net for more than 17 million people in over 6,000 communities, and are recognized as an invaluable part of the nation’s health delivery system.
  
• The White House Office of Management and Budget has ranked health centers as one of the 10 most effective government programs - a designation earned by only six percent of all federal programs (visit www.expectmore.gov for more information).
  
• Health centers are the best investment American can make. They keep down health care costs and pump money and jobs into the local and national economy. They generate $12.6 billion in economic benefits, and produce 143,000 jobs across the nation.
  
• The American Academy of Family Physicians’ Robert Graham Center recently found that the total cost of care for health center patients is 41% lower annually than the total cost of care for patients of other providers.
  
• Fewer newborn babies die in communities that have a health center. Health centers have reduced infant mortality rates by up to 40 percent.
  
• Women who receive care at health centers are more up to date with Pap tests, mammograms and clinical breast exams than other low-income and uninsured women.
  
• Health centers save the U.S. health care system more than $17 billion a year by providing affordable, preventive health care to low-income, uninsured people who may rely on hospital emergency rooms as a source of care. $18 billion is wasted annually on avoidable visits to emergency rooms.
  
• Health centers generate $12.6 billion in economic benefits for low-income, rural and inner city communities and create 143,000 jobs in some of America’s most economically challenged neighborhoods.
  
• There are now 56 million Americans who lack access to a primary care physician. Under a new plan launched this year, health centers can serve 30 million patients by the year 2015 if funding for health centers is increased by 15 percent annually over the next 8 years.
  
• National Health Center Week 2008 sets aside Thursday August 14, 2008 days to focus on farmworkers, a population often shut out of mainstream health care.