Mancos clinic looks likely

Mancos clinic looks likely

Nov. 18, 2000

By Jim Mimiaga
Journal Staff Writer

To help pave the way for low-cost health clinics slated to open in the region, Gov. Bill Owens has requested that the federal government officially designate Montezuma and La Plata counties as medically under-served populations.

The designation is intended to improve access to health care for poorer communities by freeing up federal funds to help attract and subsidize new indigent-care clinics.

In a Nov. 9 letter to the Health Resources Services Administration, Owens writes that because of the mountainous and remote nature of southwest Colorado, "the number of doctors and other community health resources is very limited."

"The situation is especially difficult for low-income populations," he said, "as the limited health-care community has been reluctant to treat people who are on Medicaid, or even Medicare."

Owens supports Valley Wide Health Services’ plan to locate a clinic in Mancos, which should occur within a month, director Marguerite Salazar confirmed last week.

Valley Wide operates a series of health-care clinics in the San Luis Valley that offer affordable preventive and primary care services. Patients pay on a sliding scale based on their income, everyone is seen, and all insurance is accepted, including government-pay programs.

"We make it work by our efficient centralized billing system and aggressively pursuing adequate reimbursement from providers," she said last week from Alamosa. "Your area has been considered for some time because there is a real need there. The old Mancos clinic building is a good fit."

Under a plan supported by Owens, Valley Wide would absorb Southwest Pediatrics, a financially strapped clinic in Durango willing to provide primary care to medically under-served populations. Employees of Southwest Pediatrics would become employees of Valley Wide, and a spin-off clinic would be located in Mancos.

"This new, small clinic will eliminate the need for the commute over the mountains from Mancos to Durango," Owens said, noting that it would not be possible without help from a federal level. The special status gives providers like Valley Wide more opportunity to apply for grants intended to target medically neglected regions.

Indicators for the two-county area supporting the designation show that 21 percent of the adult population is uninsured and that a high number of people live under the poverty level. Some criteria were slightly over the required scores, but Owens called for an exception.

Jerilyn Thornburg, MUP director for the Health Resources Services Administration in Washington, D.C., said Friday that Colorado’s application is expected soon, and that once recieved it would take several months before a decision was made. Owens’ letter gives it an advantage.

"Usually the governor’s recommendation carries quite a bit of weight," she said. "We will approve it if our research also shows that there is a need there, even if it does not meet all the criteria."