Two health centers in the Interior are among 27 care facilities in Alaska that recently have been awarded about $5.3 million in federal funds to increase services.
The Interior Community Health Center in Fairbanks was awarded just over $208,000. Executive Director Cheryl Kilgore says that money will be used to extend the facility’s hours of operation.
“We’re going to offer early-evening clinic hours, Monday through Friday, so we will be able to see people up until 7 p.m.,” she said.
Kilgore says that’s important, because many people often aren’t able to get to the clinic during working hours.
“There are many people that have difficulty getting off work to come into the doctor either for themselves or a family member,” she said. “And we wanted to offer some evening hours to address that.”
Kilgore says the Interior Community Health Center mainly serves people who are uninsured or under-insured. She says they see about 10,000 people annually.
Fort Yukon-based Council of Athabascan Tribal Governments got just over $191,000 to improve the health care it offers to patients throughout the Yukon Flats region.
The federal Department of Health and Human Services says the grants will pay for 41 new staff members at health facilities statewide. Department officials say those services will benefit an estimated 7,774 new Alaska patients.
The grants are part of a nationwide program that’ll give a total of $295 million in Affordable Care Act funding to 1,195 health centers in fiscal year 2014.
