LGBT health facility Mazzoni Center recently took the first step on the road to attaining a new federal designation that will enable it to expand its practice and services.
Mazzoni was awarded an $80,000 Health Care Planning Grant from the Department of Health and Human Services’ Health Resources and Services Administration to support the planning process to pursue its bid to become a Federally Qualified Health Center.
The FQHC status — which no LGBT-focused health facility in the region has — enables a health center to better meet the needs of its clients, explained Mazzoni Center executive director Nurit Shein.
“This status allows an organization to receive funds from the federal government that go toward specialty care for the uninsured, toward payments for practitioners and for infrastructure for the organization,” Shein said. “So should Mazzoni receive the FQHC designation, we would have the ability to expand our practice and provide better care for those 30-40 percent of LGBT uninsured people that we serve.”
Shein explained that, currently, even if Mazzoni Center can waive fees for doctors’ visits for the uninsured, they cannot cover the costs of specialty care not offered at Mazzoni, such as x-rays, dental work or lab work.
The FQHC status, however, would enable Mazzoni to enter into contracts with specialty providers that would allow the uninsured to access those services.
The designation would also mean changes to Mazzoni’s own practice — with more physical space and employees.
“Should we receive the status, we’ll definitely see an increased capacity in the number of clinicians and in our space,” Shein said, noting that Mazzoni is already in the process of adding six new exam rooms, and more space would likely be needed if the status is awarded. “Within the first several years of the FQHC status we’d know how big it’s going to be. But we will probably need to expand even more, and we would need more doctors and nurse practitioners.”
The HRSA grant will fuel the yearlong planning process for the FQHC status application.
Beginning this month, Mazzoni will undertake an assessment of the healthcare needs of the entire Philadelphia region, as well as of the LGBT and low-income communities.
The assessment will examine demographic issues such as socioeconomic, housing and health-insurance status, age range, ethnicity, languages spoken and health-care utilization patterns of its target populations. Additionally, the study will analyze perceptions of health-care from the clients themselves and area practitioners, and look at potential gaps in services.
Jen Colletta can be reached at [email protected].