Becoming A Federally Qualified Health Center
By Gary Herbst, Chief Executive Officer of Kaweah Delta
Health care across the country is rapidly changing and while this presents
challenges, it also presents great opportunities. Hospitals and physicians
are no longer called to just care for people who are sick or injured;
we are now asked to care for the health of an entire population. Central
to this new focus on population health is the need to make deep investments
in improving primary and preventative care programs to keep people well
and out of the hospital, particularly for the most vulnerable in our community.
We have worked to answer that call through the development of primary
and specialty clinics in Tulare County and the launch of our physician
and pharmacy residency programs, but we are always looking for ways to
better meet our community’s healthcare needs. After more than a
year of meeting with key healthcare providers in Tulare County about our
desire to further improve the health of our community, we are moving forward
with an application to develop a new, nonprofit public benefit corporation
that would become a federally qualified health center (FQHC) called the
Sequoia Health and Wellness Centers. We believe that under the FQHC model,
we will be able to better attract and retain physicians and providers
and further our efforts in creating a highly-coordinated and integrated
healthcare system, with the ultimate goal of elevating the total wellness
of Tulare County residents.
We are currently reaching out to leaders in our community for letters of
support so that we can complete and submit our application to the Health
Resources and Services Administration, a division of the Federal Government’s
Department of Health and Human Services. If approved, we estimate that
the Sequoia Health and Wellness Centers would be operational by January
1, 2020. Already, we have received more than 40 letters of support from
community leaders and organizations, both public and private, including
the majority of other FQHCs operating within Tulare County.
Ultimately, our Family Medicine Center and our Urgent Care Center on Court
Street will become Sequoia Health and Wellness Centers. As FQHCs, these
centers would have access to benefits that none of our current primary
and specialty clinics have, including the ability to:
- Employ physicians
- Sponsor visas for foreign graduate physicians
- Receive federal or State grant funding only available to FQHCs
- Qualify for higher reimbursement for residents insured by Medi-Cal and
Medicare which comprises the majority of our patient community
- Offer federal loan forgiveness programs for physicians and other providers
While Sequoia Health and Wellness Centers would be owned by Kaweah Delta,
it would be governed by a separately-appointed, 11-member Board of Directors,
of which at least 51 percent will be patients of the centers. Our Kaweah
Delta Board of Directors took action this week and approved the 11-member
board and appointed Ryan Gates, Pharm D, Director of Population Health
Management at Kaweah Delta as Chief Executive Officer for the Sequoia
Health and Wellness Centers. All of the Centers’ services, which
will include primary care, as well as specialized care for people with
chronic illnesses – such as diabetes, arthritis, heart disease,
asthma, etc. – will be open to the entire community, regardless
of their ability to pay.
As we move forward in this process, there will be questions, but I can
assure you that moving forward in this process is the right thing to do
for our patients, Kaweah Delta, and our community. It is also in line
with our goal to achieve outstanding health outcomes for our community.
We will keep you posted as this initiative continues to take shape.