End of grant spells bad news for clinics serving the poor

EDINBURG — Four local health clinics that serve the poor are cutting back services as they cope with a funding shortfall attributed to Wednesday's expiration of a one-time Hidalgo County grant.

The patients who likely will feel the changes the most are those who could least afford health care to begin with.

At McAllen's Hope Family Health Center, a clinic that serves the uninsured, executive director Rebecca Ramirez responded earlier this month by closing the clinic's doors one day a week, reducing hours for some positions and eliminating others altogether, and discontinuing services such as free blood work.

Fellow grant recipients Nuestra Clinica del Valle, El Milagro Clinic and the McAllen Family Medicine Residency Program also cut services as the grant - which averaged $200,000 per recipient - ran out.

The grant's expiration wasn't unexpected since the money was awarded on a one-year basis, but it still disappointed clinic administrators who hoped it could continue.

A combination of economic uncertainty and increased costs for other services led the county to end the grant after the first year.

"It's a rough time," Ramirez said. "When we're affected financially, it's our patients that get affected in the end."

The end of the county's grant to the health clinics is part of a larger trend of cutbacks from foundations, governments and other entities as they grapple with the economic recession.

The cuts deeply affect nonprofits such as the Hope center that heavily depend on grants.

Eddie Olivarez, chief administrative officer of the county health department, said the grant was available to the clinics through tobacco settlement funds, which are actually state reimbursements for healthcare services the county provides to inmates and others.

With the county bracing for a change in tax revenues and battling the aftermath of last year's Hurricane Dolly, the clinics were told the money couldn't continue, Olivarez said.

Lucy Ramirez, executive director of Nuestra Clinica del Valle, said her clinic may end mammograms and other advanced diagnostic services it offered to 1,600 patients since the grant's start.

Grace Lawson, executive director of El Milagro Clinic, said 2,300 patients received services at her clinic as a result of the grant, which made up 20 percent of the clinic's budget. Without those funds, the clinic will have to scale back some of its primary care services, but that doesn't mean the stream of patients through its door will dry up.

"There's no place else (the patients) can go," Lawson said. "I'm not going to tell them we can't serve them."

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Jared Janes covers Hidalgo County government, Edinburg and general assignments for The Monitor. He can be reached at (956) 683-4424.