By Tom Kertscher, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News
Mar. 3--RACINE, Wis.-- Word on whether the city will get a new federal health clinic will be delayed at least a few weeks, but officials said Tuesday they remain confident a grant will be won to help provide services to thousands of residents.
The announcement of grants from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services was to be made by March 15, but that will be delayed at least a few weeks, Mayor Gary Becker and other officials said.
More than 1,200 applications were made for what likely will be 160 grants, said Germantown consultant Sheik Bacchus, who spearheaded Racine's application. But the non-profit Racine group that made the application remains confident about its chances, he said.
Bacchus, who has years of experience in seeking federal health aid, said the Racine group has continued to maintain contact with federal officials in advocating for its application. Among the officials contacted are the staff of Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy G. Thompson and U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Janesville).
The non-profit Racine Community Health Center, which was incorporated several months ago, applied for the grant Dec. 1. The clinic would be named the Racine Community Health Center and based downtown on Wisconsin Ave. in a vacant building near St. Luke's Hospital.
If the clinic is approved, the local group would have to raise $700,000, with about $100,000 of that coming from the city and the county. The federal grant for the first year would be $650,000, and the state would contribute $180,000. The clinic could open as early as July.
The local group has made good progress toward raising the $700,000, Bacchus said.
Unlike the non-profit Health Care Network in Racine, which serves people with no health insurance, at the federal clinic, most clients would have some type of coverage, such as Medicare. The new clinic also would offer dental and mental health services.
Bacchus said the Racine clinic in its first year would handle 17,000 visits for medical care, 7,800 for dental services and more than 500 for mental health treatment. Revenue would exceed expenditures by the end of the second year, he predicted.
Wisconsin has 15 federal health clinics in the federal Community Health Centers program, according to the Wisconsin Primary Health Care Association. The state's oldest federal clinic, Sixteenth Street Community Health Center in Milwaukee, opened in 1969.
To see more of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.jsonline.com.
(c) 2004, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.
