She said the new clinic, that will be located at 333 Conover Drive in Franklin, will employ 14 full-time health care workers as well as bring health care services to about 3,200 people in its first year who are living below 200 percent of the poverty level. Primary care services would be provided on a sliding scale fee structure or by billing a person’s insurance plan if he or she has one.
Earlier this year, Dr. Mike Oberdoerster, medical director of Talbert House, said the organization received funding equivalent to 14 months due to government delays in announcing the award recipient. Oberdoerster said the some primary and dental care services should be in operation by the end of February. He said the new center is currently hiring its staff.
“We’re very happy that we got such a strong response to our ads (for health care workers),” Oberdoerster said.
He said as long as the program is able to provide a sufficient amount of services for these people, the grant will be renewed annually.
This week, he reiterated that this disparity includes higher numbers of cardiovascular disease, child obesity, hypertension and diabetes in the Franklin-Carlisle area compared to the rest of Warren County and the state.
“The numbers are pretty striking,” he said.
Between 1,200 and 1,500 centers provide health care services to 22 million people nationally, Oberdoerster said. He also said that some of these centers have multiple sites.
“We want to bring good, quality health care to the underserved and under insured,” Oberdoerster said. “We don’t want to compete with anyone. We want to get barriers away from people.”
He said the new center would also compliment the clinics that are operated by the Warren County Combined Health Department at the officers on Conover Drive.
“They have been very good partners and they have seen the need to provide more services than they can,” Oberdoerster said. “They have been very supportive.”
In addition to the new center, the county currently operates a child health care clinic and an adult clinic at the Conover Health Center on Conover Drive.
Fees for services at the center operated by Warren County are figured on a sliding scale based on household income and there is a $10 co-pay per visit. A physician, a registered nurse, a nutritionist, a case worker and a secretary staff the clinic. Those who access the health department’s clinic cannot have Medicare or any other private medical insurance and must be Warren County residents.
Franklin Mayor Scott Lipps said discussions to establish a health care center started about 18 months ago as Talbert House was initially interested in opening a dental clinic to address a severe need for those services.
“They reached out to us because they were interested in opening a dental clinic,” he said. “Now it’s a heck of a lot bigger.”
Lipps said everyone connected to the project have been very supportive and he said the city is making plans that it will be successful.
“We’re really excited about it,” Lipps said.
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