News: (May 15, 2008)
Miami Beach Community Health Center a Focus of a Chamber Article
Community Health Centers: Convenient | High Quality | Low Cost | Healthcare
CONTRIBUTORS: By Marvin Cordero, Michael Kesti and Hilda S. Mitrani
If you or someone in your company lacks health insurance, you should know that medical care is available without the need to pay a private doctor or go to an emergency room.
However, low cost, high quality medical treatment is available throughout Greater Miami. Two options are clinics run by the Jackson Health System and the federally qualified health care centers known as Community Health Centers. These types of centers are also referred to as medical homes.
Ideally, everyone should have a medical home, whether it’s a primary care physician or a clinic that you always go to first.
Patients benefit from having an established medical home. When patients are continuously treated by one team, they have improved odds of being in good health; they reduce the risk of new medical problems and have better management of chronic conditions such as diabetes, asthma, or heart disease. This ultimately leads to fewer hospitalizations and fewer visits to the ER. (You can learn more on the website of the National Association of Community Health Centers www.nachc.org.)
Community Health Centers are health centers that treat everyone and costs are determined on a sliding fee scale based upon their ability to pay, and the centers accept health insurance from those possessing coverage. Patients are treated as they would be in a private doctor’s office, and can receive laboratory exams and prescription drugs, regardless of health insurance, income, job status, assets, or immigration status. Patients who work but have no health insurance typically pay rates that are considerably lower than they would if seen by a private physician or in a hospital emergency room. Sometimes, treatment, diagnostic tests and medicines are offered free of cost.
Miami Beach Community Health Center and Jackson Health has several clinics near you. These clinics provide high quality convenient healthcare services. The services range from Primary Care, Pediatrics, OB/GYN, Laboratory, radiology, Mental Health, HIV/AIDS Care, Pharmacy, Disease Management, Health Education, Social Services, Healthy Starts, mobile unit (JHS), other services, and they assist in coordinating and applying for health benefits. There is always a medical home near your neighborhood.
