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Keystone Health Center Holds a Beacon of Light in a Wave of Uninsured Residents in Central Pennsylvania
Statistics released last fall by the U.S. Census Bureau estimated that 39 million Americans lacked health coverage in 2000, and the additional 2.2 million people uninsured in 2001 indicates the nation faces 41.2 million children, adults and elderly completely without basic medical coverage. "The hard truth is Americans without health care coverage live sicker and die younger," Yank D. Coble Jr., MD, president-elect of the American Medical Association, said in a recent news conference held in Washington, D.C. "In a great nation such as ours, this is unacceptable. We face a crisis, and we need to act," Dr. Coble said. "The good health of our patients and our security as a nation depend on it." Closer to home, Joanne Cochran, president and CEO of Keystone Health Center in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, says she is all too familiar with the crisis because she faces it everyday in Franklin County. "The truth is, an overwhelming number of uninsured and medically underserved are located right in our backyard," Ms. Cochran said. "Although the health care crisis has been aggravated by a dragging economy, the residents of rural Pennsylvania have been suffering without health care coverage for several decades now. And each month the number of unemployed and working poor continue to grow." Joanne Cochran, a nurse, has made it her lifelong mission to provide medical assistance to the less fortunate within our community. Cochran co-founded Keystone Migrant Health Center in 1986 to provide health care to migrant and seasonal farm workers residing and working in Franklin County. Today the organization has evolved into Keystone Rural Health Center, a public, non-profit organization that employs more than 100 physicians, nurses and staff and provides quality health care to individuals and families, with and without health insurance. "Our growth as an organization is a testament to the need for accessible medical care in Franklin County," Cochran said. "Our practice has experienced growth from 500 patients in 1992 to more than 15,000 in 1997 to nearly 40,000 in 2001. And the number of uninsured patients is expected to increase as more families become part of the working poor and local wages for entry-level positions remain low." With a mission of providing quality health care in a compassionate manner to everyone in the community regardless of ability to pay, race or culture, or particular disease, Keystone Health Center reaches out to at-risk children, and families, immigrants, migrant farm workers, homeless people, the frail elderly, residents of public housing, a broad range of racial, ethnic and language groups, as well as those at risk for HIV/AIDS, substance abuse, and other chronic and catastrophic diseases. Keystone currently operates five primary care sites: Keystone Health Center family practice, Keystone Dental Center, Keystone Women's Care, Keystone Health Center-Path Valley satellite family practice, and the State Migrant Farmworker Administration Office. Keystone also operates one, year-round migrant and seasonal farmworker site in Berks County and one seasonal farmworker site in Adams County. Services are also provided through outreach workers and contracted providers in counties across the Commonwealth. Keystone Rural Health Center receives funding from the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) and the Public Health Service Act. HRSA has designated the migrant farmworker and low-income populations and almost all of Franklin County a Health Professional Shortage Area and a Medically Underserved Area. Currently, Keystone Rural Health Center generates the majority of its revenues through services paid by Medicaid, Medicare, health maintenance organizations and private insurance companies. "With the help of community support and our paying patient base whose fees subsidize the cost of medical care for the uninsured, we will continue our efforts to provide quality health care services to all residents of Franklin County," Ms. Cochran says. "As the unemployment rate continues to increase, we will remain focused on our mission--no one will ever be turned away regardless of their ability to pay." With 101 full-time and 17 part-time physicians and staff, Keystone Rural Health Center provides services including medical care, dental care, gynecological and obstetrical care, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) treatment and counseling, case management, alcohol/substance abuse treatment, housing assistance, contracted pharmacy, laboratory screening, outreach, language translation, transportation, health education, health care translation, state migrant program administration, Franklin County migrant farm worker program, Adams County migrant farm worker program, Berks County migrant farm worker program, and services to its 39,600 clients (27,600 in Franklin County and a registered 12,000 migrant and seasonal farm workers throughout the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania). For more information regarding Keystone Rural Health Center, please visit the website at www.keystonehealth.com. For more information regarding this news release, please contact Karen Gross at (717) 975-2148, or visit the newsroom at www.hersheyphilbin.com. |
