| Grant paves way for free health care for kids |
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| Written by Kami Collins | |||
| Wednesday, 05 November 2008 03:00 | |||
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Thanks to a large state-funded grant, a new, free health care program is available to kids in Delta County.
Lee-Ann Short, coordinator of the Family Literacy and Resource Program, teamed up with Dr. Janet Moore from Delta Pediatrics to offer underinsured and uninsured children, up to age 18, help with various health care issues. Well-child checkups, immunizations and sports physicals will be offered under the new program to qualifying families. Kids with chronic health problems without access to regular health care will also be seen. Moore, who is donating her time, said the goal of the program is to help families in the county who are Medicaid or CHP+ elgible to get signed up for those programs. The visits will be used as a “hook” to get families into any available health programs, and eventually send kids to local health care facilities. Parents will be assisted in filling out applications for Medicaid, CHP+ and other health insurance providers. Short added that in the future, the program may help families get signed up with private insurance companies. For the first year of operation, however, Short and Moore want to offer free, preventive health care to Delta County children. The program is available after the two received a $50,000 grant from the Colorado Rural Health Care Center in May. Short and Moore are involved in Community Services for Children, a countywide group of agencies that serve children. It was through this group the two met and shared their idea of offering health care to kids who don’t get regular care because of the cost. “We each wanted to serve children,” Short said. “This seemed like a perfect fit.” “It would be great if parents could take advantage of this,” Moore said. Short added that parents who don’t have insurance will be able to get their children free health care, saving them a trip to the emergency room if they wait too long to treat illnesses or chronic conditions. Health care clinics will be established at schools in each community: Cedaredge High School, Crawford School, Delta Center, Hotchkiss K-8 and Paonia Elementary School. The clinics will be held at each school on a rotating basis once every five weeks. Each clinic will serve all of the public schools within that community. The next clinic is Nov. 10 at PES. The free health clinics will not be available for minor illnesses, like colds. Short and Moore are assisted in the clinics by the staff of the Family Literacy and Resource Program, Reuben Melgoza, who helps with outreach, and Mary Kuhn, the regional coordinator of the Child Health Plan, who will help with the insurance application process. Transportation is available to the clinic. Rides are also available to medical appointments or to the health department in Delta, if needed. Appointments for the clinics can be made by calling Short at 874-9517, extension 38. Questionnaires have gone out to parents asking about current health care needs and coverage. From this information, Short and Moore will be able to better gauge where help is needed most in the future.
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