Clinic seeks helpwith fund raising

Clinic seeks help with fund raising

Those who wish to keep the Wahkiakum Family Practice Clinic in the community are invited to a planning meeting on March 16 at the River Street Meeting Room from 6 to 7:30 p.m.

The session will include brain storming on ways to raise funds for the Keep the Clinic Open Fund which is supported by patients and the community. It is designed to offset the low reimbursement rates from most insurers. Right now the clinic receives approximately 65 cents on the dollar of services it bills to all the insurance carriers, Medicare, and Medicaid combined. Furthermore, most of those insurance carriers and the federal programs prohibit the clinic from charging the patient for the unreimbursed portion of the bill. This means that 35 cents of every dollar billed has to be made up out of clinic revenue.

Calls have come from community members with ideas and questions about clinic funding and the Clinic Advisory Board is attempting to address all the ideas and inquiries. They will also be forming a Fund Raising Committee as suggested by citizens at the public input meetings in November 2008.

The meeting will be facilitated by Sandi Benbrook Rieder, a member of the Clinic Advisory Board and the newly formed Clinic Governing Board who will help the group start their organizational process.

Questions can be emailed to Benbrook at slbenbrook@yahoo.com or by calling 795-3294.