Health Care
Nonprofits Assistance Fund partners with many of the community health centers that make up Minnesota’s health care safety net. These vital clinics and health care providers serve people who may not otherwise have access to quality medical or dental services because they are uninsured or seriously underinsured.
The current health care crisis makes these community clinics especially critical. Since 1999, the number of uninsured patients in Minnesota has increased by almost eight percent each year and the number of underinsured patients – who are dependant on public health programs, such as Medicaid or MinnesotaCare – has increased by more than fifteen percent each year. These underserved populations face multiple obstacles, which are magnified by the severe or chronic conditions faced by patients who have not had consistent access to care. Additional costs, including translators and health care educators, are often needed to adequately serve these community health centers’ very diverse patients.
Most
of our work with community health centers has been for loans help with cash
flow shortfalls caused by processing time and delays of reimbursements caused
by a web of public programs and the high costs of facilities, equipment and
medical supplies. These clinics are
constantly under financial stress because of the complex and changing system of
payment, reimbursement, and grant funds that make up their financing. They must navigate through
multiple public programs and processes to receive reimbursements. Sometimes payments are delayed for more than a year
while they work through reporting, documentation, and reconciling overlapping
programs and their requirements.
Minnesota Primary Care Fund
Nonprofits Assistance Fund’s lending and financial
management assistance for clinics and other health care providers is part of
the Minnesota Primary Care Fund. This
program has been supported by capital funds and grants from the Robert Wood Johnson
Foundation and is a partnership with The Minnesota Department of Health’s Office of Rural Health and Primary Care. The ORHPC provides
a variety of research, information and grant programs. Read their 2007 Summer Newsletter,
which provides an overview of Minnesota’s community health centers.
You can also read Nonprofits Assistance
Fund’s report about this work, Patient Capital: Minnesota Primary Care Loan Fund 10-Year
Report.
Featured Story
Cedar Riverside People’s Center
"Nonprofits Assistance Fund believed in us and helped us get on top of our financial situation as our business expanded. I appreciated their understanding of the nonprofit, health care, and finance/lending sectors. They were professional, disciplined and direct in helping me know what I was getting into." Peggy Metzer, executive director of the Cedar Riverside People's Center
The Cedar Riverside People’s Center has
been providing primary health care to low-income and socially disenfranchised
communities for 35 years. Located near
the University of Minnesota, the clinic provides services on a sliding fee scale to students
and a growing Somali population. A combination
of rapid growth in patients and delays in payments from the State of Minnesota put
enormous pressure on the clinic’s cash flow. Peggy Metzer turned to Nonprofits Assistance
Fund and the Minnesota Primary Care Fund for financing that allowed the clinic
to realize their vision of providing consistent and excellent health services
to the Riverside community. Continue
reading about this partnership.