Bishop announces funding for health care facilities
Apr. 6—ALBANY — Congressman Sanford D. Bishop Jr., D-Ga., announced three federal awards from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services through the Health Resources and Services Administration totaling $7.2 million to Primary Care of Southwest Georgia Inc. ($3,719,263), First Choice Primary Care Inc. ($3,050,601), and Albany Area Primary Health Care Inc ($500,000).
These awards will help to improve and expand health care services for the people of Blakely, Macon and Albany and surrounding areas, Bishop said in a news release
"Making sure that people have access to affordable health care close to home is one of my top priorities — especially for rural and underserved communities that are also often financially strained and cope with higher rates of chronic illnesses," Bishop said. "Primary care is the first step toward maintaining good health, diagnosing illnesses, and connecting patients to specialists who can treat them.
"When people have health care closer to home, they are more likely to seek and stick to treatments that keep them healthy and are less costly in the long run. That has downstream effects on our communities with children being in a better position to learn, healthier adults in our work force, and decreasing the likely burden on hospitals and programs like Medicaid and Medicare to treat otherwise preventable health problems."
These federal awards were made possible by the Health Center Cluster Program and the Teach Health Center Planning and Development Program.
The Health Center Cluster Program helps to provide financial assistance to Health Centers so they can continue offering comprehensive services in underserved communities, while the Teaching Health Center Planning and Development Program supports the development of new accredited primary care residency programs in family medicine, internal medicine, pediatrics, internal medicine-pediatrics, psychiatry, obstetrics and gynecology, general dentistry, pediatric dentistry, and geriatrics to address the physician work force shortages and challenges faced by rural and underserved communities.
