Update: Federal funds to help open health clinic in Mountain Grove

Last edited at 4:48 p.m. May 6, 2015.

Douglas County Public Health Services Group Inc. is among five community health centers in Missouri to share in over $3.25 million in Affordable Care Act funding dedicated to new service access points, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced yesterday.

The Douglas County group was awarded $541,667 to open a new clinic in Mountain Grove, CEO Tim Shryack said this afternoon. It operates four federally qualified health centers under the name Missouri Ozarks Community Health in Ava, Cabool, Gainesville and Mansfield.

"It's already in one of our service counties," Shryack said of the plans to open the new clinic in late summer.

According to the HHS, other Missouri health centers receiving ACA funding are the Regional Health Care Clinic Inc. in Sedalia, $1.08 million; Northeast Missouri Health Council Inc. in Kirksville, $596,667; Family Health Center of Boone County in Columbia, $548,703; and Pathways Community Behavioral Healthcare Inc. in Clinton, $487,500.

The Missouri centers are projected to increase access to health care services for nearly 15,780 patients, according to a news release. Nationally, over $100 million was awarded to 164 new health center sites to provide health care to nearly 650,000 patients.

“The Affordable Care Act has led to unprecedented increases in access to health insurance,” HHS Secretary Sylvia Burwell said in the release. “Part of building on that progress is connecting people to the care they need.”

In the last four years, the ACA has helped fund over 550 new health center sites, according to the release. Nearly 30 health centers in Missouri operate roughly 200 service delivery sites that provide care to some 442,000 patients.[[In-content Ad]]