State free clinic officials

discuss future in Boone
By Scott Nicholson

Officials from North Carolina’s 77 free clinics gathered in Boone last week for a three-day conference to address community health-care challenges.

The North Carolina Association of Free Clinics was formed in 1998, expanding on the work of free health clinics that have been around for more than 40 years. North Carolina has more free clinics than any other state, and they are facing what executive director Jason Baisden calls a “perfect storm” of difficulties.

“We’re facing increased demand with decreased money,’ Baisden said, noting that clinics were struggling because their traditional benefactors, large endowment trust funds, had less money generated through investment interest. Additionally, private donors have their own economic challenges.

“We have the need for more money,” Baisden said. “Of course, organizations always say they need more money, but more and more people are being laid off and are showing up at free clinics. Even some people who once donated are now finding themselves as patients at the clinics.

“Our message to the community is we understand times are tough, but if you’re going to give at all, give to health care, because it affects so many other things. It’s very difficult for sick people to look for work.”

Free clinics are community-based, drawing on the volunteer services of health-care professionals as well as local donations and grants. Free clinics have seen increased numbers of patients as people lose their jobs and, with it, their health insurance. Watauga County has the highest rate of uninsured people in the state, at more than 30 percent.

Free clinics target low-income, uninsured people and Baisden called free clinics “the last stop” before patients turned up in the emergency room, which typically results in much higher costs that are often borne in some way or another by the public.

“Demand has been increasing, going back into last year,” Baisden said. “It’s now moving into midlevel managers, people who had once been donors and are now showing up at free clinics. Their insurance payments are higher than their mortgages, and they can’t keep things going. Health-related crises are one of the leading causes of bankruptcy.”

Baisden learned firsthand how fragile even a seemingly secure financial situation can be. His father was a bank vice-president, and his brother was employed through a public school system. Both lost their jobs and struggled with medical care, and Baisden said an outside observer might have thought, “This could never happen to them.”

He said free clinics did more than just take care of the lowest socioeconomic group. Such clinics had proven value because they use volunteer services, both from practitioners and those who help with organizational tasks.

“We have a critical role in providing care,” Baisden said. “We can stretch dollars unlike any other entity. Free clinics may change the role of the whole (health-care) system. There will always be a gap somewhere.”

Conference attendees toured the Community Care Clinic in Boone Wednesday and also discussed NCMedAssist, a pilot program to provide prescription medicine to uninsured and underinsured people.

Free clinics offer care to anyone at little or no charge, through partnerships with health-care providers. They also have a mission to deliver compassionate care.

The three-day conference took place Wednesday through Friday at the Broyhill Inn & Conference Center.

Boone’s Community Care Clinic launched in 2006 and is open from 5 to 8 p.m. each Wednesday.