The Medical Center of Central Georgia is cutting hours, clinics and pharmacy offerings at its W.T. Anderson Health Center, which provides primary and specialty care to the poor.
In addition, the Anderson Health Center will not be accepting new primary care patients into its CarePartners program, which provides primary and specialty care on a sliding-fee scale based on patients’ income, assets and insurance.
Most of the savings is expected to come from pharmacy cutbacks, said Sandra Higgison, business operations director for the Anderson Health Center. The center’s pharmacy will offer only about a quarter of the drugs it does now, she said.
Bibb County, which always has provided funding to the Medical Center to offset the cost of treating the county’s poor, cut the hospital’s allocation by almost $3 million for fiscal 2010. Hospital CEO Don Faulk had said the hospital would have to cut programs for the poor accordingly.
Rhonda Perry, chief financial officer for the Medical Center, said last month that the hospital spends about $25 million for charity care to Bibb County residents, although some of that is reimbursed through state and federal payments. The Medical Center will receive $1 million from Bibb County for charity care in fiscal 2010.
Read the complete story at macon.com
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