Clinics Go Mobile To Take Health Care To The Street

Jessica Camille Aguirre, NPR News — Wed, 22 Aug 2012 14:47:00 +0000

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, medical director of community pediatrics at Georgetown University, calls mobile health clinics permanently temporary.

He runs in a truck that stations itself at various parking spots throughout Washington at regular hours during the week. He says the clinics like his are both a stopgap and a potential solution for for many people.

Insurance coverage of mental illness and addiction problems often is skimpier than for physical illness. But that is changing with the mental health parity law that took effect earlier this year and the new health overhaul.

Mobile clinics have become common in the last two decades. The clinics aim to bring care to communities that are short on insurance and health care providers.

But the clinics’ focus on the uninsured has led some to question whether the mobile model will be rendered moot by under the Affordable Care Act.

, executive director of the Mobile Health Clinics Association, credits the boom of mobile health clinics in recent years to a rise in people without insurance.

But assuming more insurance coverage alone will wipe out barriers to care is overly optimistic, she says. Just because some gaps in insurance coverage are being filled, DeLorenzo says, doesn’t mean gaps in the care system have been.

She thinks the clinics are here to stay. And she’s not alone.

“Mobile works because it take down geographic barriers to health services; it takes down cultural barriers,” says Georgetown’s Levy, standing outside the van on First St. in southeast Washington on a recent Friday afternoon. “We’re here. We’ve been here. We’re part of the community.”

And that’s why Kesia Brighthaupt brought her 11-year-old son here for an before the school year starts. They’ve been coming since Jamari was 4, even though Brighthaupt is one of the few clinic clients who has private insurance.

“I’ve built up a good rapport with the doctors,” Brighthaupt says. “And besides, it’s just so much easier to get here.”

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Jessica Camille Aguirre, NPR News, Author at �鶹Ů�� Health News

Clinics Go Mobile To Take Health Care To The Street