The Emporia Gazette

May 27, 2012

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Flint Hills Community Health Center board of directors accepted the proposed 2008 budget and heard from the Emporia Community Foundation during Tuesday afternoon’s monthly board meeting.

A summary of the 2008 budget was presented to the board. The budget includes an increase of more than $524,000 in patient revenue. The majority of this increase attributed to the dental clinic, which is projected to get another dentist and has seen an increase in fees.

Also according to the budget, FHCHC will request $100,000 back from Lyon County to be put back into the Family Planning and Public Health area.

Several expenses are on the increase for 2008. Cost of the 340B drug program is expected to increase by more than $23,000 because more people are using it. Vaccines are expected to rise $50,000 because of the addition of vaccines such as Gardasil, which protects against certain types of the human papillomavirus (HPV).

Ken Calhoun, executive director of the Emporia Community Foundation, spoke to board members about what the foundation could offer the health center if it chose to set up a foundation with them. During April’s meeting, health center board members discussed starting up a foundation, Friends of the FHCHC/LCHD.

Calhoun said Emporia Community Foundation does not charge a fee, but asks for a contribution from its members — 1 percent of the assets of the funds, payable yearly.

“That’s a contribution to us,” Calhoun said. “We rely on contributions and it helps us do our job.”

Calhoun said the minimum balance is $10,000, but not all that money has to be up front. He said the hope is that an organization gets there within two to three years.

Lougene Marsh, executive director of the FHCHC, said that an initial $3,000 in seed money would be put into the fund. The money comes from an award that Marsh received. She said any additional ways to raise money to get up to the minimum balance would be at the discretion of the board of directors.

“Many community health centers do have foundations to help support them,” Marsh said. “It’s not unheard of at all. But I think we would want to be thoughtful in any type of fund-raising activity that we decided to move forward with.”

Marsh suggested moving the needed money for the minimum balance from the patient fee account. Discussion then turned to where the funds would make the most money.

“We’re not looking at a spot to put money to make money,” Board Chair Helen Gibson said. “It’s not the day-to-day bills that we are paying. It’s not operations.”

After a lengthy discussion, the item was tabled. A draft of the proposed bylaws will be brought to the June board meeting.

Other items addressed during Wednesday’s board meeting:

• Chuck Torres has taken the job of primary care manager.

• Board members accepted the audit for the 2006 fiscal year.

Items included in written reports:

• April 340B activity reported by Graves Pharmacy: 998 prescriptions were dispensed to 634 patients. The average cost to the client was $6.22 per prescription with the average cost to patients greater than 100 percent of the federal poverty level at $2.89.

• Net patient revenue was $120, 272. The number of patient contacts decreased from 1, 411 in March and 1, 379 in April. The reason for the decrease was largely due to a provider being gone for two weeks. Dental contacts increased from 281 in March to 301 in April.