Patient Numbers and Chronic Diseases Surge at America's Nonprofit Clinics

Direct Relief report documents broad reach, increasing pressures, and key role of nonprofit health centers and clinics for over 21 million people

Santa Barbara, Calif., June 16, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ --The increasing pressure on America's nonprofit community clinics and health centers was documented in a report released today by Direct Relief International summarizing the most extensive data assembled on safety net providers who care for the country's most vulnerable people.

Private, nonprofit community health centers and clinics are an essential component of the safety net of the healthcare system in the United States through the provision of primary care and referral services to patients with low incomes and without insurance.  Reduced funding from both government and private charitable contributions stretches the safety net facilities struggling to meet increased demand from new patients who have lost jobs and health insurance.

Direct Relief's "State of the Safety Net" report summarizes national information about the activities at America's nonprofit community-based clinics and health centers from 2006 to 2009.  Collectively, these independently run nonprofit organizations operate over 8,000 community-based facilities in all 50 states for over 21 million people, of whom 38% lack health insurance and 71% of whom earn incomes of less than $22,000 a year for a family of four.

The key findings of the report conclude that the safety net providers are seeing:

• More Patients 
• Accelerating Demand for Services
• Increased Number of Uninsured Patients
• More Patients with Chronic Conditions
• More Medicaid Patients Accessing Care

The findings were derived from a review of a vast amount of data, including federally audited data from the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) related to FQHCs as well as surveys of more than 1,000 clinics and health centers in all 50 states that participate in Direct Relief USA's program.

Direct Relief is the only U.S. nonprofit organization licensed to distribute prescription medications in all 50 states and provides donations of prescription medicine and medical supplies to help partner facilities provide care for low-income, uninsured patients.  It is the largest such nonprofit program in the U.S.

Thomas Tighe President and CEO of Direct Relief said, "This report provides a clearer view of the sheer breadth and critical role of America's nonprofit community health centers and clinics in providing access to primary healthcare services.  It also documents the significant pressures faced by both the nonprofit providers of care and the more than 21 million patients they see."

The report grew out of Direct Relief's expanding program, through which it works with private healthcare companies and private funders to provide nonprofit health centers and clinics donated medications and supplies for patients who have low incomes and lack insurance.

"It was important for us to get more and more specific information to understand the pressures on these individual private, nonprofit facilities so we could help in a systematic way," said Tighe.  "But it became rapidly clear that this information about thousands of independently run community facilities caring for 21 million people is important to share broadly, since under any scenario we can imagine, these facilities are and will continue to be critically important resources in our country," said Tighe.

Full survey results are available here: http://www.directrelief.org/uploadedFiles/SafetyNetReport2011.pdf.

The data analyzed in this report has been aggregated into a searchable database and is available online at data.directrelief.org. 

About Direct Relief International
Direct Relief International is California's largest medical relief organization, active in 70 countries. In the United States, Direct Relief has provided medicines and medical supplies valued at over $250 million (wholesale), to more than 1,000 safety net clinics and health centers in all 50 states and the District of Columbia since the program's inception in 2004.  The organization has been among the world's largest medical suppliers in Haiti after the 2010 earthquake, has top charity ratings, including four-star and "top-notch" rating from Charity Navigator, and a 100% fundraising efficiency rating from Forbes magazine. For more information, please visit www.DirectRelief.org.

CONTACT: Kelley Kaufman, Communications Manager, +1-805-879-4943, cell: +1-805-637-2491, [email protected]  

SOURCE Direct Relief International