Iowa health centers to get Department of Health and Human Services funds

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services awarded $768,159 to 14 community health centers in Iowa, including Cedar Rapids, to help the centers enroll uninsured residents in insurance plans under the Affordable Care Act.

The 14 centers received $1,474,583 last year under the same federal program.

Cedar Rapids' Linn Community Care, 1201 3rd Ave. SE, received $28,388. Last year it was awarded $64,324.

According to HHS, the 14 health centers have 94 sites that served 181,781 patients last year - of those patients served, 32.86 percent were uninsured.  The health centers will hire 26 workers to assist 37,030 people enroll in insurance coverage, according to a release.

The health centers will use the funds to expand hours of existing outreach and enrollment assistance and hire new or temporary outreach and enrollment assistance workers.

““These centers are a lifeline for many who would otherwise find care out of reach," said Sen. Tom Harkin in a press release.

In Harkin's role as chair of the Senate panel that funds health initiatives, he included a provision in the Fiscal Year 2013 funding bill that led to the release of these funds.