Hope Clinic’s mission supported by county

ELLIS COUNTY – Hope Clinic, the only federally-qualified health center for the service area encompassing the entire county, has been servicing the needs of Ellis County residents since 1999.

Last week, the Ellis County Commissioner’s Court approved County Judge Todd Little’s letter of support to Hope Clinic.

Hope Clinic, with locations in Waxahachie and Ennis, is a non-profit, faith-based healthcare provider that offers Ellis County’s low-income residents a variety of medical services on a reduced payment basis.

The letter of support is part of Hope Clinic’s application process to maintain its status as a federally-qualified health center that receives exclusive grant funding for its services to Ellis County residents.

“Hope Clinic has blessed our low-income residents with a variety of healthcare services that may be otherwise inaccessible to them,” Little said. “As a faith-based organization, Hope Clinic has never failed to help those in need in our county. I am pleased to support their application to renew their federally-qualified status.”

Hope Clinic provides the county with healthcare services accessible to low-income individuals. Ellis County pays the non-profit clinic to cover qualifying indigent patients, but the clinic also needs the county to issue it a letter of support every three years as a part of its regular application to be a federally-qualified health center.

Being a federally-qualified health center allows Hope Clinic to accept Medicare and Medicaid while also giving it the exclusive right to a federal grant within its designated service area, thus enabling the clinic to offer low-income or uninsured patients a sliding-scale payment model based on federal poverty guidelines.

“We’ve just had so many stories in the past of how we’ve helped people when they didn’t have the money, insurance for healthcare, or knowledge of where to go,” said Barbara Clark, Hope Clinic’s CEO. “We call it a Patient Center Medical Home; we offer prenatal/postpartum services, for instance, and then we have pediatrics. We can also assign you a primary care physician, dental, and behavioral health services all in the same place.”

To receive the funding, Hope Clinic will apply for a Service Area Competitive Grant from the U.S. Health Resources & Services Administration (HRSA). In any given HRSA-recognized service area, non-profit healthcare centers compete with one another to be designated as that area’s federally-qualified health center.

Hope Clinic’s application for an HRSA Service Area Competitive Grant will be processed in the fall for approval and if approved will continue to serve the county through September 2024.