Health Beat: Arkansas Health Centers Receive $3 Million To Expand Primary Care Services

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ARKANSAS HEALTH CENTERS RECEIVE $3 MILLION IN ACA FUNDING TO EXPAND PRIMARY CARE SERVICES: The Department of Health and Human Services on Tuesday (Sept. 15) awarded nearly $500 million in Affordable Care Act funding to support health centers nationwide in providing primary care services to those who need them most, Secretary Sylvia Burwell announced Tuesday (Sept. 15). Eleven Arkansas health centers received a total of $3.09 million to provide 6,059 new patients with primary care services.

The awards include approximately $350 million for 1,184 health centers to increase access to services such as medical, oral, behavioral, pharmacy, and vision care. Nearly $150 million will be awarded to 160 health centers for facility renovation, expansion, or construction to increase patient or service capacity.

UAMS AWARDS $20,000 SCHOLARSHIP TO ASPIRING PRIMARY CARE PHYSICIANS: The University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) has awarded each of two senior medical students a $20,000 scholarship funded by Arkansas Blue Cross and Blue Shield Primary Care Scholarship to encourage aspiring physicians to pursue primary care practices in Arkansas, especially in rural areas where access to primary care is limited.

Nora Gibbons, who grew up in Ozark and Stuttgart, Ark., and Lauren Lavender, from Little Rock, are this year’s recipients of the Arkansas Blue Cross and Blue Shield Primary Care Scholarship. The scholarship has been presented to two UAMS College of Medicine juniors or seniors annually since 2012.

BAPTIST HEALTH TO OFFER DISTANCE COUNSELING SERVICES: The Baptist Health Counseling Center is now offering a distance counseling service where a counselor in Little Rock can serve individuals across the state via encrypted video, encrypted email or by telephone. The same counseling services will be offered via distance counseling as are offered in person: personal; marriage, family and relationship; critical incident debriefing; conflict management/resolution; assessment and referral; work and career issues; grief/bereavement; stress management; basic life skills; financial; and spiritual direction. Read more here.

UAMS GRANT WILL TEST NANO-BASED CANCER TREATMENT: UAMS researcher Vladimir Zharov, Ph.D., D.Sc., was awarded a $1.7 million grant by the National Cancer Institute to clinically test a technology that uses lasers to detect and destroy melanomas without harming normal cells. The technology could be 1,000 times more effective at detecting circulating tumor cells than current technology. It also is capable of examining a patient’s entire blood volume in real time. Read more here on this promising breakthrough effort.