Polk County nonprofit health center receives $10 6M to make COVID-19 vaccine more accessible abcactionnews.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from abcactionnews.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
LAKELAND – One of Polk County s nonprofit health care providers has snagged a piece of the $6.1 billion offered to health care providers as part of the latest federal stimulus package.
Central Florida Health Care, based in Lakeland, will receive $10,612,750 through the American Rescue Plan to expand its COVID vaccination and treatment operations. The nonprofit operates six clinics in Polk and three in Hardee and Highland counties.
It is one of 47 health centers in Florida to receive a one-time grant through the latest federal stimulus program. Each location s monetary award was calculated at $500,000 base plus $125 per patient federally reported in 2019, with an additional $250 per uninsured patient.
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A man gets the coronavirus vaccine shot at an outdoor vaccination site at Lakewood Ranch in Bradenton, Florida. (AP Photo/Chris O Meara)
Changes in the way vaccines are distributed in Florida, and in how residents can sign up to get them, have left some rural health care providers frustrated.
In the waning days of 2020, Florida was sending vaccines to Federally Qualified Health Centers and hospitals to help with distribution. But recently, a change in state policy meant that vaccines from the state allotment were only going to county health departments. Hospitals were only able to give vaccines to the extremely medically vulnerable.
A nonprofit medical network is supplementing the state’s efforts to get people in Polk County vaccinated against COVID-19.
Central Florida Health Care, based in Lakeland, expects to receive 500 vaccine doses this week for dispensing to people on the waiting list of the Florida Department of Health in Polk County. That figure compares with 14,000 doses the health department anticipates injecting into arms this week.
The nonprofit operates six clinics in Polk County and three in Hardee and Highlands counties.
Central Florida Health Care is a Federally Qualified Health Center and receives funding though a program of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, as well as state and local subsidies. The nonprofit provides a range of care at reduced or no cost, and many of its patients have no health insurance.