Oklahoma City clinics offer relief for people struggling to pay for medical care

Pam, 46, unemployed and lacking health insurance, sought assistance at a hospital emergency room last year for her high blood pressure and diabetes. Ken Craig, 60, had lost a good-paying job and had no health insurance when he went to an ER with pneumonia in 2013.

Both were referred to medical clinics in the metro that treat uninsured people for either no charge, a nominal fee or on a sliding scale.

Pam went to the free Crossings Community Clinic in The Village, and Craig sought help from the Open Arms Clinic in Oklahoma City, which charges $20 for the first visit and $10 for subsequent visits.

Both are faith-based, rely on donations and volunteers and are among more than 15 local clinics available to people who meet income guidelines and have little or no health insurance. They are among those listed in a “safety net” clinic registry maintained by the Oklahoma City-based Health Alliance for the Uninsured.

Health Alliance Executive Director Pam Cross-Cupit said an estimated 80 percent of Oklahomans who are uninsured or underinsured are in working families.

“If they are not diagnosed and treated, they cannot work,” she said.

Facing a health crisis

With an estimated 17 percent of Oklahoma residents either uninsured or inadequately insured, Cross-Cupit said, Oklahoma is in the midst of a health crisis.

“Uninsured individuals are less likely to receive preventive care and more likely to be hospitalized for conditions that could have been avoided,” she said.

“They receive primary care — if at all — at safety net clinics or hospital emergency rooms, all of which are overwhelmed."

Cross-Cupit said the Health Alliance was formed in 2005 at the behest of Dr. Murali Krishna, president of Integris Mental Health. He and other hospital executives were concerned about the rising cost of health care, particularly for the uninsured, Cross-Cupit said.

Today, the Alliance has 16 funding partners and 11 corporate and community partners, and is a United Way partner agency. It works with federally-qualified and sliding-scale health centers that receive federal funding and other funding to provide care, she said.

Stanley Hupfeld, CEO of Integris Health when the Health Alliance for the Uninsured was formed, is president of the board of directors.

Pam, who did not want her last name used, said the Crossings Community Clinic at 10255 N Pennsylvania Ave. proved to be a blessing to her, especially when tests revealed she had kidney failure.

“I was able to get my blood pressure under control, and they helped with the medications I could not afford,” she said.

“It means a lot to me to be able to see a doctor here. I come at least every couple of months."

Pam said when she was diagnosed with kidney failure, she was referred to a nephrologist who agreed to work with her on the medications she needed.

Crossings Community Clinic, which moved into its 18,000-square-foot clinic in The Village about two years ago, offers medical, dental and vision care and counseling. The clinic is a missions and outreach ministry of Crossings Community Church, with corporate partners that include Delta Dental, Love's Country Stores, the Anschutz Foundation and the Butterfield Memorial Foundation. It features eight exam rooms, six dental chairs and an ophthalmology service.

Crossings missions and outreach pastor, Pam Millington, said the clinic was started 12 years ago.

“We have a lot of medical providers in our church,” Millington said. “Our desire is to have a place that honors God but gives our people a place to serve. For us, we do this as a way to share Jesus with people."

Steve Turner, executive director, said the clinic has a paid medical director and a physician assistant but relies heavily on volunteers, who provided about 15,000 hours of service last year. There were about 8,000 patient visits last year, he said.

“We want to be serving the least of these,” he said, referring to a Bible passage.

“We feel like we are, in a medical sense. We are called as Christ's followers to serve, and to show how much God loves people by serving and giving back.”

Treating the whole person

Thaddeus Mock, executive director of the Open Arms Clinic, 5252 N Meridian Ave., said the clinic was started in 1993 by the Oklahoma County Medical Society, MacArthur Free Methodist Church (now Resurrection Free Methodist Church), where weekly clinics were held initially; and Deaconess Hospital.

The clinic is now supported largely by the Butterfield Memorial Foundation, and by donations. Its other partnerships include the Great Plains Family Medical Residency Program, Christian Community Health Fellowship, City Rescue Mission, Oklahoma County Medical Society, Oklahoma City Community Foundation and RX for Oklahoma, which provides free medication to people who meet financial criteria, Mock said. Fundraisers also help, he said.

Open Arms has eight exam rooms and employs a physician assistant, nurse practitioner and chaplain. It is open five days a week, with evening hours one day a week. Mock said more than 1,900 patients were treated last year.

Open Arms also operates a nurse triage clinic at the City Rescue Mission.

Mock said the clinic's goal is to “treat the whole person,” spiritually as well as physically.

“There is a spiritual component to this,” he said. “Stress, anxiety — all of that affects their health.”

Craig said he moved to Oklahoma City in 2008 as a senior design engineer. The company changed hands a year later, and he was left without a job or health insurance. He became ill with viral pneumonia and high blood pressure in 2013 and eventually found Open Arms.

He located the clinic, he said, through “dumb luck, extreme poverty” and persistence by his partner, Renata.

“They treat you with respect, and like a human being,” Craig said. “Open Arms has kept me alive.”

Some of the clinics offer specialized medical services. Crossings Community Clinic and Good Shepherd Ministries in Oklahoma City, and Ministries of Jesus, Edmond, offer dental care, Cross-Cupit said. Christ Community Health Coalition provides pediatric services, and Lighthouse Medical Clinic provides extensive treatment of hepatitis C cases, she said.

Free or minimal cost health care is available to Oklahoma City's homeless population, whose members often lack health insurance and the financial means to pay for care. Dan Straughan, executive director of the Homeless Alliance, said clients are referred to Community Health Centers Inc., which operates Healing Hands clinics in Spencer and northwest Oklahoma City.

Homeless Alliance offers a free clinic once a month and averages about 130 patient visits, with most treated for chronic diseases, foot problems and trauma from injuries.

“A substantial number of people sleep outside and get tick-borne diseases,” Straughan said.

“Sixty percent of our clients are unsheltered, homeless people. The rest are at the overnight shelters in Oklahoma City but still have health issues.”

Straughan said it is rare for Homeless Alliance clients to have health insurance, although children in some families are covered by SoonerCare, the state insurance for low-income people.

To learn more

For information about accessing health care in the metro, call 211, a 24-hour helpline operated by HeartLine Inc. For more information about the Oklahoma City Health Alliance for the Uninsured or any of the safety-net clinics listed in their registry, call 286-3343 or go to www.hauonline.org.