Two Starr County clinics for uninsured shut doors

RIO GRANDE CITY - In a case of terrible timing, two clinics that cater to Starr County's large indigent community shut their doors Thursday, turning away patients concerned about emerging cases of swine flu.

The closing was planned in advance as federal funding for the clinics is transferred from a troubled Starr County social services agency to an Hidalgo County clinic network. But representatives said short notice from the federal Health Resources and Services Administration left the clinics in the lurch at a bad moment.

HRSA announced earlier this year that it would accept proposals to take over the clinics in Roma and Rio Grande City, which were run by the financially unstable Community Action Council of South Texas.

The federal agency said the transition from the embattled CACST to a new owner - and the transfer of federal grant funding from one to the other - would be smooth and gave no indication the clinics would close.

But the decision to award the funding to new owner Nuestra Clinica Del Valle was not announced until Thursday, said Juan Cantu, the executive director of the Community Action Council.

Nuestra Clinica executive director Lucy Ramirez explained that although she had been notified informally that they would be receiving the contract, her agency had been awaiting word on the federal funding to make preparations to continue the clinics' operation.

"Until we got something in writing, we really didn't (prepare)," she said. "We want it to be a smooth transition."

The clinics will reopen by May 7, according to her agency. Until then, residents can seek help at the Nuestra Clinica's other locations in Hidalgo County, but for nearby care may have to rely on the rural health clinic at Starr County Memorial Hospital, which is open 7 days a week.

A spokeswoman for the Health Resources and Services Administration said she would look into whether the hurried transfer of control was based on a planned timetable or the result of unforeseen factors.

"Every effort is being made to ensure that the people of Starr County have access to quality affordable health care," administration spokeswoman Tara Balsley wrote in an e-mail.

Nuestra Clinica will be working quickly to hire and train staff and find full-time doctors for the two clinics, Ramirez said. Until then, patients should contact her agency at (956) 213-5000. Nuestra Clinica will find transportation for patients who don't have their own.

Ramirez and other representatives from Nuestra Clinica interviewed the staff of the closed clinics Thursday, offering most of them their same jobs when the facilities reopen.

The clinics were among the last facilities run by the Community Action Council using federal or state funding. The agency's financial troubles came to light in late 2006 with the disclosure that the agency owed the federal government close to $2 million in unpaid payroll taxes.

Since then, the agency has struggled to pay off its substantial debts and maintain the clinics.

Ventura Huerta, the council's outgoing director of the Rio Grande City clinic, said it was unfortunate the facility closed in the midst of a swine-flu scare.

"We do have people showing up," he said. "Obviously, the uninsured and people who have very limited access to health care are the ones that always get the worst end of it."