A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT to appropriate funds to METROPOLITAN COMMUNITY HEALTH SERVICES, INC., FOR THE LIQUIDATION OF CONSTRUCTION DEBT SERVICES FOR THE NEW AGAPE COMMUNITY HEALTH CLINIC MEDICAL FACILITY PUT INTO OPERATION ON MAY 2, 2006, IN BEAUFORT COUNTY, NORTH CAROLINA.
Whereas, Metropolitan Community Health Services constructed a new medical facility to operate the Agape Community Health Clinic, which provides state‑of‑the‑art medical services and access to primary health care for the regions low-income, uninsured, and underinsured population; and
Whereas, the Agape Community Health Clinic is the only provider of primary health care services for low-income, underinsured, and uninsured patients in the county, which is a designated Medically Underserved Area (MUA) and a designated Health Professional Shortage Area (HPSA), and where 40% of the county population has incomes below 200% of the federal poverty level; and
Whereas, Metropolitan Community Health Services, Inc., secured federal funding for the operation of a federally qualified community health clinic under the Public Health Service Act, 42 U.S.C. 6A, but had no permanent facility to offer primary medical services to those in need; and
Whereas, Metropolitan Community Health Services, Inc., raised most of the funds necessary to construct a state‑of‑the‑art medical facility with the exception of a shortfall of $500,000; and
Whereas, the debt service for the amount owing causes Metropolitan Community Health Services, Inc., to have to allocate funds that would otherwise be designated to offering primary health care services to more medically underserved patients seeking medical care of which 68% are medically indigent; and
Whereas, The Agape Clinic cannot sustain the high debt service of the construction loan in an environment where it is providing essential medical services to patients who cannot afford to pay for the cost of care; Now, therefore,
The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:
SECTION 1.(a)  Funds appropriated in subsection (b) of this section shall be for the elimination of the remaining construction debt service incurred in the construction of the Agape Community Health Clinic ("clinic") facility at 120 W. Martin Luther King Drive, Washington, North Carolina, in Beaufort County currently operational since May 2, 2006.  The purpose of the clinic is to provide the state‑of‑the‑art facility wherein comprehensive primary medical care, treatment, health screenings, pharmaceutical services, diagnostic imaging services, and dental services can be made accessible in a central location for access by low-income at‑risk county residents regardless of ability to pay through the provision of federal operating funds which make the services possible.  The clinic provides training opportunities for medical and nursing students in a community-based setting.  The clinic provides the region's first indigent pharmaceutical assistance program, dental clinic, health information services, and comprehensive primary and preventive medical care, including minor surgical procedures, mental health care, internal medicine and pediatric care, radiology services, preventive and restorative dental services, laboratory services, and health information services.  The Agape Community Health Clinic works collaboratively with the Beaufort County Hospital, the Brody School of Medicine, Beaufort Community College Nursing Program, the North Carolina Community Health Center Association, North Carolina Office of Rural Health and the North Carolina Office of Minority Health under the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services, as well as the HRSA Bureau of Primary Health Care at the federal level and the North Carolina Health and Wellness Trust Fund to provide health services to meet the needs of the low-income medically indigent in the region.  It should be noted that none of this would be possible without a new modern facility in which to house the delivery of health care services.
SECTION 1.(b)  There is appropriated from the General Fund to Metropolitan Community Health Services, Inc., the sum of five hundred thousand dollars ($500,000) for the 2008‑2009 fiscal year.  These funds shall be used to eliminate the remaining construction debt service so that the Agape Clinic may utilize all of its financial resources to expand the delivery of primary medical care to those most in need of the services. Funds appropriated under this section provide twenty‑nine percent (29%) of the total construction costs required to construct the Agape Community Health Clinic.
SECTION 2.  This act becomes effective July 1, 2008.