By KHI NEWS SERVICE

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The Health Care Foundation of Greater Kansas City (HCF) has awarded 31 nonprofit organizations in Kansas and Missouri more than $4 million in safety net funding to improve access to health care.

“HCF is proud to support these organizations who are working to implement models of service delivery for physical and oral health that increase access and hold the promise of delivering better health, better health care and lowered costs through improved quality,” said Dr. Bridget McCandless, HCF president and CEO.

More information about grant recipients and programs follows:

• Baptist-Trinity Lutheran Legacy Foundation, $75,000. To provide short-term, emergency medical assistance to low-income, underinsured and uninsured individuals.

• Cancer Action Inc., $85,000. To provide patient services, guidance, emotional support and education to cancer patients living in the Kansas City metropolitan area.

• Cass Community Health Foundation, $111,853. To support a full-time and part-time dentist that will provide oral health services to Medicaid and low-income, uninsured children.

• Children’s Mercy Hospital, $100,000. To support clinical staff who provide comprehensive care for children with complex, chronic health care needs.

• Community Health Center of Southeast Kansas Inc., $170,000. To support the provision of primary medical, dental and support services to the low-income, uninsured and underserved of Allen County the Iola Clinic.

• Cornerstones of Care, $150,000. To provide nurse case management services for children in foster care in Cass County and to provide psychotropic medication review and consultation for the nurse case management programs in Cass and Jackson counties in Missouri.

• Duchesne Clinic, $225,000. To provide bilingual, primary health care, chronic disease management, preventive care, patients education, medication assistance and care coordination for the uninsured in Wyandotte County.

• El Centro Inc., $133,613. To support the health navigation program in Wyandotte and Johnson counties for underinsured and uninsured people.

• Jewish Family Services, $54,547. To expand older adult care management services, including funding for a care manager, direct client assistance for out-of-pocket medical expenses and a United Way 211 older adult specialist.

• Jewish Vocational Service, $45,000. To support the position of the refugee health care coordinator who assists new refugees in navigating their care.

• Kansas City CARE Clinic, $300,000. To support the general medicine and oral health programs of the Kansas City CARE Clinic.

• Kansas University Endowment Association, $60,176. To expand services available through the KU Department of Family Medicine-affiliated clinic at Wyandotte High School in Kansas City, Kan., using telemedicine systems and equipment.

• Kansas University Endowment Association, $35,800. To support JayDoc Free Clinic, which provides care for the poor and underserved of Wyandotte County.

• KU Health Partners Inc., $100,000. To support ongoing operations of Silver City Health Center as a nurse-managed, patient-centered medical home for the medically underserved in Kansas City, Kan.

• Legal Aid of Western Missouri, $113,010. To advocate for low-income individuals and families who have been improperly denied insurance in the Missouri marketplace under the Affordable Care Act , or who have been improperly denied coverage by their ACA insurance plan for specific medical treatment. Program staff will also help residents access MO Healthnet.

• Mattie Rhodes Center, $83,732. To support a community health advocate, a community health worker and on-site health screenings, in partnership with Samuel U. Rodgers Health Center.

• Migrant Farmworkers Assistance Fund, $92,658. To provide medical case management to underserved and uninsured migrant and seasonal farmworkers in rural Lafayette County, Mo.

• ReDiscover, $200,000. To support the demand for health care home services for uninsured clients by providing startup salary support for clinical and medical directors.

• reStart, Inc., $93,810. To provide care coordination and health benefits advocacy to homeless men and women in the adult emergency shelter program.

• Riverview Health Services Inc., $155,021. To sustain and expand services that increase access to health care for the uninsured and underinsured by providing referrals to safety net clinics; medication and medical supplies; and chronic disease education and self-management support.

• Saint Luke’s Hospital of Kansas City, $200,000. To support the care coordination program that uses community health workers to engage with patients with multiple barriers to care.

• Saint Luke’s Hospital of Kansas City, $100,000. To support radiation therapy for uninsured cancer patients referred to Saint Luke’s from Truman Medical Center.

• Samuel U. Rodgers Health Center Foundation Inc., $100,000. To ensure that pregnant indigent minority women have access to quality prenatal care.

• Samuel U. Rodgers Health Center, $200,000. The support a partnership among Samuel U. Rodgers Health Center, Truman Medical Centers and Housing Authority of Kansas City to address access to health care for public housing residents in Chouteau Courts and Riverview Gardens.

• Seton Center Family and Health Services, $250,000. To provide professional staffing, needy funds, equipment, and program support for oral health care for the uninsured and vulnerable.

• Southwest Boulevard Family Health Care Services of Greater Kansas City, $250,000. To sustain safety net health care services — including primary care, dentistry, and supportive services — in Wyandotte County.

• Swope Health Services, $50,000. To retain a full-time dentist and a full-time dental assistant to serve 7,200 low-income, uninsured and underinsured residents of the Kansas City metropolitan area, and add a care coordinator who will assist 300 patients with chronic illnesses in accessing the integrated dental and medical services they need.

• Synergy Services Inc., $114,000. To support key staff positions at Synergy’s Homeless Youth Campus onsite health clinic and a portion of the medical and dental partners’ contracts.

• Truman Medical Center Charitable Foundation, $96,956. To support a licensed master social worker to improve perinatal mental health outcomes for 125 women and their families through screening, care coordination, and provider and consumer awareness.

• Turner House Clinic Inc., $225,000. To provide coordinated and integrated primary medical care, chronic care and preventive oral health care for uninsured and underserved children in Wyandotte County.

• West Central Missouri Community Action Agency, $115,000. To provide reproductive health services and STD testing and treatment to low-income and/or uninsured people.

The safety net grants are the final round of HCF funding in 2014. For more information on applying for 2015 HCF grants, visit www.hcfgkc.org.

HCF was created in 2002 as part of the Hospital Corporation of America’s purchase of Health Midwest. It began grantmaking in 2005 for its service area of Kansas City, Mo.; Cass, Jackson and Lafayette counties in Missouri; and Allen, Johnson and Wyandotte counties in Kansas.