The Doctors Care clinic in Littleton is a bustling place on any given week day, with toddlers being treated for colds, tweens getting shots and teens receiving physical exams so they can play sports.
The clinic used to primarily treat patients who were poor and uninsured. Today, doctors are likely to be seeing the children of parents who are working, but don’t have enough money to access the traditional health care system.
“It’s a cultural shift,” said Bebe Kleinman, executive director of Doctors Care, which operates the clinic offering affordable health care and mental health services.
“We meet people who say, ‘I never thought this would happen to my family,’ ” Kleinman said.
They may make too much to qualify for Medicaid, their employers may not offer insurance, or the monthly premiums for private insurance could be so high that a family has to choose what it can pay for each month: food, rent or insurance.
In 2009, the patients treated at Doctors Care earning more than the federal poverty level ($21,200 for a family of four), increased to 46 percent from 20 percent, said development manager Kathleen Kramberg.
The upshot is that often, people don’t seek medical care until they’re in a crisis. The clinic would like to change that, Kleinman said.
“We want them to come to our system in a positive way,” rather than be referred through a school, the emergency room or another medical professional, Kleinman said.
The Doctors Care clinic treats and gives preventive care to newborns, children and young adults, specializing in patients up to 30 years old.
Each week, physician assistants and volunteer physicians see patients. When a person’s needs are more than the clinic can treat, the patient is referred to a specialist or one of five participating hospitals. More than 900 doctors and specialists are in the network, and new ones are constantly being recruited.
The rate for services is based on a sliding scale. “Everybody pays something, even if it’s 10 percent,” Kleinman said.
Doctors Care began in 1988 when Denver Health and Hospital said it could no longer treat medically indigent patients from the suburbs. So, to serve uninsured people in Arapahoe, Douglas and Elbert counties, the physicians of the Arapahoe Medical Society created the nonprofit organization.
Kleinman said that in the ensuing 23 years, they’ve served more than 20,000 residents and provided more than $55 million in medical services.
Doctors Care gets its income from co-payments, grants, government funding and program services, with the largest amounts in 2009 contributed in services by hospitals ($15.3 million), physicians ($681,908) and pharmacies ($147,210).
Despite these contributions, the organization is being asked to help an increasing number of people, so Doctors Care has applied for funding from this year’s Season to Share campaign.
Doctors Care started with a group of concerned physicians, and they remain the nonprofit’s backbone, Kleinman said.
“Physicians are generous. They are called to serve, but that has to be balanced with what they are able to do. The business of medicine has changed,” she says.
Dr. Allen D. Adinoff agrees.
“It’s harder, particularly for primary-care physicians, to make a living with current reimbursement levels,” said Adinoff, an allergy specialist who helps the organization recruit physicians. “There’s an understandable reluctance, but when folks understand the program and what they’re signing on for, they get onboard.”
Kleinman said it’s too early to say how national health care reform might affect Doctors Care, so she instead concentrates on their mission.
“The hope is that we can focus on wellness and quality of care, and not the next crisis in the door.”
Suzanne S. Brown: 303-954-1697 or sbrown@denverpost.com
Doctors Care
Number served last year: 3,249 individuals, 7,822 visits provided in the clinic
Staff: 23
Annual budget: $1.5 million
Percentage of funds directly to services: 92 percent
