Community Health Center Expands to Meet Rising Demand From Uninsured Patients

A federally qualified health center serving Reading's uninsured and underinsured population is opening a second location after new patient appointment wait times stretched past six weeks, a delay center administrators say had begun pushing patients toward costly emergency room visits for non-emergency care.

The center operates on a sliding-fee scale based on income, a model that makes it one of the only realistic primary care options for many uninsured patients in the area, including a growing number of recent immigrants and low-wage workers whose employers don't offer health coverage.

"When someone can't get a primary care appointment for six weeks, the emergency room becomes their de facto primary care," the center's medical director said. "That's worse for the patient and far more expensive for the health system overall."

The new location, funded through a mix of federal health center grant funding and local philanthropic support, will add four additional primary care providers and expanded behavioral health services. Center leadership says even with the expansion, they expect demand to continue outpacing capacity given the area's growing uninsured population.