In a recent announcement by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Horizon Health Care, Inc. (Horizon) has been named as one of 160 recipients across the country to receive a $1 million Health Infrastructure Investment Program Grant, which enables health centers to renovate, expand, or construct new buildings to increase patient capacity and care. This is a portion of nearly $500 million in Affordable Care Act funding awarded by the Department of Health and Human Services to health centers across the U.S. in support of providing primary care services to those needing it most. Horizon was also awarded an additional $292,000 Expanded Services Grant.
“As Horizon Health Care continues to grow, these grants will be integral in optimizing our opportunities for expansion and continuing to provide quality health care,” said John Mengenhausen, CEO of Horizon. “Nearly 23 million people were served by community health centers in 2014, which is almost three times as many as the number served less than twenty years ago. We are proud to have played a role in that increase and are looking forward to continuing to serve our patients and responding to rural South Dakota’s health care needs.”
Horizon plans to utilize the Health Infrastructure Investment Grant with the renovation and expansion of their Aberdeen Community Health Center in Aberdeen, SD. “We have already been actively seeking an additional provider and have purchased a new, larger location in Aberdeen with the hopes of renovations being completed and a new clinic operational by Spring 2016,” said Mengenhausen.
Final details have not been established regarding the Expanded Services Grant, but Horizon plans to expand their oral health services into the Plankinton community, as well as continuing to expand and enhance their mental health program and telemedicine resources throughout the organization.
For over 35 years, Horizon Health Care, Inc. has been providing personalized, affordable, high-quality medical, dental and mental health care through a rural, community-based network in South Dakota. Horizon is a Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC) that serves the medical, dental and mental health care needs of South Dakotans in rural, medically underserved areas through 78,000 patient visits annually in 18 community health centers in: Aberdeen, Bryant, DeSmet, Howard, Huron, Fort Thompson, Lake Preston, Martin, Mission, Plankinton, Wessington Springs, White River and Woonsocket. For more information please visit www.horizonhealthcare.org.