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- But community health centers draw patients for a number of reasons. They offer "one-stop shopping," which can include dental care, substance abuse treatment,
- pediatric and prenatal care, and social services. Most have child care and translators on site for non-English speakers.

- With the new Massachusetts health insurance law boosting the number of patients seeking care, community health centers south of Boston are scrambling to meet
- the demand.
-
- Sign up for: Globe Headlines e-mail | Breaking News Alerts Manet Community Health Center, which has four locations in Quincy and one in Hull, is hiring two
- new family care physicians and a nurse practitioner. Brockton Neighborhood Health Center now stays open two hours later on weeknights. In February, it hired
- a nurse practitioner, two medical assistants, and two social workers, and is planning to hire 20 more staff members in the next six months.
-
- "We've seen a really significant increase in visits by new patients," said Sue Joss, executive director of the Brockton health center. "Our phones are
- ringing off the hook for new patients."
-
- The two centers are the only ones directly south of Boston. But community health centers in Fall River and New Bedford, which also serve people from this
- region, are experiencing the same increase in demand, and expanding hours to meet it.
-
- The state's universal health insurance law, which is being rolled out this year, is bringing formerly uninsured people into the healthcare system. Many of
- these individuals and families are turning to community health centers, the locally based nonprofit organizations that arose from the antipoverty movement of
- the 1960s.
-
- "We are front and center in the new healthcare legislation," said Kerin O'Toole, spokeswoman for the Massachusetts League of Community Health Centers. "We've
- seen quite a surge in demand. Although in many cases patients could go elsewhere, the health centers offer a whole range of services you can't get from a
- private provider."
-
- The nation's first community health center opened at Columbia Point in Dorchester in 1965 as part of President Johnson's war on poverty.
-
- Similar centers, supported by federal aid and private grants, opened across the country in poor and medically underserved areas. Today, the United States has
- more than a thousand centers, 52 of them in Massachusetts.
-
- Business is thriving. In April, the Brockton center on Main Street saw a 12 percent spike in patient visits over last year, and in May, a 9 percent increase.
- A new $16 million center is under construction next to the cramped downtown facility and is scheduled to open in November.
-
- Statewide, patient loads at community health centers have been on the rise. In 2006, centers in Massachusetts saw 760,301 patients, an increase of nearly
- 94,000, or 14 percent, over the previous year.
-
- The surge in demand at community health centers with the new law was not fully expected. The centers have long been a safety net in the healthcare system -
- places where people could go whether they had insurance or not. The insured usually have many choices when seeking care
-
- Sign up for: Globe Headlines e-mail | Breaking News Alerts "People are more aware of the community health centers and the services we provide," said Sheryl
- Turgeon, chief executive officer of Healthfirst, which draws patients from Fall River and nearby towns.
-
- Community health centers also do outreach for Commonwealth Care, the new state health insurance program, and visitors to most centers can sign up for health
- insurance on the spot.
-
- The heavy promotions the state has been doing to get the uninsured to sign up and take advantage of healthcare also seems to be a factor in the increasing
- number of visits, according to Toni McGuire, chief executive officer of the Manet center.
-
- "I think one of the biggest reasons for the increase is the advertising around Commonwealth Care," McGuire said. Said Joss of the Brockton center, "There was
- never this kind of publicity around the free-care pool."
-
- In the past, institutions that treated the uninsured were compensated by a pool of money administered by the state and paid into by hospitals and other large
- providers.
-
- Another reason that community health centers are seeing more patients is that three of the four insurers working with Commonwealth Care tend to direct
- subscribers to the centers, according to Alan Sager, director of the health reform program at Boston University School of Public Health.
-
- Sager said he is concerned that some community health centers may not be able to hire physicians quickly enough to meet the demand.
-
- "If health centers were deluged by dozens more patients every day, how quickly could they respond?" he asked.
-
- A Massachusetts Medical Society report issued last month warned of a growing shortage of primary care physicians and some specialists, based on surveys of
- doctors and Massachusetts residents.
-
- "The community health centers rely heavily on primary care physicians, and if there is a shortage in the state, the centers would be exposed to that
- shortage," said B. Dale Magee, president of the Massachusetts Medical Society.
-
- So far, directors of centers south of Boston say they have been able to hire qualified staff and otherwise meet the demands of new patients - in part by
- expansion.
-
- The Manet center recently purchased the building it had been renting in North Quincy and is eyeing expansion on the site. The center also opened a clinic at
- Quincy Medical Center.
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- The Greater New Bedford center recently expanded its downtown facility, more than doubling its square footage. Brockton's new facility will approximately
- double its patient capacity.
-
- "We're taking a pretty aggressive stance as we get ready to move into the new building," said Joss. "It seems right now the demand will be there."
-