New law to extend hours for Merced clinics that operate part-time

Community health clinics that operate on a part-time basis, often serving residents who have limited access to medical care, have won state permission to keep their doors open longer.

Under a bill backed by Assemblyman Adam Gray, D-Merced, and signed last week by Gov. Jerry Brown, part-time clinics will be allowed to operate up to 30 hours a week, an increase from 20 hours.

“For patients this means more access,” said Leslie McGowan, CEO at Livingston Community Health. “That’s 10 more hours to treat patients.”

For nearly four decades, health clinics that have operated as satellite locations for full-time facilities were limited by statute to being open for no more than 20 hours per week.

Locally, two upcoming clinics will benefit from the new law.

Livingston Community Health will open the county’s first school-based health center in early 2016. The clinic will operate out of Livingston High and will be available to students, parents and community members, McGowan said.

Livingston Community Health also is preparing to open its first clinic in Stanislaus County by mid-December. Because the Waterford-area clinic will kick off as a part-time operation, it also will benefit from the new law. McGowan explained that the Waterford clinic eventually will become a full-time clinic once it is receives all the necessary licensing.

Health officials explained that many of the 243 school-based health centers in California operate on an intermittent basis. These clinics usually are located in communities with a lack of primary care services and are especially beneficial to children and youths.

The new law could give full-time health centers, which usually operate more than 40 hours a week and on weekends, a little break, officials added.

Golden Valley Health Centers currently does not operate any clinics on a part-time schedule, but this law allows for flexibility on any future projects, said Mary-Michal Rawling, a spokeswoman for the centers.

Gray, author of the bill, said health clinics such as Golden Valley Health Centers and Livingston Community Health fill an important role in the Merced community.

“With this law now in place, these clinics can serve a greater number of people and be open during times that make sense for working families,” he said in a statement.

McGowan said the extended hours can also help with job recruitment, as clinics now will be able to offer employees additional work hours.

Some are hopeful that the new law may come as a relief for the Valley, an area that historically has struggled with a shortage of doctors. Merced, like many other Valley counties, has experienced an influx of new patients as a result of the Affordable Care Act, straining area providers and resulting in busier emergency rooms with longer wait time for patients, health officials have said.

“We are moving forward with plans to site a medical school at UC Merced and increase funding for San Joaquin Valley PRIME (a medical education program) to educate and keep doctors in the Central Valley,” Gray continued in his statement. “But while we develop bigger and better medical infrastructure, we can also find ways to make the resources we already have go further.”

This story was originally published October 5, 2015 at 5:43 PM with the headline "New law to extend hours for Merced clinics that operate part-time."