Stimulus Funds to reach Sunshine Clinic

Senator Lisa Murkowski announced Friday that Alaska will receive 3 point 6 million dollars in stimulus funds to expand services at 26 community health centers across the state.

The US Department of Health and Human Services says that $338 million  will be available nationwide for community health center expansion.

HHS projected the funding for Alaska would result in 87 new or retained jobs and affect over 20,000 new insured, and new uninsured, patients.

Murkowski says the funds are significant since Alaskans face huge challenges getting access to local health care.

It is predicted that Sunshine Community Health Center will receive over $151,000 of those stimulus funds. 

Sharon Meals, Assistant to the Executive Director of the Sunshine clinic says that the stimulus funds are expected any day at the clinic.  The 3 main areas that the clinic will use the funds for are retaining jobs or adding employment. Meals says they hope to add one or two positions as well as retain a couple of positions that might have otherwise been cut.  Another area is being able to provide and pay for more specialty clinics such as eye and podiatry clinics or more specialty men’s and women’s clinics coming to the upper valley.  The third area is access to the clinic.  They hope some of the funds can go to increasing the Talkeetna transit system already in place.