CANTON -- Community Health Center of the North Country (CHCNC) joined 600 other health centers across New York State by celebrating what they call “Community Health Center Week.”

“Once again this was a wondeful opportunity for us to give back to the patients who choose our team for their families’ healthcare needs as well as invite our local legislative team in for tours so they can see how we are the key to healthier communities” said Ray Babowicz, Director of Communications, Government Relations, and Marketing.

Assemblyman Ken Blankenbush of the 117th Assembly District, which includes CHCNC’s Gouverneur health center, stopped in last Tuesday for his first-ever visit to the facilty, and sat down to discuss topics surrounding healthcare in the North Country. Assemblywoman Addie Jenne representing the 116th Assembly District, which includes CHCNC’s Canton and forthcoming Ogdensburg health centers followed suit on August 16 by spending time in Canton.

Babowicz went on to add, “We are very proud of the impact we had in 2016 with over 43,000 visits at our 3 Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs) in Canton, Gouverneur, and Malone. This led to 11 million dollars in savings to Medicaid by lowering unnecssary emergency department visits at local hospitals, and by providing access regardless of insurance status or ability to pay. Furthermore, our economic impact on the region hit almost 14 million dollars for the second year in a row, and generated approximately 2.5 million dollars in tax revenues.”

The celebration at Community Health Center of the North Country follows plenty of good news for the CHCNC team. At the end of July they received notification of a 3.4 million dollar grant from New York’s Healthcare Facility Transformation Program, allowing them to move forward with opening a new FQHC in Ogdensburg later next year.

Last week CHCNC received notification they will be receiving almost $125,000 from the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), for Quality Care Achievements, as well as almost $100,000 from the State for helping to achieve deliverables in New York’s Medicaid Redesign Initiative.

It has been 10 years since CHCNC achieved Federally Qualified Health Center status; Babowicz said, “our team is happy with what has been achieved, but is looking forward to further improvement in the years to come, and is extremely excited to be bringing the FQHC model to more of the North Country when we open the Ogdensburg facility later next year.”