Health care center in Northwest Indiana offers services to insured and uninsured
NorthShore Health Centers was opened on the premise that health care should be affordable for anyone who needs it and all individuals should have medical preventive care.
NorthShore is a not-for-profit state-funded and federally funded community health care center. That does not mean that it is a “free clinic”; everyone pays something! Insured, uninsured and under-insured people make up our patient base. In 2011 NorthShore provided over 31,000 patients with health care, in nearly 100,000 visits.
Like many health centers, NorthShore provides quality primary health care including family practice, obstetrics, women’s health, and pediatrics. Like other health centers, NorthShore has some of the best medical providers available in our area, and ensures that the best trained doctors are all that are hired. Like other centers, patients are our customers and their satisfaction is critical to our success. Like other health care centers, NorthShore accepts all forms of payment: insurance, Medicare, Medicaid and self pay.
What sets NorthShore apart?
The things about NorthShore that set it apart from the others are our sliding fee for services based on a person’s income, and the fact that no one who is in need of health care is refused services regardless of their ability to pay.
NorthShore provides not only medical care, but behavioral health care and dental services and uses the sliding fee for the uninsured. In addition, mammography is available along with X-ray and ultrasound.
NorthShore also has two annual events which are focused on women’s health. The uninsured women are given a cholesterol screening, a PAP Smear, and a mammogram (if indicated-age appropriate), for a total of $25. There is also a men’s health screening, including the cholesterol screening, a physical assessment and PSA (prostate specific antigen) screening per the American Cancer Society guidelines.
In July and August NorthShore has a “Back to School” campaign to encourage children to get an annual physical, and a dental check up prior to returning to school. There are also sports physicals which are required for playing sports. The physicals are only $25 and include a free backpack and school supplies.
Prepping new health care workers
NorthShore also collaborates with all the local universities and colleges to precept and give educational opportunities to their nursing, nurse practitioner, medical, pharmacology, social worker, and dental hygiene students, in order that they have hands-on training as they are ready to graduate.
Portage High School Health Academy and the Porter County vocational program based at other sites sends students to NorthShore to give students opportunities to work with professionals who are in the health care field that the students are entering upon high school graduation. Students actually earn one college credit and are certified nursing assistants or dental assistants when they graduate from high school. This is a wonderful opportunity for them. Many students go on with their education and increase the pool for health care workers.
Another reason NorthShore stands out is that all earned income is put back into our organization to provide things to patients they cannot afford to pay for at a hospital or other medical facility. Some of these include: mammography; pharmacies with the lowest cost medications; X-ray at affordable costs; ultrasound and all other services are affordable for the patient on a sliding fee.
NorthShore provides health care to all because, Everyone Deserves Quality Health Care...Everyone!
Provided by NorthShore Health Center