Family HealthCare Network has teamed with Anthem Blue Cross to offer affordable immunizations and sports physicals to all takers.

Getting the populous vaccinated, and students ready for joining sports at little or no cost, is the goal, according to Family HealthCare Network CEO Harry Foster.

“The thing that we do here is to try to reduce barriers to accessing care. We try to do that by decreasing cost, we try to do it through transportation, and we try to do it by location,” Foster said. “This is a big day for us. We’ll get a good turnout.”

It helps that 85 percent of the facility’s staff is bilingual, he said.

The immunizations and sports physicals will be offered from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday at four locations. The cost is $10.

This is the first year the event has been co-sponsored. It is also the kick-off for National Immunization Awareness Month. The shot clinics will be offered to those of all ages, living in Tulare County, and will include music, arts and crafts and free giveaways.

Nancy Banuelos, director of operations and clinical services, said the event promises to be bigger than ever. She said she expects about 200 people at the Porterville site.

Radio station La Maquina Musical will have a live remote broadcast from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. and will raffle several prizes, including a trip to Universal Studios.

Informational booths will be on site; patients who are older or sicker, children, and individuals with chronic illnesses are more vulnerable, health officials said: They are the target for the clinics.

Family HealthCare promotes immunization year-round, but more so during August — the time when students are heading back to school and when the flu season is near.

The clinics provide the public with information either within their facilities or through outreach at community events. These include health fares at schools, in the community and in surrounding communities.

“Any event that we go out to, we have information on immunization schedules and so forth,” Banuelos said. “We have programs that we enroll our patients into and therefore, we are able to vaccinate them at a lower cost.”

One of Family HealthCare Network's main goals is making their health services affordable, company officials said. The sliding fee scale is one such plan: patients pay for services based on their income.

By means of the program, individuals pay $20, 33 percent or 66 percent of their service charges.

If an individual is under-insured, Family HealthCare Network provides its vaccinations for children, provided by the state, at no cost.

Some students face the inability to join a school sport because most schools require a physical.

“Physicals can be very costly, so we’re wanting to make sure that anybody who wants to be involved in sports can get a physical,” Banuelos said. “We don’t want them to not participate because they can’t afford [it].”

According to the Centers for Disease Control, rates of infection are highest among children but the risks for complications, hospitalizations and deaths from influenza are higher among those aged 65 or older, young children and people of any age who have medical conditions that place them at increased risk for complications from Influenza.

“Getting immunized is the best effective strategy for preventing disease,” Banuelos said. “And the more we immunize, the more we decrease the risk of disease coming back and spreading.”

Clinic Information
These locations will be offering $10 immunizations and physicals from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday:
-- Porterville Site, 1107 W. Poplar Ave, 781-7242
-- Visalia Bridge Site, 501 N. Bridge, 783-1939
-- Visalia Oak Site, 400 E. Oak, 741-4500
-- Cutler Site...12586 Ave. 408, 528-2804
For more information, call Sabrina Jimenez, 737-4789