HealthCare Network receives nearly $8 million

A $7.9 million windfall received by Family HealthCare Network will help provide expanded health care for the underserved in Porterville and Cutler-Orosi.  The money is the result of a bond issuance by the health care network, which was purchased by United Health Group.

“It’s the result of two and a half years of work,” said president and CEO of Family HealthCare Network Harry Foster. “It’s not a grant, so we have to pay it back. It was used to refinance existing debt and we will expand services in Cutler-Orosi and Porterville.”

All seven of the health care systems dental sites will get new dental hardware and electronic equipment, Foster said. Fourteen exam rooms will be added to The Porterville site, and a new facility will be built to house medical students.

The plan is to break ground for the new building on May 12 and to complete construction eight months later.

“We’re serious,” Foster said. “We serviced 85,000 active patients last year, and 350,000 visits. We serve 1 in every 5 people who live in Tulare County.”

Students who will occupy the new medical school will arrive in August, after having completed a year at the A.T. School of Medicine. 
 
According to Dan Miller, spokesman for UnitedHealthcare, the $7.9 million in capital is part of United Health Group’s California Health Care Investment Program, a 20-year, $200 million commitment to provide access to capital financing for health care entities providing services to most in need throughout California.

“We look at organizations that serve rural areas and the underserved in California,” Miller said. “The underserved and the underinsured have a greater need and experience more challenges to get quality health care. Family HealthCare Network is serving those people.”

Family HealthCare Network is a private, nonprofit community-based organization that provides a full array of services and is a primary health care delivery system with sites in Visalia, Ivanhoe, Woodlake, Springville, Three Rivers, Goshen, Cutler-Orosi, Hanford and Porterville.

“We thank UnitedHealth Group for helping us continue meeting the vital health care needs of our communities,” Foster said. “Usually a bond issuance of this nature has multiple investors. Having one makes it much easier. Having the funds makes it possible to do much more for the patients we serve.”