International Community Health Services Programs
ICHS is a full-service community health center with two freestanding clinics in Seattle’s International District and Holly Park neighborhoods, a school-based health center at the Seattle World School in Capitol Hill, and a weekly medical clinic at Asian Counseling and Referral Service in South Seattle. Over the course of its 39-year history, ICHS has functioned as a critical part of the health and human services safety net for A/NHOPI immigrants and refugees and other communities of color in Seattle.
ICHS offers a cross-cultural, intergenerational model of care that integrates Western and Eastern medicine in order to meet the needs of a diverse, medically-underserved patient population. In addition to primary medical and dental care for patients of all ages, ICHS offers traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), behavioral health counseling, pharmacy, laboratory services, nutritional counseling, health education, and other services. To ensure linguistic and cultural accessibility, ICHS provides on-site interpretation in over fifty languages and dialects annually, as well as community-based outreach and education.
To ensure that its services are as financially accessible as possible, ICHS works extensively with all uninsured patients to help them apply for affordable coverage programs. Low-income patients who do not qualify for insurance coverage are billed according to a sliding scale. No patient is ever turned away, regardless of their ability to pay.
Recent Successes and Current Challenges
Over the course of the last year, ICHS has enjoyed many successes. Perhaps the most important and noteworthy achievement was our official recognition as a Patient-Centered Medical Home (PCMH) by the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA). A patient-centered medical home is a model of care that emphasizes well-coordinated care and a long-term, collaborative relationship between engaged patients and health care providers. ICHS is one of only a handful of health care providers in the state to receive this level of recognition.
Despite our successes, we still have many needs. Because of cuts in funding for state-run insurance coverage programs, an increasing number of immigrant and refugee families in the King County area are uninsured, which means that they are increasingly receiving uncompensated (charity) care at ICHS, which does not turn anyone away, regardless of patients’ ability to pay. However, ICHS’ capacity to continue providing uncompensated care is in jeopardy due to the increasing number of uninsured patients. Since 2009, the number of uninsured ICHS patients has increased by over 63% (over 2,200 unduplicated patients); last year, ICHS provided over $2.1 million in uncompensated (charity) care to its uninsured patients. To support the cost of care for these patients, ICHS has historically paid for the cost of charity care from its own financial reserves. However, we urgently need to increase financial support for uncompensated care from external funders.