Budget Cuts Force County to Step Out of Sulphur Springs Health Center

TBO.com reporter Mike Salinero (a longtime Southeast Seminole Heights resident), has posted a story reporting that the Hillsborough County Health Department will step away from operating six clinics and eliminate 114 jobs to help meet demands by Gov. Rick Scott and the Florida Legislature to cut spending by the state's Department of Health.*

Salinero reported that the Sulphur Springs Health Center, located at 8605 N. Mitchell Ave., would be among the six clinics. The clinics mostly serve Medicaid recipients and other low-income patients receiving prenatal and maternal care.

The patients will be transferred to two non-profit health care providers: Tampa Family Health Centers, which has six clinics throughout Tampa, though none are located in Sulphur Springs, and Suncoast Community Health Centers, which has four clinics located in Plant City, Dover and Ruskin.

Salinero reported that workers at the closing clinics were offered employment by the two non-profit clinics; however, if hired they won't receive the same employment benefits package they received from the state, thus lowering the cost of providing care to patients.

* This article has been updated with a clarification. The original story Patch linked to from TBO.com indicated that Hillsborough County was shutting down six facilities. Health Department spokesman Steve Huard tells Patch that the doors to these clinics aren't closing but that the county will no longer be running the clinics. The non profit providers mentioned in the article will be running these facilities primarily, with the county still operating the WIC (Women, Infants and Children) and family planning programs, Huard said.