In the News

Four community health centers in Massachusetts, including one in Lynn, have been awarded a total of $600,000 to support efforts to treat people with asthma, diabetes and cancer in underserved communities.… The grants, which come from a multi-state settlement with pharmaceutical manufacturers, will be used to expand the use of community health workers. Each of the centers identified goals to use their health workers to help patients receive quality health services and improve access to care in ways that can reduce health disparities and control costs.

The Lynn Community Health Center won a national health video contest for the flash mob it put on in downtown Lynn in August in celebration of National Health Week.

The video version of the flash mob was one of 16 finalists in the National Health Center Week video contest, which included contestants from health centers across the nation celebrating health center week in various ways.

The dental benefits issue came to the forefront recently here in Massachusetts, a state known for generous Medicaid benefits. Under budgetary pressures, the state stopped paying private Medicaid providers for fillings, root canals, crowns and dentures in July 2010. But it recently decided to restore part of that coverage. Starting in January, Massachusetts Medicaid will pay for fillings — but only for those in the front of the mouth. The reasoning was that healthy front teeth were more important for getting and keeping jobs.

Downtown Lynn was the scene of a flash mob.… The city of Lynn Community Health Center, along with the nonprofit Food Project, the Lynn Khmer youth group KAYA, and the Lynn Food and Fitness Alliance headed by the Lynn Health Department, put on the spontaneous dance in honor of National Community Health Center Week, said Cindy Steger-Wilson, the marketing and communications manager for the health center.

Four area health care organizations will receive help in adopting innovative practices to improve patient care and reduce costs through recent state grant awards. The Lowell Community Health Center, Lynn Community Health Center, North Shore Community Health, and Steward Health Care’s Holy Family Hospital in Methuen will receive a combined $413,973 in funding announced June 26. The funding is part of $3 million awarded to 27 community health centers and hospitals statewide.

Victoria Reggie Kennedy dedicated the Lynn Community Health Center’s new atrium Monday by recalling her late husband’s “…promise of health care in America as a right and not a privilege.” The center’s board of directors named the atrium after U.S. Sen. Edward M. Kennedy and — with assistance from longtime Kennedy family friend and former Lynn Mayor Thomas P. Costin Jr. — invited Kennedy’s widow to officially open the atrium connecting the center’s new addition with its 269 Union St. building.

Video of the ribbon cutting and dedication ceremony at Lynn Community Health Center’s new building with Victoria Reggie Kennedy

Victoria Reggie Kennedy spoke at the dedication of the Edward M. Kennedy atrium.

The Stephen D. Hayes Building at the Lynn Community Health Center was dedicated Monday. “Hayes, 64, of Salem, co-founded the 269 Union St. health center and worked 40 years carrying out its mission. He retired last year. Health problems kept Hayes from the ceremony, but his wife, Clare, spoke on his behalf to a crowd of colleagues and well-wishers gathered inside the construction site. ‘What a fitting day to share our love and heartfelt feelings to one another. On this Valentine’s Day, I feel very privileged to speak on behalf of my husband, Steve Hayes,’ she said.”