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Rosemary Summers said that with the preventive services, they have policies that outline steps the staff must go through. Patients are assessed for their level of service. Anything below 250°~ of the federal poverty level is scaled from 0-100%. In the preventive services, there is not a minimum charge. There are people who pay nothing. For the others, they get a bill before they leave the office. If they cannot pay then, they get billed three months in a row. After that, if they come back in for another service, they are required to stop by the financial office to make a payment or at least a partial payment. They try and make the patients responsible without requiring them to pay and not receive services. With primary care, there will be a minimum charge of $15. The dental program also has a minimum charge and they have very little trouble collecting it, with a 95°~ collection rate. Commissioner Brown asked if the Board of Health was going to put this into their budget Rosemary Summers said that this was not blended into their budget because they felt that it was a separate request. The Budget staff knows about it. They did send a request to the Manager for increasing the Nurse Practitioner from half to full-time and for a Billing Specialist. Commissioner Brown asked about the space at the Whitted Building. Rosemary Summers said that they do not have additional space, but she believes with the no-show rate that they can use the space more efficiently. Chair Jacobs referred to the bottom of the first page and emergency room visits to UNC Hospital. He asked how many of the Health Department patients would otherwise visit the emergency room. Rosemary Summers said that before they started the business plan, a group of students did a needs analysis and they looked at the emergency room admissions. Chair Jacobs asked about the target population. Wayne Sherman said that 56°~ of the Whitted clients surveyed had used the emergency department one to three times in the past year. Chair Jacobs said that this raises the issue with him about asking the University to help subsidize this program. Wayne Sherman said they are working with UNC Hospital with patients that have conditions beyond the capabilities of the Health Department. Rosemary Summers said that she and Commissioner Carey have been working on a Community Care Network to care for people with Medicaid and those who are uninsured or underinsured. They have been unsuccessful in getting UNC Physicians and Associates to help plan for this. There has been a change in leadership, so this might change. Chair Jacobs said that he and Commissioner Brown met today with the Director of EI Centro Latino and talked about underserved populations and the Northern Center. He said that a partnership with the University could help bring health care professionals out into the community in ways that would benefit their teaching functions. He would like to try and bring in partners. Rosemary Summers said that they are committed to building partnerships.