AIKEN — Because it is a federally qualified health center, an important mission for Rural Health Services is to provide assistance to those with low incomes and the uninsured.
“We serve poor people… We’re proud of that and we love that. We never want to stray from our DNA,” said new CEO Ken Burgess on Aug. 6.
But Rural Health also provides care to patients who have plenty of medical coverage, and the goal is to attract more of them.
Burgess said his strategy is to urge Rural Health’s staff to “do things with excellence so that the most prominent attorneys in town and the [other] people who can pay also will come.”
That approach will raise the quality of healthcare for everyone, he believes, and it also will bring in much needed money.
Most community health centers have only “about a 5 or 6% revenue margin,” according to Burgess, who spoke during the Legislative Breakfast that was part of Rural Health’s Community Health Care Week celebration.
Members of Aiken County’s Legislative Delegation who showed up at the event were S.C. Rep. Bill Clyburn, D-Aiken; S.C. Rep. Charlie Hartz, R-Aiken; S.C. Rep. Bill Taylor, R-Aiken; and S.C. Sen. Tom Young, R-Aiken.
Also in attendance were Aiken Mayor Teddy Milner and other elected officials.
In 2025, 10,220 of the 13,970 patients served by Rural Health were insured and 3,750 were uninsured.
The total number of patient visits was 46,996.
“If you come to a community health center, because we own our own pharmacies, we can treat a diabetic a lot cheaper than if you’re going intermittently to the hospital to try and manage your diabetes,” Burgess said. “We also can discount drugs up to 95% because of this program — I have to mention it, I can’t go without mentioning it — 340B. The short version of that is that the government allows us to buy drugs at wholesale and sell them at retail, and the margin that is created there goes back into our operating budget.”