Increased Access to Health Services in Covington Announced

Today (August 30, 2018), START, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization founded in 1984, announced plans to open a Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC) at 1505 N. Florida Street in Covington, which for 20 years has housed the STPH Community Wellness Center (CWC).

The START FQHC will continue to provide the services formerly available through CWC with the same familiar staff, plus increase services and enhance programs to provide affordable health services with a special focus on low-income, uninsured and under-insured individuals. New services available in the FQHC will include primary care, psychiatric care, substance abuse services, behavioral health counseling and assessment. The center will continue to provide the following services formerly provided by CWC: WIC (Women, Infants and Children Food Supplement Program), immunizations, Medicaid applications and pregnancy testing.

“We welcome START into our community as the next improvement in community wellness for our patients,” Kerry Milton RN BSN MHA, chief nursing officer of STPH, said. “Our collaboration with St. Tammany Parish government for the past 20 years has been an excellent solution to the loss of a public health unit in 2000, but now patients will have improved access to healthcare resources as START launches this FQHC in its place.”

CWC will transition to the START Corporation on September 1. Clients already relying on services of the CWC will see no loss or reduction in services, and the START team intends to launch all new services beginning September 1.