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Every seat in the waiting room of the MayView Community Health Center was full on a recent Tuesday afternoon. A decorated Christmas tree twinkled in the corner of the room. Next to it, two giggling little girls waved at any newcomers as their mom filled out paperwork. Staff members greeted patients promptly, the waiting room quickly emptying out over the course of just a few minutes.
The MayView clinic has provided health care to low-income patients in Mountain View for over 50 years. It currently serves close to 4,000 patients, with priority given to those who earn up to 200% of the federal poverty line.
Most patients are insured through Medi-Cal or Medicare, while about 7% of the clinic’s patients lack any insurance, said Gralyn Jacques, CEO of the Ravenswood Family Health Network, which manages the MayView Community Health Center.
“ The major thing is access. We give access to those who traditionally would not have it,” Jacques said.
According to Jacques, the only other primary care options in the area for uninsured patients are county clinics that are predominantly located in San Jose. Without accessible local clinics, many uninsured patients end up seeking care directly from emergency rooms.
“You have to take healthcare to where people live,” Jacques said. “Not only do you bring healthcare there, but then you have to deal with all of the other stuff that goes around it that keeps people unhealthy.”
The MayView clinic does that by offering an array of services including primary care, pediatrics, women’s health, chiropractic care, lab work, and behavioral and social services, as well as a weekly mobile dental clinic that parks outside of the office.
Jacques pointed to the social services and case management as being particularly important.
“What our patients tend to experience is housing insecurity, food insecurity – and so we have a team of people to help them get connected to those types of services,” he said.
For patients without insurance, services are available at discounted rates on a sliding scale. For those earning up to 100% of the poverty line, a doctor’s appointment including any necessary lab work costs the patient only $20 – a small fraction of the actual cost to the clinic.
For patients who have trouble affording even that, the clinic works out payment plans over time so that they can get the care they need, when they need it, regardless of their financial situation, Jacques said. Ravenswood Family Health Network also has an eligibility and enrollment department that helps patients enroll in public health insurance if they qualify.
Victor Diaz Ramirez, a current patient at MayView, said that he never had to think about where and how to get medical care until he was diagnosed with diabetes a few years ago. Suddenly, he needed consistent care and prescriptions and a friend told him MayView might be able to help.
“I came here and a woman helped me fill out all the paperwork,” Diaz Ramirez said through a translator. “I am very grateful because, here, they will always help me. Always.”
While the clinic is already at capacity with its patient load, Jacques anticipates an increase in community need as health care premiums increase.
At the same time, Jacques said government support is decreasing under the Trump administration and community health centers like MayView that continue to serve low-income and undocumented people expect to see significant revenue drops. MayView’s commitment to these groups will not waiver, Jacques said, but he added that he anticipates a heavier reliance on philanthropy in the coming years.
The MayView Community Health Center is part of the Ravenswood Family Health Network, which manages clinics in Palo Alto, East Palo Alto and Sunnyvale. The organization will also be opening up a new dental clinic in Redwood City next month and has plans to expand their Sunnyvale clinic in the near future to help address growing demand in the area.
MayView Community Health Center is a recipient of the Mountain View Voice holiday fund. Each year, donations to the Holiday Fund are divided equally among a group of local nonprofits that serve people in need. The Voice and Embarcadero Media Foundation, the nonprofit that now publishes the Voice, absorb all administrative costs to run the fund, and all donations are tax-deductible.
For more information about the Holiday Fund, go to mv-voice.com/holiday-fund. To give a donation online, go to embarcaderomediafoundation.org/holiday-fund/mountain-view. Checks can be made payable to Mountain View Voice Holiday Fund and sent to 2345 Yale St., FL 1, Palo Alto, CA 94306. The Holiday Fund campaign will run until Jan. 17, with grants awarded in the spring.
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