Crossroad Health Center

History
Crossroad Health Center is a primary healthcare provider that serves
God by caring for the underserved of the greater Cincinnati area. Crossroad
Health Center opened in 1992 and was started by Charles Shubert M.D. and
his wife Julie with the help of Janet German and Sally Stewart. Dr. Shubert
and his wife wanted to provide a place for the community in Over-the-Rhine
to receive accessible and affordable health care services. Dr. Shubert wanted
a place for patients to come and treat their body, mind, and spirit. Crossroad
Health Centers mission statement says: Our mission is to give honor to
Jesus Christ by providing accessible comprehensive health care in
partnership with out patients and community leading to health, changed
lives.
About
Crossroad Health Center has expanded to four locations: Over-theRhine, Rothenberg, West Cincinnati, and Harrison. Crossroad is a non-profit
federally qualified primary health center who provides services for adults and
children. Some of the guiding principles that Crossroad strives for is
providing services for the underserved with low incomes, value all people
regardless of race, culture, social, or religious background, share Christs love
while respecting others, promote health lifestyles, to support the Christian
church, and to have a strong cooperative team. Following these guidelines

will help Crossroad Health Center stick to their core beliefs and serve the
community the best way they can.
Crossroad Health Center provides a range of services for children and
adults. Some of the specialties that are offered are gynecology, provide
immunizations, perform physicals, provide cancer preventative screenings,
diabetes care, and podiatry services. Roughly around 600 patients come in to
Crossroads Over-the-Rhine location every week and around 2800 phone calls
are being taken throughout the week. The patients that come into Crossroad
come from all different backgrounds such as different religions, races, and
ages. About 20% of the patients are Hispanic, 20% are Caucasian, 60% are
African American a less than one percent is Asian American.
Crossroad Health Center is a non-profit organization that relies on
government funding and private donations to keep the health centers open.
In Ohio there are two high-end grants a healthcare facility can apply for. Only
25 facilities in Ohio are qualified to apply and Crossroads is one of them. The
grants go to whichever facility can prove they need it the most. Each facility
has to provide documentation proving that they serve the low-income
population and fill out a 100-page report. Crossroad Health Center has every
patient fill out documentation once a year stating how many are living in
their household and the yearly income of the household. If they live in a
homeless shelter they would fill out $0 for yearly income and write in live in
shelter. Crossroad does not turn away any patient regardless of their ability
to pay or not. Private donations help cover the cost of a patient bill that the

government grants do not cover. You can donate to Crossroad by coming in

to any center or through a PayPal account link on their website.
Crossroad Health Center has converted all of their patient records from
paper to electronic. NextGen Healthcare is the EHR (electronic health record)
system that Crossroad uses. In the near future Crossroad will be bridging
their EHR system with local hospitals in the area. This way it will be easier to
stay up-to-date on their patients health records.
Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) performs audits
at Crossroad Health Centers every three years. If HRSA finds any mistake
within their health records or within the organization itself Crossroad has six
months to provide HRSA with documentation that they have fixed the
mistake. If they do not fix the mistakes that have been noted, then Crossroad
will be fined by HRSA.
Crossroad Health Center is mainly known for being a Christian based
health center and known for never turning a patient away even if they can
not pay. Many of their patients do not have health insurance so they can not
afford Crossroads $250 primary care visit. Crossroad provides a solution for
these patients and labels them as self-pay patients. Self-pay patients are
given a Sliding Fee Application once a year. The application has the patient
provide their family size, household income, weekly/monthly income, recent
check stub, and any other source of income such as foster care or a stipend
from the military. If the patient provides all the correct information, then they
receive a sliding fee of $15 per primary care visit. If the patient fails to bring

in the correct information, then their sliding fee is $50 per primary care visit.
This is why government funding and private donations are so important for
Crossroad. They allow the patient to pay a reduced fee and Crossroad covers
the rest of the bill.
Crossroad Health Center employs over 200 employees throughout all
four locations. All of the employees are dedicated to do Gods work through
working at Crossroad. Providing healthcare services for the needy is their
way of showing Gods love. They care about the community and want
everyone to have the health care they need and deserve. Crossroad Health
Centers employee turnover rate is very low. Less than ten employees will
leave the company every year and that is a very low turnover rate
considering that Crossroad can only afford to provide low salaries. Crossroad
has a high amount of Spanish speaking patients so they provide bilingual
employees for them such as call operators, physicians, nurses, and medical
assistants.
Practicum
I began my internship with Crossroad Health Center of March 8th and
completed 38 hours of work by March 31st. Thirty of those hours were spent
one-on-one with the Operations Manger, Lea Ann Ruff. Six hours were spent
with Data Entry Manger, Albina Rice and two hours were spent with
Credentialing Manager, Terri Webb of the Cincinnati Health Department.
My time with the Operations Manager, Lea Ann Ruff was spent going
over the day-to-day operations of a health care organization. The first two

week I worked on deposits, made business calls, printed patient charts, faxed
documents, and credentialed a nurse practitioner. I was able to sit through a
couple meetings Lea Ann had with the front desk employees and the clinical
employees and practiced taking minutes of the meeting. The next two weeks
I reviewed Crossroads Medicare Enrollment Application, reviewed employee
policies, observed problem solving with patients and employees, and
observed delivery of medical supplies. I learned the ins-and-outs of being an
Operations Manager and during my internship I considered going that route
with my degree. I believe if I went that route I would have to acquire my
RHIA certification. The Operations Manager has their hands in all
departments such as coding, quality management, clinical, customer
relations, and managing employees.
Working with Data Entry Manager, Albina Rice consisted of filing all
patient encounter files from January to March of this year. After filing I
entered in all deposits and scanned all patients bills to Centerprise Inc. which
is Crossroads billing and consulting services. During my meeting with Terri
Webb the Credentialing Manger at the Cincinnati Health Department we
discussed my future goals of becoming a Credentialing Specialist and she
gave me great advice for finding a position in that field after graduation.
Terris job requires her to credential over 300 professional healthcare workers
in the greater Cincinnati area such as physicians, surgeons, dentists, nurse
practitioners, medical assistants, nurses, and dental assistants. Unlike other
credentialing jobs Terri does not work directly with the healthcare workers

that she is in charge of credentialing so she mainly communicates with them

through electronic mail or over the telephone. Like Crossroad Health Center
the Cincinnati Health Department is audited by HRSA every three years.
Conclusion
In the future I plan on being a Credentialing Specialist and taking my
CPCS (Certified Provider Credentialing Specialist) certification. I explained my
goals with Operations Manager, Lea Ann and unfortunately Crossroad Health
Center will not employ me because I do not have any experience with
Credentialing besides my college courses. If I were to eventually be
employed with Crossroad they would not require me to have my RHIT
certification. A Credentialing Specialist without experience can make roughly
$12-$14 an hour and a Credentialing Specialist with experience can make
$25-$30 an hour.
The Affordable Care Act (ACA) helped Crossroad Health Center provide
healthcare to their many needful patients. Before ACA was enacted
Crossroads patients who were poor and could not afford insurance could not
get the healthcare that they need. Patients who did not have jobs, lived in
homeless shelters or lived in domestic abuse shelters were not able to
receive healthcare. Even children of low income families could not get the
vaccines or healthcare that they need. After ACA was enacted Crossroads
patients who came from all backgrounds could now afford the healthcare
that they need. Children form needy families are able to get the vaccines and
healthcare that they need.

Crossroad Health Center being a non-profit organization suffers from

many challenges and their beigest challenge is receiving the funding that
they need. Before ACA was enacted over 60% of Crossroads patients could
not afford the $250 primary care visit so Crossroad would cover what the
patient could not afford. This caused Crossroad to have very little revenue.
Now that the ACA is enacted patients still struggle to pay but government
funds and private donations are able to help Crossroad cover the unpaid
bills. Still government funds and private donations are low and limited.
Crossroad Health Centers future looks promising and bright. In the
future Crossroad wants to open a school-based facility so that they can
provide vaccines and other health services to needy children whose parents
can not take them to the doctor. Crossroad Health Center is always reaching
out to help those in need.

References

(2016). About Crossroad Health Center. Crossroad Health Center. Retrieved

from: http://www.crossroadhc.org/