EVANSVILLE, IN (WFIE) -
The Vanderburgh County Community Dental Clinic has been closed since the beginning of the month.
The health department says it doesn't have the money to keep it open, but a big change could be on the way.
The Community Dental Clinic serves the uninsured and the underinsured and it's had a tough time this year.
It closed back in January after its dentist resigned, it reopened, and it's now closed once again because of these funding issues.
The latest twist is that the clinic may end up switching hands.
Right now, it's operated by the Vanderburgh County Health Department and serves somewhere around 800 people a year.
But as mentioned, the health department is lacking the money to keep it going. They're looking for an additional $100,000.
The county council president tells 14 News negotiations are underway with echo community health care for them to take over the clinic.
He says the idea would be for the county to contribute money to ECHO. If an agreement was reached, but it wouldn't be as big an investment as it would if the health department continued the operation.
"We just like to see the services continue. It doesn't matter which professional healthcare folks are providing the services as long as the services continue. There's more than enough praise, glory, blame to go around for everything and we kind of all share all of those things," said Gary Heck, the Vanderburgh County Health Department Administrator.
County council president Tom Shelter says there seems to be a great interest from ECHO on this, though nothing has been decided on yet.
We will continue to keep you updated on the future of the dental clinic.
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