Access Health Care Mahoning Valley has open house

Staff report

WARREN

An organization that provides low-income and uninsured Mahoning and Trumbull County adults with access to free health and dental care had an open house Thursday.

Access Health Care Mahoning Valley connects uninsured adults age 19 to 64 who are ineligible for public health-insurance programs such as Medicare, Medicaid and Veterans Affairs benefits with primary-care physicians, specialists, clinics and dentists.

Uninsured adults without access to primary-care physicians often use emergency rooms to seek treatment for ailments such as asthma, dental pain and depression, which are better managed by primary-care providers, said Matthew Stefanak, Mahoning County health commissioner and chair of the board of Access Health Mahoning Valley.

More than 3,200 visits to emergency rooms at hospitals in Mahoning and Trumbull counties in 2009 were for such primary- care conditions, he said.

Access Health Care Mahoning Valley is located in the Warren Health Department, 418 Main Ave. SW, and Youngstown Health District, 345 Oakhill Ave.