Mar 3, 2015 3 min read

The state Department of Health is moving ahead with plans to reopen community health centers that closed under Gov. Tom Corbett’s administration, including the health center in Greene County.

The department is required to reopen the health centers under a state Supreme Court decision issued in November.

Gov. Tom Wolf included $3.8 million in the budget, which he announced Tuesday, allowing the department to move ahead with reopening the centers, said Holli Senior, deputy press secretary for the department.

“We have been working with all appropriate partners to ensure that the reopening of the state health centers affected by the implementation is done as quickly as possible,” she said, in an email response to questions.

Multiple parties are involved in the process including the Department of General Services, Office of General Counsel and labor unions, she said.

More information will be provided as the plan unfolds, Senior said.

In the interim, the department will continue to provide the same level of public health services to the community, she said.

Under Corbett, the department began implementing a “modernization” plan that involved closing 26 of the 60 state community health centers.

The Greene County center closed in August 2013 and was consolidated with the center in Washington.

The local center provided immunizations to people who are uninsured or under-insured, conducted HIV and STD testing and held flu and tuberculosis clinics.

Implementation of the plan, however, was halted by a court challenge filed by SEIU Healthcare Pennsylvania and state legislators, including state Rep. Pam Snyder, D-Jefferson, and former state Sen. Tim Solobay, D-Canonsburg.

The suit maintained the closings violated state law, Act 87 of 1996, that required the department to continue operating all public health centers open as of July 1, 1995. That law, it said, could not be amended without action by the legislature.

The suit further claimed the closing of the centers would reduce the level of health services available especially to residents of rural counties.

The Supreme Court agreed with plaintiffs in regard to the language of Act 87 and concluded the administration must “cease reducing the number of Centers, re-establish Centers in counties in which they have been unlawfully closed, cease reducing the level of public health services, and restore the level of public health services to that which existed July 1, 1995.”

The health department last week officially offered reinstatement to the 26 nurses whose positions were eliminated under Corbett’s plan, according to SEIU.

It also has already reopened the center in Clinton County, the union said.