Planned Parenthood Great Plains Receives Grant from Oklahoma City Community Foundation to Increase Access to STI Testing for Uninsured and Underinsured Patients

Planned Parenthood Great Plains (PPGP) is pleased to announce it received a $31,000 grant from the Oklahoma City Community Foundation and its Access to Health Care iFund grant program. The grant will support a program titled Improving Sexual Health in OKC: Increasing Access to STI Testing among Uninsured Individuals. This program will allow PPGP to continue helping underserved community members prevent complications from STI’s, and reduce exposure to infection through early detection, treatment, and medically accurate, compassionate education and health care. Eliminating the barrier of up-front costs will ensure more equitable access to critical, time-sensitive healthcare services and information. 

“For patients we serve, financial barriers to accessing care are an all-too-common reality. With 45 percent of our patients uninsured, we are keenly aware of the high number of those who cannot afford to pay for STI testing or treatment and often must make the hard choice to limit, delay, or forgo care altogether,” said Brie Anderson, chief patient experience officer, Planned Parenthood Great Plains. “Eliminating the cost barrier of an initial visit not only ensures that more community members know their status, it also introduces them to STI treatment, prevention and other essential health care. As this program continues to make a difference across greater Oklahoma City, it serves as a model that can be followed to improve public health, access to care, and availability of medically accurate sexual and reproductive health information in the many other communities PPGP serves.”

PPGP operates two newly remodeled, state-of-the-art health centers in Central Oklahoma: Oklahoma City and Edmond. With generous support from the Oklahoma City Community Foundation’s Access to Health Care iFund grant, these health centers in the Oklahoma City area will ultimately support the health of all Oklahomans by lowering the potential for preventable health outcomes, such as recurring infections, pelvic inflammatory disease (PID), and infertility.

Funding will provide for clinician visits, STI testing, and all follow-up exams/treatment to 120 uninsured individuals. Each grant recipient will also receive a Pleasure & Protection Kit containing safer sex supplies and supplemental educational materials. PPGP will provide, at no cost, the following benefits to grant recipients:earlier detection of STIs, treatment or connection to treatment resources, education about safer sex practices, and free safer sex supplies.

Founded in 1969, the Oklahoma City Community Foundation is a 501(c)(3) public charity that works with donors to create charitable funds that will benefit the community both now and in the future. An initiative of the Oklahoma City Community Foundation Trustees, the iFund grant program utilizes gifts from donors to support services for children and elderly, as well as provide access to health care. To learn more about the Oklahoma City Community Foundation, visit www.occf.org.