BLACKFOOT — During the past couple of years, Community Family Clinic has added a dental office in Idaho Falls and a medical office in Rigby.
Next month, the non-profit operation will add dental services to its existing Blackfoot medical office at 1491 Parkway Drive.
“We are growing because of the need for what we offer and the access we provide,” said Arnold Cantu, clinic administrator for Community Family Clinic.
What they provide are medical and dental services, but with everyone in mind. Those with health insurance are welcome. But those who use Medicare and Medicaid and those without insurance are also welcome. In fact, if you don’t have insurance, they offer a sliding scale payment option based on income and household size, Cantu said.
Community Family Clinic began operations as a Federally Qualified Health Center, or FQHC, in 2005 with a medical facility in Idaho Falls and satellite offices in Blackfoot and Roberts. Cantu took over as clinic administrator in 2007.
Cantu, again pointing out that Community Family Clinic accepts all insurances, said the FQHC designation means they can provide primary health care on a sliding fee scale for those without insurance, and they accept Medicaid and Medicare.
The operation provides primary medical care, including OB/GYN, pediatrics, family medicine, elderly care, behavioral health and dental services. You can get marriage counseling, get your annual physical and even have a baby with them.
They also have an in-house pharmacy, which Cantu said allows Community Family Clinic to participate in the 340B program. That allows patients without medical insurance to get their medications at a much lower cost.
“That way people can afford their medications,” Cantu said. “They don’t have to make the choice between food and medications.”
For more information, check out Community Family Clinic’s website at idahocfc.org.
Over time, the need to adjust the operation led to the closure of the Roberts location, and two years ago, the Rigby location was built and opened. The Blackfoot office was relocated from its original location into a new state-of-the-art facility. Now, it’s being updated to include the dental offices.
“We saw enough Blackfoot area residents coming to our Idaho Falls dental office that we decided there was a need for dental services in Blackfoot,” Cantu said.
Community Family Clinic has always offered dental services. In fact, they had to as part of their FQHC designation. But for most of their history, those services were offered by contracting with existing dental offices in Idaho Falls. The number of patients they were seeing led them to open their own dental office in late 2023.
And that new dental office has been gangbusters since it opened. Dr. Mathew Palmer, one of Community Family Clinic’s two dentists, has been with them since before that facility opened and said the wait to get in to see him used to be long.
“We used to be booked three or four months in advance,” Palmer said. “The only way you could see me quickly was if it was an emergency.”
That has changed with the hiring of another dentist.
“Since we hired a second dentist, our schedule is still booked solid, but we are able to get people in a lot quicker,” Palmer said.
Palmer said construction of the new Blackfoot dental office appears to be on schedule, and he is hoping for an opening in the early part of March. Initially, the Blackfoot dental services will be available only on Wednesdays and Thursdays.
His hope is to not only give those Blackfoot area residents already making the trek to his office in Idaho Falls a closer location but also to attract others for whom the drive to Idaho Falls is difficult.
“I hope we can help some in the surrounding areas there as well,” Palmer said. “Hopefully, one day, there will be enough traffic there to hire a full-time dentist just for that office.”
His vision is to see the need to have the Blackfoot dentist’s office operating five days a week.
Palmer joined Community Family Clinic in 2023, a couple of years after he and his wife had moved to Idaho Falls from Wisconsin. Palmer, originally from Inkom, worked as an associate at a couple of different offices in Idaho Falls when he saw that Community Family Clinic was looking for a dentist.
He said the style of dentistry there can be a little different. Because there aren’t very many dentists in the area who take Medicare or Medicaid, or see patients who don’t have insurance, Palmer said he is often seeing people who haven’t been to a dentist in years.
“It’s kind of rewarding to be able to help so many people who haven’t seen a dentist in so long,” he said. “And we will see anyone. We are trying to create a place for those who haven’t been able to find a dentist.”
Palmer said those rewards far outweigh the lucrative potential for a private practice.
“Money is nice, but it’s not the most important thing,” he said. “Helping people, being satisfied, happy to go to work, it makes a big difference.”