No insurance will be no problem at this new $15.5 million Kennewick health clinic

The Yakima Valley Farm Workers Clinic will break ground Thursday on a primary care health clinic in Kennewick.

The clinic plans a $15.5 million building on the five acres it bought for $1.7 million near Vista Field.

The Miramar Health Center is expected to open as soon as early 2021.

It plans to offer medical and dental services and a pharmacy, serving patients regardless of their ability to pay.

“We are committed to providing the best quality care to those that need it most,” said Carlos Olivares, chief executive of the Yakima Valley Farm Workers Clinic.

It will accept Medicaid and most health insurance and will bill those without insurance on a sliding scale.

The Tri-Cities has about 36,000 low income residents who are not being served by a community health center, according to the farm workers clinic.

“It’s no secret that there’s a shortage of primary care services nationwide,” Olivares said. “It always has been and always will be our mission to go where there is a need.”

The new Kennewick center expects to ramp up to offer about 32,000 appointments a year. Appointments will be required, but can be made the day of the appointment in many cases.

Care center near Vista Field

It expects to employ close to 70 people, including eight health care providers.

The Neenan Co. of Fort Collins, Colo., is designing and building the 39,000-square-foot building, with 26 exam rooms, two minor procedure rooms, a group exam room and a consult room.

Formed in the 1970s, Yakima Valley Farm Workers Clinic is the largest community health care provider in the Northwest, operating clinics in Washington and Oregon.

It came to the Tri-Cities in 2006 and operates Miramar Health Center in Pasco and Columbia Basin Pediatric Dentistry and Dentistry for Kids, both in Kennewick.

The farm workers clinic purchased the land at North Kellogg and West Rio Grande streets for the new health center from Jerry Ivy Jr., who bought it in 2004 from the Port of Kennewick, which retained a buyback clause.

The port commissioners agreed in March to let the sale go through by removing the buyback option, after a heated debate because of its location to the port’s major Vista Field project.

The port commissioners want to transform the 103-acre former airport into an urban village with residences, commercial spaces, a theater and other amenities.

The new clinic will face Chuck E. Cheese’s on one side, Toyota of Tri-Cities on another, and the decommissioned Vista Field municipal airport on another.