Help at Hand: Community Health Clinic Expands to Meet Rising Demand for Care

March 23, 2005

Sometimes there’s a bright spot in the news, even on the seemingly impossible problem of paying for health care.
For thousands of unisured residents of Northern Michigan, that bright spot is the expansion of the Community Health Clinic in Traverse City which will open at a new location on May 4.
“It will be three times larger than the space we use now. It’s like a dream come true,” says Clinic Manager Meg Lancucki.
To be located at 3147 Logan Valley Road in the complex of office buildings across the way from Logan’s Landing on South Airport Road, the new Clinic will carry on offering donation-based health services such as physical exams, women’s health care, family planning, TB testing and HIV counseling and testing.
Patients who need additional services in the way of specialty medical care or dental work will be connected to doctors and dentists who are donating their services through a program offered by the Grand Traverse Regional Healthcare Coalition.

THE UNINSURED
Local need is great. Several years ago, a health department survey found that there were between 17,000-20,000 persons living without health insurance in the five-county area around Traverse City, representing about 10 percent of Northern Michigan’s population.
“Last year we served about 1,400 patients in 4,200 visits,” Luncucki notes. “Three visits per patient is about the average for the insured population as well.”
But the Clinic is gearing up to double the number of patients it will see this year as the number of uninsured Americans rises.
Who quaifies? The program serves uninsured persons from Benzie, Leelanau and Grand Traverse counties who earn 150% of income at the federal poverty level. That means a single person living on less than $13,965 per year, or a family of four living at $28,275 or less. Services are also provided to Antrim and Kalkaska County residents on a slightly different formula.
“The typical person who comes here is someone who is working and has a solid job, but is on a low income and doesn’t have health insurance,” Lancucki says.
“We have one young man who works at a bakery and does other odd jobs, but there’s no way he can reach an income level to afford health insurance.”
Then too, many Clinic users have chronic, costly health problems with nowhere else to turn.
“A lot of people have problems such as diabetes, asthma or depression which all require a lot of maintenance. We see a lot of people who are so thankful because maybe they were living for a couple of years going untreated.”

THE BACKGROUND
The Clinic, currently operating on S. Garfield Road in Traverse City, dates back to the early ‘70s when it opened to serve teenagers and young adults in need of health care. Through the years, it has evolved to serve the working poor, with many being between the ages of 40 and 65 who don’t qualify for Medicaid or Medicare.
The Grand Traverse Regional Healthcare Coalition (GTRHC) is the brainchild of Clinic executive director Dr. Carl Benner, M.D., and Arlene Brennan, R.N., who serves as the Coalition’s Executive Director. The Coalition is a voluntary access program that helps identify persons in need of health services and connects them to doctors, dentists and health professionals who volunteer their time.
Recently, the Grand Traverse Regional Community Foundation of the Northwest Michigan Osteopathic Fund contributed more than $30,000 to pay for a new medical director’s position at the Clinic. The new medical director wil help the Clinic in its liaisons with physicians throughout the region and will be working with 11 full and part-time staff, including registered nurses and pharmacy techs, as well as numerous volunteers.

MANY HANDS
The Clinic and the Coalition’s Health Access Program are examples of the medical community’s response to the crisis in health care for low income persons.
Several years ago, for instance, lack of dental care was identified as a serious problem for the working poor in the region. In response, the Clinic now offers a program in which volunteer dentists do assessments of client’s needs, referring them on to 31 dentists who provide free or low-cost care.
Housed in the former offices of obstetrician-gynecologist Dr. Tim Madion, the new Clinic will have six exam rooms compared to the two-and-a-half at its old location. Dr. Madion has also donated a rolling medical chart system which can hold the records of 12,000 patients.
Another benefit to patients will be an on-site medications program staffed by pharmacy techs.
This program is expected to dramatically simplify the hassles for patients receiving medications donated by drug companies. In the past, patients have had to provide pay stubs and tax records to prove they qualify for medications on each drug they require. Since many patients require an average of three different medications, this meant visiting the pharmacy at Munson Medical Center with all the necessary paperwork for each prescription -- a huge problem for both patients and Munson’s pharmacy techs.
At the new Clinic, however, pharmacy techs will be onhand to collect all of the necessary documentation and provide non-narcotic prescriptions onsite. They’ll also serve a seniors medications program which provides prescriptions to over 250 senior citizens.
No one is claiming that the new Clinic will be an all-purpose solution to the health care problems of the working poor, but it’s a start.
“It’s a country-wide problem and not just in Northern Michigan,” Lancucki says. “The number of uninsured people keeps rising and insurance costs keep rising. Even employers who’ve been providing insurance for their workers are having a hard time keeping up.”