Down East health professionals to meet on budget cuts

HARRINGTON – The Harrington Family Health Center is hosting a meeting at 1 p.m. today for Washington County health professionals to hear from state legislators about the state’s proposed $9.5 million budget reductions for MaineCare services.

The proposal includes capping the number of visits to 10 that a client can make to a federally qualified community health center in the state, such as the Harrington center, Holly Gartmayer, the center’s program director and organizer of the meeting, said Thursday.

The meeting at the center on Route 1 is open to the public.

State Sen. Kevin Shorey, R-Calais, Rep. Albion Goodwin, D-Pembroke, and Rep. Eddie Dugay, D-Cherryfield, have confirmed they will attend.

“We felt it was imperative to have the delegation and the community be aware of the proposals that will have a terrible consequence for patients throughout Washington County,” Gartmayer said. “Our effort is to raise awareness and reverse any sense of this proposal moving forward.”

Attending the meeting will be representatives from the four community health centers in Washington County: the Harrington Family Health Center; the Regional Medical Center of Lubec; Eastport Health Care; and the St. Croix Regional Health Center in Princeton, which also provides services in Calais.

Administrators from Down East Community Hospital in Machias, plus the Bucksport Regional Health Center in Hancock County, also will be present.

Today’s meeting falls in advance of hearings scheduled for Thursday, Jan. 8. The meeting will take place between 8:30 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. at the Bureau of Medical Services office on Civic Center Drive in Augusta.

Federally qualified health centers, such as the Harrington center and 30 others statewide, are the first item on the Jan. 8 agenda.

Harrington Family Health Care had 4,500 patients using the facility in 2003, combining to make more than 21,000 visits, according to Gartmayer. They received medical, dental, mental health, chiropractic and care-management services.

Of the 4,500 patients, 632 were new patients, and of those, 28 percent relied on MaineCare service.

“We have a fairly large practice, but it is unusual for us to have that many more patients in one year,” Gartmayer said.

Any cuts in Medicaid and MaineCare benefits, Gartmayer said, “will have a direct negative impact on the most fragile patients we serve.”

Kevin Lewis, executive director in Augusta for the Maine Primary Care Association, which represents the state’s 31 federally qualified health centers, addressed a letter on Dec. 19 to the leadership of the state’s Committee on Appropriations and Financial Affairs, which is considering the proposed changes.

He noted that the federally qualified health centers are the primary care safety net in Maine.

“They are located in medically underserved areas,” Lewis wrote. “The basis for their Medicaid cost-related reimbursement is partly in recognition of their role as access points for all patients, regardless of insurance coverage, type or income level.”

Within Washington County, Gartmayer said, “the people will end up with fragmented care, at best,” if the cuts are imposed.

“The impetus for the proposed rule change is to save money,” Gartmayer said. “But our position is that good primary and preventative care is an investment in now and in the future. Not having our services available to folks means they will try to receive care in an acute phase of their illness, using the most expensive resource available to them – a hospital emergency room.”

For information on today’s meeting, contact Gartmayer at 483-4502, Ext. 244.