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Penobscot Community Health Care (PCHC) is Maine’s largest community health center. Our mission is to provide access to high-quality primary care for all. We employ over 730 people who care for nearly 60,000 patients at 17 clinical locations each year; 20,000 of our patients are MaineCare members, nearly half of whom are children. Like all 20 of Maine’s community health centers, we are innovators and good stewards of public resources operating with razor thin margins.
Consistent reimbursement for the services provided to our 20,000 MaineCare patients is critical to our survival and has a cascading impact on the health and wellbeing of the thousands of kids and adults we serve, as well as the state’s economy.
As recent news coverage has shown, PCHC and other health care providers across the state are exceptionally vulnerable to payment reductions right now. For PCHC, a gap in funding would mean a loss of between $7 million and $15 million this year. Without these funds, we would face difficult decisions: Should we reduce staff levels? Limit services? Or, worst of all, consider closing our doors, at least temporarily? These consequences would exacerbate the already abysmal primary care access challenges plaguing the state.
When budget politics and health care intersect, no one benefits. I urge Maine legislators from both parties to come together and pass the supplemental budget on an emergency basis. Failing to do so will put PCHC and many Maine health care organizations in jeopardy — a self-inflicted wound that will not heal well.
Lori Dwyer
President and CEO
Penobscot Community Health Care
Bangor
