Erie school-based medical center expected to lose $330,000 this year

May 13--No one expected Wayne Primary Care to be a moneymaker.

UPMC Hamot, Community Health Net and the Erie Community Foundation created the school-based health center, 650 East Ave., to serve students and neighbors in a low-income section of Erie.

But officials hoped the primary care office would break even, which hasn't happened since it opened in October 2012.

"We are on track to lose $330,000 this fiscal year," said David Gibbons, Hamot's chief operating officer. The Hamot Health Foundation is paying $100,000 of the cost, with the hospital underwriting the rest of it.

Wayne Primary Care loses more than $25,000 a month because it has not yet been designated as a federally qualified health center, which would enable the office to receive higher payments for treating Medicaid patients.

A majority of the office's patients have Medicaid or no health insurance.

The original plan was to have the FQHC designation when the office opened. Community Health Net officials later said they expected the office to earn FQHC status by Jan. 1, 2013.

"Am I concerned? Yes," said Mike Batchelor, executive director of the Erie Community Foundation. "This is taking longer than anyone expected."

Hamot and Community Health Net built the office with a $470,470 federal grant and a $100,000 grant from the Erie Community Foundation.

Community Health Net, Erie County's only FQHC, applied to the Health Resources & Services Administration in 2012 to extend its designation to include Wayne Primary Care. If HRSA approves the designation, the application then goes to the Pennsylvania Department of Public Welfare.

Batchelor, who is also a member of Community Health Net's board of directors, said he doesn't know why it has taken HRSA so long to approve Community Health Net's application.

"If I knew, I would tell you," Batchelor said. "I think Community Health Net needs to be judged as a strong organization by HRSA."

Community Health Net decided not to extend the contract of its chief executive, John Schultz, in August 2012, replacing him with medical director R. Anthony Snow, M.D.

"As CHN has experienced various transitions over the last two years, there are processes underway to facilitate our FQHC-related expansion initiatives," Snow said in a statement after repeated attempts to contact him. "All efforts are tracking well within operational FQHC requirements, but as with most local government systems, things do not always move as quickly as we locally wish."

HRSA officials have not said when a decision on Wayne Primary Care's FQHC designation is expected to be made, Batchelor said.

A e-mail seeking comment from the HRSA was not returned Monday.

Hamot will continue to operate the office and cover its costs, said Steve Danch, Hamot's chief financial officer.

"Wayne Primary care is very successful in terms of use," Danch said. "It's serving the patients we want to serve, but it's a challenge to continue subsidizing it. We have to fix this problem."

DAVID BRUCE can be reached at 870-1736 or by e-mail. Follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/ETNbruce.

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