Startzman paves way to take Medicaid patients

The past year has been one of positive change for the Viola Startzman Clinic, but those outcomes have included a lot of work and dedication from the agency.

In less than a month, the clinic will begin accepting Medicaid patients as part of the Affordable Care Act, therefore, forcing the facility to drop the "Free" from its name.

Executive Director Jaime Parsons expects that as of early March, the agency will be known as the Viola Startzman Clinic.

"We will provide free health care to those who lack health insurance but we will also accept patients who have Medicaid," Parsons explained. "We are hoping this goes into effect March 1 -- it's a process that has taken much longer than we expected."

The clinic saw 2,259 patients in 2013. According to Parsons, it already has received a "significant amount" of calls from people who have Medicaid and are interested in becoming patients.

As the clinic prepared for the increase in patients, it laid the groundwork in 2013 by making a few new hires to its staff, including a second full-time nurse practitioner who started July 1. Parsons said since Rachelle Petika was hired, she has been very beneficial to the clinic.

"She was a student here and we were impressed by her heart for our patients," Parsons said. "There aren't nurse practitioners standing on every street corner so this has been fantastic. Our board made the decision to invest in the future of the clinic."

The clinic also applied for a VISTA, which places a federal employee in an agency for one year. Carol Labuza works 40 hours a week as the clinic's community outreach coordinator, which allows her to get back into the community to renew connections, network and find out how things can be done better.

"Our goal was to break down barriers for our patients and for access to what our patients need," Parsons said.

The final employee the Startzman Clinic hired was June Chandler- White, who serves as its health insurance navigator. Her job is to solely focus on looking for health plans for patients and find out what's available through a program called Marketplace.

"She will be enrolling a lot of people," Parsons said, "but unfortunately she will be fixing things for them as well."

Luckily for the clinic, it has a strong volunteer base, which will be crucial as its patients increase. In 2013, there were 378 volunteers who gave 6,047 hours of service.

"The people who choose to volunteer here see two things," Parsons said. "One, they see the need and that it isn't being met. And two, they have a heart for the patient population. The volunteers see that our patients have fallen on hard times. Some of them are former patients and now they are volunteers who want to give back. Or they might be retirees who just want to help out. We have elementary groups, church groups, Scouts -- all of those things together tell me people believe in our mission."

This year, the Startzman Clinic will launch an endowment campaign in memory of Dr. Viola Startzman, who died in August at the age of 99. The money will go toward nurse practitioners and be called the Viola Startzman Fellowship.

"It will be for nurse practitioners who are fresh out of school and be for one year," Parsons said. "This will give them an opportunity to get their feet wet and we will be able to pay them, as well as really expose them to what you would see here at the clinic, as opposed to what they would get in a traditional doctor's office."

This past year was a learning one for the Startzman Clinic, but what it did in 2013 has prepared the agency for what it will face for many years to come.

"2013 was a pivotal year for us," Parsons said. "We looked back and celebrated where the clinic had come from, what we are currently doing now and what we need to do to fill the health care gaps in the community. It was a learning year for us but at the same time, it was very fulfilling to see the number of people in the community who support us in terms of money and donations."