In recent weeks, the public has learned of a program, the St. Louis Affiliation Project, that would help sustain a safety net for the uninsured and underinsured in St. Louis City and St. Louis County. Under the proposed plan the management of four ConnectCare Primary Care Centers would be shifted to the Grace Hill and Myrtle Hilliard Davis Comprehensive Health Centers. ConnectCare clinics include Max Starkloff, Lillian Courtney, Florence Hill and the Homer G. Phillips clinic that sits adjacent to the older Homer G. Phillips hospital site.
For those of us with long memories, it is tempting to view this news with skepticism and concern. Is this another surreptitious plan to close needed health care facilities? We remember painfully the closings of Homer G. Phillips Hospital and Regional Hospital and the stealthy exodus of hospitals from the city’s North Side.
In spite of a sordid history of betrayal, neglect and disparity in health care, this news is actually good news. In fact, it’s unprecedented good news.
For one thing, nothing is being closed. The primary goals of the Clinic Affiliation Project are to increase the number of direct service providers, to streamline and improve efficiencies in health care delivery, and to bring a number of clinics into federal compliance to protect their federal funding.
Moreover, the project would allow ConnectCare to build upon and increase the types of specialty services it provides, such as cardiology and orthopedics. Most importantly, these proposed changes are essential to protect the approximately $25 million a year in federal dollars available to provide care for the medically underserved in St. Louis.
So is the news all good? Almost. What stands in the way of achieving these important goals is the requirement for a local contribution on the order of $7 million. These funds are necessary to cover transfer, improvement and renovation costs.
In response to an appeal from the St. Louis Regional Health Commission, the Missouri Foundation For Health (MFH) relaxed its policy regarding the funding of capital spending and stepped up to the plate with a challenge grant of $3.5 million. It is now up to local hospitals, businesses and foundations to raise the remaining funds. All of these organizations have either an expressed interest based on their avowed mission and/or a direct self-interest in providing the needed additional funds.
The duplicity and deception associated with the closure of Homer G. Phillips Hospital marked the beginning of one of the most painful chapters in the history of the African-American community in St. Louis. That legacy of suspicion and distrust lingers today. Raising the needed funds would help bring that chapter to a close in a positive way.
The question is whether the appropriate players will seize this opportunity. They should and they must. They need to respond generously and in a timely manner. The very future of providing access in our region to a safety net facility for those in need depends on their response to this challenge.