April 14 will be Whitney Tranchemontagne’s last day with us. She has served our patients well for two years as a Family Nurse Practitioner. We’re sorry to be losing her. But, like all job markets right now, the health care industry is very competitive. It’s difficult for a small, independent, community non-profit Health Center to compete on salaries and benefits.

Providers available in late April/May are Dr. Allan S. (“Chip”) Teel and Susan Lord, Family Nurse Practitioner

We will still be open six days/week, but we will have fewer hours available for medical providers to see patients each day, so we will not be accepting new patients until June 1. If you’ve been to the Health Center before, you’re considered a patient, so please feel free to call to schedule an appointment. 

Adding two new providers in June

Starting June 1, we expect to have two additional Primary Care Providers in order to serve our community and our summer residents, summer workers, and summer visitors. We’ll provide more details soon. We’ve discovered that there are experienced local medical providers who actually welcome the opportunity to practice medicine in a less corporate setting, in which they can spend more time with each patient. 

Growth in Patients: Filling unmet needs

Since we opened our doors in January 2018, we’ve grown the number of active patients we serve from 776 to 3,609. That tells us all that there was definitely unmet need in this community for more, readily available and affordable primary health care. We’re seeing patients who haven’t had medical care in over 10 years. We see patients in their homes. We see many local people with chronic conditions—Alzheimer’s, cardiac issues, chronic pain, congestive heart failure, diabetes, hypertension, mental health, respiratory issues, and substance misuse --- four to six times per year. And they don’t have to travel off the peninsula.

Amount of un-reimbursed medical care

Our Health Center currently provides over $775,000 worth of un-reimbursed health care to community members in the Boothbay region. Most people are unaware that health insurance doesn’t actually reimburse primary health care providers very well. Insurers typically pay about 50% of what it costs to actually diagnose and treat patients. Many primary care offices keep their costs down by treating 4 to 6 patients per provider per hour. Our medical providers see one to two patients per hour, depending on complexity, because we believe in providing thorough care. For doctor’s offices that are part of larger healthcare systems, the losses incurred in primary care are made up for by the profits in hospitalizations, ER visits, Urgent Care visits, and visits to specialists --- all of which are reimbursed at higher rates. For a non-profit Community Health Center, like ours, which charges the lowest possible fees in order to make healthcare affordable to all, we can’t recoup those costs through higher-priced services.

Our current costs to provide care

Our expenses have grown from $723,000 to over $1 million/yr. The largest expenses we have are salaries. Good, experienced Primary Care Providers are not cheap, and they have many options to choose from with a lot more signing bonuses and benefits than we can afford to offer.

How do we make up the difference?

We rely on donations, grants, and loans to keep us afloat. In the past two years (during the COVID pandemic, when we remained open six days a week throughout), we relied on $300,000/yr in grants and donations. And, there have been many months in which, despite your generosity, we were still in the red, struggling to cover payroll. So, the answer to the question of How Do We Bridge the Gap is: with your help, and with difficulty.

Spring restructuring

In order to lower our cost structure, we’re taking advantage of the fact that we’ve lost two primary care providers this spring, to downsize our entire staff and to refresh with a somewhat smaller staff of very experienced medical providers and assistants. As of June, we expect to have two additional Primary Care Providers. We believe we can provide excellent quality of care, and meet the demand of our local residents --- including seasonal residents and their families, and seasonal employees --- with our new staff. So we ask for your patience during this temporary staff shortage.

Please help us this spring

With fewer Primary Care Providers seeing patients, we’ll have lower income for April and May. And, as our new Primary Care Providers come on board in June, we won’t be reimbursed for their time right away. In the health care industry, each new medical provider has to be “credentialed” with every health insurance company that patients have. This is an expensive and lengthy (90 days) process.

Here’s what we need

We need a couple of large “matching donations” — that will provide incentives to smaller donors to meet the match, thereby doubling their donations. And, we need donations of all sizes. We could even use loans or loan guarantees to help see us through this spring. Perhaps you’re a member of a local association or church group that cares about the availability of affordable, convenient local health care. Maybe you’re good at finding applicable grants. Please show us your support by helping us in any way you can! 

If you can help, contact Patty Seybold (633-4368) or patriciaseybold@bbrhc.org. Send a check made out to BRHC to Boothbay Region Health Center, 185 Townsend Ave, Suite R, Boothbay Harbor, ME 04538. Stop by or call 633-1075 to make a credit card donation during office hours (8:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Monday-Friday or 10 a.m.-4 p.m. on Saturday). Or donate online. What’s the value to you of having exceptional, high-quality, innovative, affordable, convenient primary health care available year round on the Boothbay peninsula?