Members of the REACH Healthcare Foundation offered Allen County commissioners a history lesson and reminder of how local partnerships have grown over the past 20 years.
Brenda Sharpe, CEO of Reach, and Carla Gibson, vice president of programs, spoke to commissioners at Tuesday’s meeting. They were accompanied by former board member Judy Works and current members Dick Works and Patti Boyd.
REACH is one of two charitable foundations created in 2003 when Health Midwest, a nonprofit healthcare organization that operated Allen County Hospital, was sold to a for-profit company, Hospital Corporation of America (HCA).
Years of litigation followed to protect the charitable assets that existed at that time. Counties that had hospitals affected by the sale had a choice to keep a portion of the funds or invest them with the foundations. Allen County joined the foundation.
“Our mission is to provide and support health care access for people who are uninsured and low income,” Sharpe told commissioners.
The initial settlement gave REACH $120 million to invest, using those earnings for grants. Today, the foundation has $135 million in assets and gives about $4 million in grants across six counties: Jackson, Cass and Lafayette in Missouri, and Wyandotte, Johnson and Allen in Kansas.
Allen County has received about $3.3 million from REACH since the foundation began.
Commissioner Bruce Symes asked if the money was distributed proportionally with all counties, since Allen is much smaller than the others.
“It’s much higher than proportional,” Sharpe said. “Our goal is to go where there’s the greatest need. We see a lot of disparities in rural communities.”
REACH soon found it needed to get a clear picture of the health needs of Allen County.
“With the population being what it is, your data was often spread out across a nine-county area in southeast Kansas,” Sharpe said.
The group worked with a research group from the University of Kansas to study the county. Their assessment found county residents are generally older, sicker and poorer than the Kansas average. Many lack medical and dental insurance.
As a result, Thrive Allen County was born, courtesy of a startup grant from REACH. Thrive has evolved to become one of the most prominent health advocacy organizations in Kansas.
REACH also supports the Southeast Kansas Mental Health Center, Community Health Center of Southeast Kansas and the Southeast Kansas Multi-County Health Departments.
Those partnerships are examples of the difference REACH and Allen County can make when they work toward a common goal, Sharpe said.
SEVERAL years ago, REACH board members and staff realized they needed to take a different approach, Gibson said. She’s been with the organization for 17 years, since nearly the beginning and has worked closely with Allen County.
“We weren’t doing as well, particularly in rural counties, so we deployed a rural health initiative,” Gibson explained.
Under the previous model, REACH determined what kinds of projects they were willing to fund, and non-profit organizations would write grants for those things.
“We flipped everything and said, ‘Tell us what you want,’” Gibson said.
That has led to significant changes in the types of projects that have been funded. For example, there has been a recent shift to address “determinants of health.” Those are things that affect someone’s ability to access healthcare, such as transportation and even housing. REACH helped with funding for a new transportation program offered by Thrive.
The change has exposed REACH to a wider audience.
“A lot more folks know who we are. We’re funding non-traditional partners,” Gibson said.
They encouraged commissioners to consider REACH for partnership opportunities, and to advocate for support of Medicaid expansion in Kansas.
Chairman David Lee asked if that would include efforts for veterans, as the Veterans Administration plans to build a community-based outreach clinic in Iola. Sharpe was unaware of that project, but said REACH has worked with the VA in other communities.
“Veterans represent a very high percentage of uninsured, surprisingly, and a very high proportion of people who would be eligible for Medicaid expansion,” she said.
IN OTHER news, commissioners:
Heard an update from Counselor Bob Johnson on plans to expand the courthouse. Commissioners have reviewed a contract with Crossland, the construction manager. Six architect firms are expected to submit proposals by April, and a committee will review those proposals and narrow them to a list of finalists.
Heard another update from Johnson about a citizen’s request to examine a possible county road she needs to access property. The road isn’t in the county and likely was never an official road, Johnson found.
Heard a report from Terry Call, zoning director, who said he planned to contest new FEMA maps that show flood plains in the county. FEMA declared the county landfill a flood zone because of the height difference between the quarried land and the surrounding area. The same happened with a quarry at Monarch Cement in Humboldt, as well as areas in the City of Iola that Call believes were improperly marked. Property owners can contest the finding and Call expects the maps to be corrected.
Continued to discuss road repairs with Road and Bridge Director Mark Griffith, and updates to the airport with Public Works Director Mitch Garner.
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