Aunt Martha's planning to open clinic in Champaign for low-income patients
Nov. 29—CHAMPAIGN — A suburban Chicago health care organization plans to open a new health center with an adjoining pharmacy in Champaign to serve low-income patients.
Aunt Martha's Health and Wellness plans to open a new clinic in Champaign within a year to 15 months, according to the organization's CEO, Raul Garza.
The organization already serves more than 100,000 people at more than 30 clinics in Illinois, including two in Danville.
A location in Champaign hasn't been chosen yet, and Aunt Martha's is still deciding between building from the ground up or remodeling an existing building, Garza said.
Olympia Fields-based Aunt Martha's is a federally qualified health center, as is Champaign-based Promise Healthcare and its Frances Nelson Health Center.
Federally qualified health centers serve medically underserved patients in their communities and qualify for special Medicare and Medicaid reimbursements.
Garza said this won't be the first time Aunt Martha's has opened one of its health centers in a community that already has a federally qualified health center.
The decision to open a clinic in Champaign is based on unmet need, he said.
Garza said his organization's look at the data shows 87 percent of low-income and Medicaid patients in the Champaign-Urbana area aren't being served by a health center, "and that comes out to almost 43,000 people."
"Only 13 percent of the low-income residents are being served, and that's profound," he said.
Aunt Martha's got its start in 1972 and provides such services as primary care, behavioral health, dental, family planning, women's health, men's health and pediatrics.
Whether the Champaign health center will provide dental care is still being evaluated, but it will for sure offer primary care and most likely family-planning education and support, Garza said.
He projects Aunt Martha's could serve 5,000 to 7,000 patients if it has, ideally, nine exam rooms and spaces for mental health care in Champaign.
"I don't think it would take us long to get to that number, probably a few years," he said.
The adjoining pharmacy will be operated by an independent pharmacist Aunt Martha's works with in Joliet, he said.
Garza, who has been Aunt Martha's CEO for 14 years, has former ties to Champaign County. He spent eight of his 10 years in the military at the former Chanute Air Force Base in Rantoul, he said.
Plans are to hire staff locally and be involved with the local community, he said.
"We're excited about the opportunity to come in and be a part of the community," Garza said.
Aunt Martha's recently announced it received a $9 million donation from philanthropist MacKenzie Scott.
