By HALEY JONES
Director of Marketing and Development
Memorial Health System’s Heartland Health Care Clinic (HHCC) location in Herington continues to make progress toward serving all patients in the Tri-County area, thanks to some assistance from U.S. Senator Roger Marshall’s Salina office.
After months of building and planning HHCC – Herington, located at 18 N Broadway, was able to open its doors to patients on May 13, 2024.
“Opening a healthcare clinic is a lengthy process, and it’s not always easy to communicate those steps with the general public. We have tried to provide updates that are small wins for us, but to the patients who are waiting for healthcare, those wins mean very little if they can’t get the care they need,” said Harold Courtois, CEO of Memorial Health System (MHS).
A week after the abrupt closing of the Herington Hospital in October of 2023, MHS was in Herington seeking opportunities to help keep some form of healthcare in that area for the residents, and by December, renovations began on a building that would serve as the new clinic.
Although the doors officially opened on May 13, HHCC-Herington was unable to serve a majority of the patients in that area.
“We were only able to see patients with Blue Cross Blue Shield Kansas, Allegiance, MultiPlan, and Aetna Commercial plans,” stated Karysa Reyer, Director of Clinic Operations. “Unfortunately, that didn’t help the community very much, as the majority of the population held Medicare and Medicaid, so we started a call-back list, ensuring those patients that we would get them called back just as soon as we were able to accept those insurance plans.”
MHS held the grand opening ribbon-cutting ceremony on June 28, although the wait for credentialing was still in full effect.
“As time continued to pass, and the list continued to reach over a hundred patients, we decided to ask for some help,” said Reyer. “Senator Roger Marshall’s staff in the Salina office were instrumental in helping to get some forward movement with the credentialing process so that we could start seeing more patients. We seriously cannot thank them enough for their assistance, and we are so excited to share some good news with the Herington community!”
“I applaud Memorial Health System for stepping up to fill the healthcare needs of the Herington community,” said U.S. Senator Roger Marshall, M.D. “Since coming to Congress, I have prioritized supporting our rural healthcare providers and efforts like this are one of many ways my office can help our rural providers and ensure all Kansans have access to basic healthcare services.”
HHCC – Herington is now able to accept the following insurances: Aetna Better Health, Tricare, Aetna Commercial & Aetna Medicare Advantage, BCBS KS, Allegiance, Multiplan, HPK/Cigna/Humana, ProviDrs Care, and Medicare.
Patients with any of these insurance plans, who are on the wait list, should expect a call very soon.