LCHD announces partnership with Lower Lights Health
Officials hope a partnership between the Licking County Health Department and a healthcare center will expand access to healthcare for Licking Countians.
Last week, LCHD announced their new partnership with Lower Lights Health, which will offer affordable healthcare for all ages and operate out of LCHD’S clinic beginning Sept. 27. The organization will offer services, including primary care, behavioral health and substance use disorder treatment.
According to Licking County Health Commissioner Chad Brown, Lower Lights approached their agency about wanting to expand their services into Licking County. Currently, they have six other locations in central Ohio.
“We discussed it internally and looked at what services they could offer,” Brown said. “They’re offering low to no cost primary care, behavioral health counseling ... What we were really excited about was bringing low to no cost medically assisted treatment for substance abuse as well.”
Brown said Lower Lights will be located in their clinic alongside their department. LCHD will offer their clinics, which include immunizations and tuberculosis testing, on Tuesdays and Thursdays, while the clinic will be used by Lower Lights on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.
Because Lower Lights is a federally qualified healthcare center, CEO Tracy Cloud explained, they need federal approval to open sites in new areas. They use data to help them gauge the need in an area.
“We saw Licking County, and Newark in particular, as an area of need,” she said. “We just felt like we could make a difference there.”
According to Cloud, their model is whole-person care, which begins with a relationship with a primary care provider. Beyond that, she said they’ll provide behavioral healthcare, substance use order treatment and psychiatric services.
“And we hope to build from there. We’ll be looking at adding other services based on demand. We do offer things like dental and vision in Columbus,” Cloud said, adding their organization also offers telehealth.
Cloud explained their organization serves everyone, from the uninsured to those with insurance. Lower Lights is also part of the 340B pharmacy drug pricing program, which can help Licking Countians fill their prescriptions at much lower costs.
According to Brown, Lower Lights has a program where they will pay for someone’s transportation to get them to an appointment, which eliminates a transportation barrier. LCHD, he said, is working with Licking County’s transit board to help address that need as well.
“We’re excited to expand access to healthcare to folks who need it. They specialize in serving folks who don’t have insurance or are underinsured, have overly high deductibles,” Brown said, adding their department has also been working to address substance abuse issues within the county. “We felt there’s no better way to try to address that than to offer additional treatment at low to no cost.”
Cloud also expressed excitement over beginning to serve the community.
“Our hope is to really provide greater access to behavioral and medical healthcare. We just really want to emphasize that we’re here for everybody, regardless of whether they have insurance or not,” Cloud said. “We see people, if they need help with interpretation or help with transportation or maybe a little extra help just managing their care navigating the healthcare system - that’s what we do best.”
Lower Lights Health accepts Medicaid, Medicare and most major health insurance plans. For patients without health insurance coverage, fees are based on their ability to pay.
To schedule an appointment, call 614-274-1455. For more information about Lower Lights Health, visit their website at Lowerlightshealth.org.