Heartland Health Services is expanding its services and celebrating the success of some new outreach programs around the Greater Peoria area.
The Federally Qualified Health Center operates several locations throughout Peoria and Pekin. The centers cover everything from primary care, integrative care and behavioral health psychological support to specialty services like podiatry, sports medicine and obstetrics.
“We also provide a great deal of support to the community as it relates to assistance,” said Vice President of Clinical Operations Kristi Williams. “It could be insurance, it could be with Medicaid, it could be needing food or housing. Really what we do is focus on the whole patient, you know, even outside of healthcare.”
Williams says these additional considerations, sometimes referred to as the “social determinants of health,” can stand in the way of a patient receiving care if left unaddressed. So, patients will interact with Nicole Stephens and her team in the Outreach and Enrollment Team.
“Maybe they don't have access to healthy food options. And their only option is a convenience store or you know, candy bars or something like that,” she said. “Maybe they have bedbugs that are infesting their apartments. That's something that my team works to help connect our patients and our community with the resources that are available.”
Specifically, health insurance is the teams’ bread and butter. All of Stephens’ staff are certified application counselors. Her team can guide patients through Medicaid enrollments, managed care organizations like Aetna and Blue Cross/Blue Shield, and the Affordable Care Act marketplace.
“If there is a circumstance where somebody is not eligible due to whatever reasons, whether it’s financial, whether it’s immigration status, anything like that, my team is actually trying to find other options for them,” Stephens said.
Those other options could include the State of Illinois’ presumptive eligibility program, or financial assistance from other major healthcare providers in the area.
“This is something that we're very passionate about. We've been working with the community to make sure that their renewals throughout the year are being taken care of since the public health emergency ended in March of 2023,” Stephens said. “Those Medicaid renewals are crucial for patients within the entire United States to be able to access health care and not have to pay out of pocket.”
In some cases, Heartland Health Services is bringing healthcare directly to those without reliable access to doctor’s offices or health insurance.
Michelle Reed is the director of Clinical Education and Digital Support. She says the organization began running “virtual clinics” at Peoria’s homeless shelters last year.
“A lot of the homeless population have so many other things that are stressors in their life, health care kind of comes last,” Reed said. “So we're making it easy, by being present at the shelter for them to get that care.”
Through the clinics, the homeless can get set up with a provider, get referrals to specialists and treatment programs and restart prescriptions they may have let lapse.
However, the virtual clinics at Peoria’s shelters are far from the only new or developing service at Heartland Health Services. In 2021, the group received $4 million in funding from the American Rescue Plan Act. Williams says the applications of this funding were broad.
Some examples include the purchasing of home monitoring equipment for patients and kicking off an associated remote monitoring program, creating a chronic care management program for patients with multiple chronic diseases add upgrading clinics with new furniture like chairs, stools and exam beds. Others include purchasing EKG machines and two ultrasound machines, and getting blood pressure cuffs and glucose monitors for diabetic and hypertense patients.
“Overall, the American Rescue Plan funds were extremely impactful,” Williams said. “As it relates to the continued ability to not only sustain, but grow and deliver the best health care that we can in the community.”
The ultrasound machine purchases have been especially important to supporting Heartland’s growing OB/GYN services.
“Right now there's not a lot of [obstetrics] providers that accept Medicaid,” Williams said. “And so I have a feeling more and more people are hearing about us, and this is both in the Peoria locations and the Pekin area, where for example, just over the last month our number of deliveries has gone up significantly.”
Some of the upgrades to the healthcare provider’s services are still upcoming. Heartland Health Services previously had a location in the Peoria City/County Health Department’s campus and will have a clinic there again when the new campus is completed.
Additionally, Williams says the organization still owns the former East Bluff Kroger location. The Wisconsin Avenue building functioned as a community testing site during COVID. Now, Williams says, they are in the very early stages of planning to turn it into a fitness center.
“Where Heartland patients who are in need, especially chronic care patients, by prescription could receive free coach led programs through that fitness center and also have something available for the employees and for the public,” she said. “So again, while very early in the concept stage, that would be one option.”
Ultimately, she says, the building will become whatever Heartland Health Services finds best utilizes the space and coincides best with providing healthcare.
Williams says Heartland Health Services served over 21,000 patients last year. Walk-in patients can talk to staff about financial aid opportunities and low-income patients can pay for services on a sliding scale.
“Kind of no matter who you are, or what your income level is, we have these structures and controls in place in order to make that health care accessible and financially feasible.” Williams said.
Anyone looking for services from Heartland Health Services can find more information on their website here, or talk to a community health worker at 309-680-7632.
