Teche clinic pleads its case in D.C.

The top doc at Terrebonne and St. Mary parishes’ community health centers will know in two weeks whether his programs will face federal budget cuts.

Dr. Gary Wiltz is awaiting word on how much financial support the Teche Action Clinic will lose once a balanced budget is approved.

The Teche clinics, seven federally-qualified health care centers that treat patients on a sliding-fee basis, receives the majority of its operating budget from the federal government, said Wiltz, who is chief executive officer and chief medical officer of the clinics.

Open since 1974, it has facilities in Franklin, a school-based clinic at West St. Mary High School in Baldwin, two clinics in Terrebonne Parish, one in Dulac at the other in Houma, as well Pierre Part, Edgard and Reserve.

The clinic’s specialties include internal medicine, family medicine, pediatrics, OB/Gyn, dental, pediatric dental and mental health. In addition, it offers lab, pharmacy, WIC and help with Medicaid enrollment.

Services are available to everyone, regardless of income.

Wiltz also serves as treasurer of the National Association of Community Health Centers (NACHC), an organization aimed at helping federally-qualified health centers open. At the group’s annual Policy and Issues Forum last month, Wiltz said it became a soft rally, themed, “How can we keep doing what we’re doing and not erase what we’ve done?”

Wiltz and several of his staff and Teche board members attended to lobby for bi-partisan support against a House bill that would have trimmed community health funding by $1.3 billion.

“Congress has yet to pass a budget and the clock is ticking,” Teche board president Leroy Willis said.

Board member Edward Delone, who also made the trek to Washington, D.C., was more ominous. “If all of these cuts come down, there are projections that our progress could turn back,” he said.

Wiltz said health centers were ranked among the nation’s 10 most-effective government programs during former President George W. Bush’s stay in office, according to White House Office of Management and Budget.

“We save the United States’ health care system more than $18 billion a year by affording affordable, preventive health care to low-income, uninsured people who may rely on hospital emergency rooms as a source of care,” he said.

Dr. Gary Wiltz, CEO of Teche Action Clincs, and National Association of Community Health Centers Vice Speaker of the House Lathran J. Woodward, take the podium at the Newseum in Washington, D.C. Wiltz was in attendance to present an award and lobby on behalf of the local health care center. HOWARD J. CASTAY JR.