The first in a series of two by Cliff Lewis

NewsLanc recently interviewed Daniel Jurman, Director of Development for SouthEast Lancaster Health Services (SELHS, a.k.a. SouthEast clinic) in Lancaster City. Jurman, whose work focuses on promoting and raising funds for SELHS, had a lot to say about the state of medical under-service in Lancaster County and how his organization has been working to fill the existing void. As Jurman explained the current role and aspirations of SELHS, it became clear that this system will likely expand to a greater prominence in the years ahead.

SELHS is a Federally-qualified Community Health Center, based at 625 S Duke St. The center provides affordable medical care for those on medical assistance (MA) as well as those without any insurance at all. Funding for SELHS comes from patient fees, individual donations, charitable foundations, and special government grants. Although many of our local representatives are working to change this, Pennsylvania is one of a few states that do not provide regular funding for Community Health Centers.

As Jurman describes it, SELHS provides a level of quality that one may not expect: “When you think about a community health center, you might think about that movie version, where the fluorescent lights are flickering (and one of them is broken and hanging), and babies are crying, and people are stacked up waiting because it’s just a walk-in. That’s not how it is at all. It’s a clean, safe setting….And I would put the level and quality of care that they get up against any provider in the county.”

The SELHS operates on a “sliding fee scale,” which essentially means that pricing adapts to the financial situation of the each individual client: “Some people are paying $15 for a $120 medical visit,” depending on their means.

According to Jurman, the demand for SELHS services has dramatically increased within the last six years: “While this [recession] has only officially been a crisis for a short period of time, the people in our community have felt the pinch…much longer than that.” In the last six years, the center has seen its yearly visits rise from 24,000 to 50,000. Jurman attributes much of this to an unmanageable rise in employer-provided insurance rates. In some cases, these hikes have been as steep as 20-30% each year—or 100% in five: “That completely changes the landscape of who is uninsured.”

For these new additions to Lancaster’s uninsured, the choice has often been between family coverage and standard living expenses: “Groceries for a month versus health insurance coverage. You have to deal with the immediate concerns of your family; you can’t spend that money on the ‘what if.’”

Although the center still primarily serves clients from the Lancaster City area (81%), the caseload from outside the city has more than doubled in recent years. Last year, SELHS served people from 67 different zip codes in Lancaster County.