Mercy, MSU clinic expands eligibility amid loss of patients

A primary care clinic operated by Mercy and Missouri State University is seeing four times fewer patients than it was three years ago, but a new eligibility change aims to bring it back to where it once was.

The MSU Care Clinic, which operates in the O’Reilly Clinical Health Sciences Center on the Missouri State campus, eliminated its Medicaid ineligibility requirement on Sept. 3, according to a news release.

To qualify for care, patients historically have had to be ineligible for Medicaid, be between 18-64 years old, have no health insurance and have a household income equal to or less than 200% of the federal poverty line. Officials say Missouri's expansion of Medicaid eligibility had an adverse effect on the clinic, with it no longer being able to accept patients who now qualified for Medicaid. That resulted in an average patient load per month of around 85 today, down from an average of 330 patients monthly three years ago.

"We serve a very targeted patient population,” said Justin Gassel, clinic manager of the MSU Care Clinic, in the release. “The Medicaid expansion was immensely helpful to patients across the state, but it meant that most of the patients we had built relationships with and who trusted us with their care could no longer continue seeing us.

"This will restore our ability to care for some of our community's most underserved patients, for whom there are limited options for care.”

MSU and Mercy partnered to open the clinic in 2015 at 640 E. Cherry St., according to past reporting.