When Shelly Harden encounters a client eligible for emergency Medicaid assistance, she knows just who to call: her former colleagues at HCC Network.
Harden is now a community health consultant at Lafayette County Enterprises, a sheltered workshop in Higginsville, Missouri, that employs 45 disabled adults.
But applications for what is known as “presumptive eligibility” for Medicaid — which can help applicants immediately with necessities like medicine — must come through a federally qualified health clinic like HCC.
Many needy individuals do not take advantage of their Medicaid qualifications, Harden said.
“A lot of people still don’t realize that they could be eligible for Medicaid if they’re working,” Harden said. “They feel like they make too much money for it or something. But with Medicaid expanding, they could be eligible for it. So a lot of them are going without their meds and without seeing doctors and such. And so it’s good to get them hooked up.”
But the partnership between HCC and Lafayette County Enterprises goes both ways.
Sometimes it can be as simple as Lafayette County Enterprises lending a driver for HCC’s mobile units or an HCC staffer taking photos for Lafayette County Enterprises’ new website.
In another example, HCC clients shop at Undiscovered Treasures, the thrift shop run by Lafayette County Enterprises.
“So if they have clients or patients that need clothing, furniture, whatever we might have, then we work out a voucher system with them so that they can come in and get what they need,” said Suzanne Smith, executive director of Lafayette County Enterprises.
Smith is also a former HCC employee, who worked there for nine years before coming to Lafayette County Enterprises.
Meanwhile, Harden lends expertise built up during four decades in the field to HCC’s community health workers and peer support specialists.
She helps HCC clients apply for disability and vocational rehabilitation through the state, sometimes travelling to Sedalia with them to meet government representatives.
HCC community health workers can also count on Harden’s assistance with complex cases where, for instance, a homeless applicant lacks a fixed address or any government-issued identification.
The partnership between HCC and Lafayette County Enterprises benefits both organizations and the community, Harden and Smith said.
“It’s a very fluid relationship,” Smith said. “We both give and take, and we can pick up the phone and just call and say, ‘Hey, I need this, and either way, it’s, ‘OK, what do you need? When do you need it? Let’s get it.’”
Added Harden: “It expands more on what we can provide our community.”
