Overview
- Primary care services end today at clinics in Presque Isle, Houlton, and Ellsworth, displacing roughly 600 to 800 patients.
- H.R.1, signed this summer, withholds Medicaid payments from providers that offer abortion once they exceed $800,000 in prior-year reimbursements.
- The network typically received about $1.9 million in Medicaid reimbursements annually and serves about 8,000 patients statewide.
- Family-planning and reproductive health services will continue for now, though the organization warns those operations could be at risk if funding is not restored.
- Staff report layoffs and say rural patients may face six-to-eight-month waits or multi-hour trips to find new primary care, including costly travel for island residents.