Some patients at the volunteer clinic have waited nearly a year for treatment

For thousands of people across Middle Georgia without health insurance, getting the care they need is a challenge.

At the Macon Volunteer Clinic, the waiting list for eye care isn’t getting any shorter either.

The free clinic serves Bibb County residents between the ages of 18 and 64 who are employed — but uninsured — and who earn no more than 200 percent of the federal poverty level.

Even though it has about 200 volunteers, each one of them makes a difference.

Since the clinic’s longtime ophthalmologist retired in January, it has suspended its eye program until it can find a replacement. Some patients have been waiting for treatment since last fall.

The inability to provide care to the uninsured patients frustrates Rita McCurdy, who’s been executive director for only two months.

“I just feel bad for them because ... for so many of them, your employment depends on being able to see,” she said. “A lot of them risk compromising their ability to keep their jobs because they’re having difficulty seeing.”

But there are ways for people to help.

The clinic will host a Focus on Caring event from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. Aug. 18 and from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Aug. 19 as part of National Eye Exam Month. (To learn more about the event, contact Cathy Snook at 478-755-1110, ext. 127, or csnook@maconvolunteerclinic.com.)

The clinic is seeking ophthalmologists who could volunteer at the event for one or two hours to provide vision screenings for active clinic patients. The goal is to lower the number of patients on the wait list.

The help the clinic needs isn’t limited to the upcoming event, though. It’s looking for eye doctors who can see patients once a week or even once a month.

The clinic sees all kinds of patients from 5-7 p.m on Mondays and Tuesdays, and 9 a.m. to noon on Wednesdays and Thursdays.

Bridging the gap

According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, more than 300,000 people in Georgia make too much money to qualify for Medicaid — the program that pays for health care for the needy, aged, blind and disabled, among others — but not enough to qualify for federal subsidies under the Affordable Care Act. This puts them in a coverage gap.

Free clinics such as the Macon Volunteer Clinic help bridge that gap.

Rising out-of-pocket costs, in part, have caused more people across the country to drop their health insurance and head to free clinics, according to McClatchy Newspapers. Uncertainties about the future of health care have led more people to ditch their plans and head to free clinics as well.

The Macon Volunteer Clinic has seen an increase in the number of patients in recent years. The clinic served 697 patients in 2015 and 728 patients in 2016, McCurdy said.

And the numbers aren’t slowing down. Through July, the clinic had gained 126 new patients. That compares to the 97 new patients it had received by this time last year. It’s possible the clinic could serve nearly 800 patients by the end of the year.

Due to the increase, the clinic has been able to expand its dental services The services include restorative care, extractions and fillings, along with root canal procedures provided by the clinic’s partners.

The clinic has received more than $2 million worth of nonnarcotic prescription medication donated by local pharmaceutical companies through its medication assistance program. Its budget has increased to accommodate the greater number of patients as well, up from $500,000 in 2016 to $754,000 this year.

All it needs now is a few more helping hands.

This story was originally published August 4, 2017 at 2:49 PM with the headline "Some patients at the volunteer clinic have waited nearly a year for treatment."