Michael Cunningham, CEO of Keys AHEC, joined Good Morning Keys on Keys Talk 96.9/102.5FM this morning to talk about the organization.
The Area Health Education Center (AHEC) is one of 10 centers in the state of Florida.
Cunningham said, “We’re affiliated with one of the medical schools here in the state of Florida, us being with the University of Miami School of Medicine. We’ve been working with them over the years, and all the centers are independent, 501c3’s, which is really great, because we do some statewide projects together. Then we also tackle community based health concerns, and that’s what’s led us to a lot of the things that we do here in Monroe County, specific to our health center program that we focus on providing no cost primary care to the students of Monroe County, as well as those $10 dental visits.”
Finding and affording health care can be challenging for a lot of people.
Cunningham said, “We just actually pulled our six month reports. Historically on the medical side, we’ve been running about 72 to 73% but in this six month period, that has jumped up to just over 87% and the highest increase has been on the uninsured, with the biggest drop in the insured rate. So in this first six months of the year, we’re already seeing families having to go without health insurance, and that’s going to be a concern moving forward.”
AHEC helps children in Monroe County.
Cunningham said, “We’re there at the schools creating accessible care. So this way when they go to school, they can see us while they’re there. Parents don’t necessarily have to miss work, unless they want to attend the visit with their child. So we’re going to be able to continue on. We’ve had to drop some of our clinical days. Everyone knows that we’ve been talking about cuts this year. So unfortunately, we’ve had to drop a couple of of our medical clinic days and a couple of our dental days. We’re trying to absorb them on the days that we are open. Our schedule is pretty robust, the staff is really busy. We’ve added a board certified pediatric dentist back in October, November, so she’s full time now, and she’ll be kind of guiding us moving forward. So we’re really glad to have her. So the level of care continues to rise. So now we just need to be there for when they need us.”
Services have been way up at AHEC.
Cunningham said, “We’ve had just over 12,000 services on the dental side, over 14,000 almost 15,000 on the medical side, and then with visits, it just keeps increasing. We find it the more that we do, the busier that it actually gets, which is interesting. We thought at one point in time we’d kind of be on top of things, and we’d see things level out. But the more we’re out there, the more we’re finding families in need. And I guess that’s that’s not new. I think when you talk to a lot of the social service agencies, especially over the past six months to a year that they’re seeing these increases in need.”
With the legislative session underway In Tallahassee, funding will be a big discussion.
Cunningham said, “We’re going to go up twice. I’m going to go up next week before the budget comes out. So that will be to meet with the health appropriations chairs in both the House and the Senate, and then the full appropriations chairs to making sure that they know of our requests. We answer any questions that they may have. And then we’ll go back in February, after the budget comes out, to make sure that we thank them, hopefully for being in it. And then a lot of times, our issue is solved in conference committee, because they’ll put us in there as a placeholder, but the final amount will come towards the end of session. So Representative Mooney has been absolutely fantastic for us. Senator Rodriguez has done a great job. So we’re relying on them to kind of tell the story a little bit, but we’re going to go up, or we’re going to take our information, and we have a group that we work with, and we’re going to meet with the appropriations folks this time, and then when we go back up, we’ll hit them again, along with the governor’s office, the Office of Policy and Budget, we’ll meet with our DOH counterparts who handle the contract if and when this comes out, just to making sure that, number one, we’re in the budget at a level that we need, and then as we get towards the end, we don’t end up on that veto list.”
Funding did get cut last year.
Cunningham said, “We were in the budget all the way through the entire process, approved in the House and Senate. fully funded. And then on the very last day, Sunday, at five o’clock, we got the phone call that he vetoed the entire community health section of the budget, which we were one of about 18 entities that were in there, and unfortunately, suffered elimination.”
Was there a reason given?
Cunningham said, “Nope, just that he had a number to get to, and he was going through the budget, and it was the first time they’ve actually seen whole sections of the budget vetoed. I mean, you would expect line items, if he didn’t like the project, it didn’t align with policy, but this time it was whole sections. So we never got a good reason why.”
What expectations are there for this year’s session?
Cunningham said, “We’re waiting to find to see that final report come out from the governor’s office on the DOGE expenditures. And we’ll be watching the Monroe County report, obviously, very closely, because our commission ultimately decided to reduce funding to nonprofits by about 50%, so we don’t know what’s going to happen this year. So that report is going to be important. And then there has to be the conversation about do they protect essential services? Making sure that as our community suffers through losing health insurance that we’re able to provide for them. So, I hate to say it, but maybe not all nonprofits are created equally, and the essential services need to be supported.”
The Keys really helps support AHEC, including the Rotary Club golf tournament.
Cunningham said, “We live in a great community that really supports programs that have value throughout the Florida Keys and the Rotary Club of Key West has been focusing on children’s dental care for decades. We’ve been able to work with you guys for over 12 years, I think closer to 15 now, so this golf tournament and the money that that it raises goes to support treatment of uninsured children. So we take care of the initial exams, the X rays, the cleanings and such, and then Rotary then helps come in and support the actual cost of the treatment for these kids. That list of kids is growing as well. I’m presenting to the Rotary Club on tomorrow, actually, and then I have a meeting with some of the folks from the dental committee afterwards, just to kind of give them an update to what’s happening and how it’s growing. The big thing is just for our community to keep watching for opportunities to support all of our not for profits that are helping those that are residents here, that are our working families. Those are the ones who need, occasionally, a little assistance, and we’ve got a great group of partners here, county wide to support them. We’re just one of the cogs in the machine and we’re happy to do what we can for our kids.”
AHEC also offers tobacco cessation programs for adults.
Cunningham said, “That’s been a program we’re very proud of. Been doing that for about 15, 16 years now. We’ve got counselors up and down the Keys. We’ve got classes for the general public. We’ve got work site programs where we’ll come to your business. And what’s great is you can come in for a one time class if you just need a little assistance and a little push, or you can come and sign up for a four week class. Even once you kind of graduate from those classes, you complete them if you need to come back, if you slip, we’re all about having you come back and helping you complete that process. We’ve got patches, gum, lozenges for participants. The surgeon general believes in incentivizing folks, so if you’re a first time enrollee, we’ve even got some gift cards to Publix for you.”
For more information, click here: https://keysahec.org