Morehouse Community Medical Centers, now operating as CommuniHealth Services, has been a Federally Qualified Health Center in northeast Louisiana since 2002. It has since grown to 17 sites across Morehouse, Union, and Ouachita Parishes and serves a patient base that is 60% Medicaid and 10% uninsured, in a region with a documented shortage of Medicaid-supported providers. Its Monroe site sits in a severely distressed, medically underserved census tract where the poverty rate is 32%, median income is 61% of the area benchmark, and unemployment is about 3 times the national rate.

That facility had become too small for the volume it was serving, so CommuniHealth is constructing a new 20,000 sq. ft. health center. Our client, Hope Enterprise Corporation, supported the project by providing $12 million in Federal New Markets Tax Credit allocation.

The new facility will bring together services including pediatric care, family medicine, behavioral health, women's services, speech and occupational therapy, specialty care, and an on-site pharmacy offering discounted medications through the federal 340B program. Co-locating these providers allows patients to see multiple providers in a single visit, with care offered on a sliding fee scale based on household income.

Services Provided by Classic Lake:

• New Markets Tax Credit CDE Advisory

Community and Economic Impacts

• Creates 126 construction jobs

• Creates 10 new and retains 16 permanent full-time positions

• Serves an estimated 2,956 patients annually through primary and specialty health services

• Supports approximately 12,700 patient visits annually

• Maintains 340B pharmacy access for low-income patients