Client need

The Lac Courte Oreilles (LCO) Tribe, located in Wisconsin, has faced declining access to healthcare over the years while a growing number of residents have been impacted by chronic diseases. The Tribe has struggled with heart disease, stroke, cancer, diabetes and arthritis, and while they are costly, they are also preventative.

As it stood, the Tribe’s health facilities were located five miles apart and had seen many renovations over 40 years to retrofit growth. Oftentimes, many tribal members had been forced to seek care in other areas, typically in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, which is more than 100 miles south of the reservation. There was a clear need to house long-term comprehensive care including medical, dental and behavioral health services under one roof. To combat these issues, the LOC Tribe began planning a new healthcare facility in Hayward, Wisconsin, where the Tribe is based, and equity was needed to balance the gap in the capital stack to move the project forward.

Baker Tilly Capital solution

The Baker Tilly Capital team helped the LCO Tribe secure $44.3 million of New Markets Tax Credit (NMTC) financing from multiple Community Development Entities (CDEs) to construct their 64,000-square-foot primary care, dental, imaging, physical therapy and behavioral health center. NMTC allocation was provided by Forward Community Investments, IFF, Impact 7, US Bank and LISC.

Results

With our NMTC solutions, the LCO Tribe is able to:

• Provide affordable, accessible healthcare to tribal residents where 40% of members fall below the federal poverty line.
• Increase annual patient visits by 98%, totaling 38,000 visits and approximately 9,500 unique patients, including over 67% low-income persons and over 85% tribal members.
• More than double dentistry patient capacity and added a new eyecare service offering which was needed to address indirect effects of diabetes and kidney disease. Additionally, the Tribe established a full-service pharmacy.

Lac Courte Oreilles Community Health Center repositions LCO’s Tribal health system from reactive patterns of healthcare to a proactive, preventative platform by focusing on innovation in preventive healthcare, including wellness programs, screening and treatment plans, immune system function, forward-thinking science and other culturally-based programs.

For more information on this topic, or to learn how Baker Tilly’s NMTC specialists can help advance your next community improvement project, contact our team.

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