Changes in service areas proposed by the Iowa Department of Public Health last week will profoundly affect the provision of WIC, MCAH and 1st Five services to most residents in southwest Iowa. MATURA Action Corporation, the current provider of services for these programs has been split in two, according to Karla Hynes, the WIC, MCAH and 1st Five program director for MATURA.
Hynes states, “Our agency currently provides WIC services for 10 counties, with the proposed changes, four counties will be in one service area and six will be in another. For MCAH, two of our counties will be in one area and one county will be in another... MATURA itself is split down the middle, three counties on one side and three on the other.”
The proposed changes, called “Collaborative Service Areas,” — CSAs — mean an entire shift in service delivery, according to Hynes.
“Currently, Iowa has 20 WIC agencies, with the change, the number decreases to 14. And instead of our agency’s permanent site being in the center of our service area, we’ll be on the eastern side of region that extends north to include Dallas County, west to include Marion County and all the way down to Wayne County,” said Hynes.
While the IDPH has indicated the changes will occur no matter what, there is still some wiggle room on the final regional configuration, according to Hynes.
“Currently, Union County is included in Region 5, which includes Madison, Warren, Dallas, Clarke, Marion, Lucas, Ringgold, Decatur and Wayne Counties,” said Hynes.
“We’d like to see it included in Region 3, instead. We know our service area will change for WIC no matter what, but moving Union into Region 3 would keep our current MCAH 1st Five counties together,” said Hynes.
The proposed Region 3 includes Adair, Adams, Cass, Fremont, Mills, Montgomery, Page, Pottawattamie and Taylor Counties. According to Hynes, strong collaborative relationships are already in place in these counties.
“Including Union County in Region 3 still puts it on the edge of the service area but the relationship we have with providers, participants, partners and other professionals in Region 3 ensures easy collaboration, sharing of team members and creation of trustworthy subcontracts,” said Hynes.
These relationships will allow the other agencies to continue to provide services to their current participants, according to Hynes. “We’d be able to subcontract our good friends and partners for the delivery of services in Pottawattamie County and the other counties on the far western part of the service area,” said Hynes. “We would all win, but especially the vulnerable families who rely on us.”
The window of opportunity to comment on the proposed CSA is shrinking. Comments may be submitted electronically to mch@idph.iowa.gov. until Sept. 29. The recording, PowerPoint presentation and data used to determine the region are posted at www.idph.iowa.gov/family-health/CSA.
“I’d encourage everyone to look at the website and really consider the impact of losing Union County to a more urban and suburban area,” said Hynes. “Consider shopping, services, transportation, and health care. It involves more than just a WIC clinic. And while that’s all that is indicated now, the general feel from my colleagues is this is just the beginning; more and more programs will adopt this exact regionalism,” said Hynes.
WIC is a supplemental nutrition program for babies, children under the age of five, pregnant women, breastfeeding women and women who have had a baby in the last six months. WIC helps families by providing healthy foods, nutrition education and referrals to other health care agencies. Local WIC agency services are administered by MATURA Action Corporation. Clinics are held in Adair, Adams, Clarke, Decatur, Lucas, Madison, Page, Ringgold, Taylor and Union Counties.