UNION — While it is not a free clinic the ReGenesis Community Health Center that opened its doors this past Wednesday welcomes patients regardless of their ability to pay.

“The goal and purpose of ReGenesis is to provide access to high quality primary care,” ReGenesis President and CEO Marlon Hunter said Thursday. “We have the ability to provide service to individuals without regard to their ability to pay or their inability to pay. If you have insurance we welcome you. If you don’t have insurance we welcome you.”

While ReGenesis welcomes any in need of its services regardless of their ability to pay, Hunter emphasized that it is not by any means a free clinic.

“ReGenesis Healthcare is not a free clinic and that’s why we work to see folks get health care,” Hunter said. “We will work with each individual to set up a payment plan. We don’t turn away anyone who needs health care.”

ReGenesis, which has been providing healthcare services since 2003 and already operated clinics in Spartanburg County and Cherokee County, opened its first clinic in Union County on Wednesday (January 7) in the Union County Health Department Barnado Building at 115 Thomas Street, Union.

Formerly occupied by the SC Department of Health and Environmental Control (DHEC), the building was leased to ReGenesis by Union County Council in 2019 to serve as a new health care clinic which was scheduled to open January 2020.

The clinic, which was first announced by Union County Supervisor Frank Hart in October of 2019, is the result of a partnership between Union County, DHEC, ReGenesis Health Care, and the US Health and Resources and Services Administration which awarded the county a $1.3 million grant to enable ReGenesis to open the new facility.

ReGenesis is already providing much-needed healthare services to the community and Hunter said that even more will be provided in the near future as the clinic gets fully up and running.

“The services we offer are primary care, dental, discount pharmacy, and behavioral health services,” Hunter said. “When we are fully staffed we will have a physician, a dentist, a behavioral health counselor, and a pharmacist on staff.”

Hunter said that having a pharmacist on staff means that if a patient is written a prescription by the clinic’s physician they can, if they choose to do so, get it filled at the clinic.

“Once it is fully staffed and fully operational we will be able to provide those services,” Hunter said. “Right now we have a physician and physician assistant on-site. Over the next month we will work to build in the additional services I mentioned.”

In addition to the physician and physician assistant already at work at the clinic, Hunter the staff also includes nurses and support personnel.

While its goal is to provide healthcare services to the under-served in the community, Hunter said the clinic is not looking to compete with existing healthcare providers in Union County, but to work with them.

“The clinic is not here to compete with anyone, but to compliment the services already provided,” Hunter said. “We are looking to develop strong partnerships.”

While the clinic is still in the process of fully gearing up, the staff that is already in place has been at work there since Wednesday. One member of the staff is Nurse-Practitioner Blair Gault who is already seeing patients. Gault, a lifelong resident of Union County, said she joined the ReGenesis staff in order to serve the community by helping serve the healthcare needs of under served residents. She said that she felt that joining ReGenesis was the best way to do this because of the organization’s commitment to providing healthcare to the under served in the communities it has clinics in.

“I’m new to ReGenesis,” Gault said Thursday. “I worked in Spartanburg for a while in emergency, then went back to school, to Clemson and made the decision to come back here and serve the community.

“This group just gives so much back,” she said of ReGenesis. “They serve the under served and that’s really needed here in Union.”

Also on-site at the Union clinic Thursday was ReGenesis Business Manager Flint Hatchett who reiterated the organization’s commitment to serving the healthcare needs of the community.

“We want to provide quality healthcare at an affordable price and give great service,” Hatchett said.

Even though it opened this past Wednesday, Hunter said the clinic will hold a grand opening on Wednesday, January 15 from 1-5 p.m. to formally inaugurate its service to the people of Union County.

“The public is invited,” Hunter said. “We look forward to seeing everyone there to celebrate ReGenesis being in Union County.”

For more information about ReGenesis Health Care, visit www.myrhc.org.