Dr. Benita Lipford has worked at the Kaleida Health Family Planning Center for 26 years, providing reproductive health care, contraception, sexually transmitted infection testing and human papillomavirus vaccines to patients, regardless of their ability to pay.
From the center’s easily accessible location at 1100 Main St., near the Fruit Belt neighborhood and in the shadow of Kaleida’s massive hospitals on the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus, Lipford has built trust with patients who feel comfortable in her care. Here, her team of around 10 staff members also helps patients navigate the health care system, serving as a critical entry point for residents to get connected to the care they need.
“Our patients are our family,” said Lipford, the center’s medical director. “We think of them like our family. We supported them over the years and they, in turn, have supported us. We wish to continue to be able to do so, to be able to provide the quality care for communities that are often overlooked.”
But this center that serves 10 to 20 patients a day is scheduled to close by the end of November. Lipford, her patients, union leaders and elected officials gathered in front of the clinic Thursday morning to protest the planned closure. They called on Kaleida to change course, and they demanded the state Health Department deny Kaleida’s application to close the clinic. Further, they loudly called out the upcoming reduction in federal Medicaid spending, a result of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act that is causing health systems such as Kaleida to explore drastic cost-cutting measures to mitigate the effects.
“And now, this facility is slated to close in November, a direct result of the Medicaid cuts that have made it unsustainable to stay open, a direct result of the big, ugly bill that put a gaping wound in health care across this nation, forced upon us by Congressional Republicans,” U.S. Rep. Tim Kennedy, a Democrat, said during the news conference Thursday. “Sadly, it’s just the tip of the iceberg.”
In a statement, Kaleida said it will continue to offer comprehensive obstetrical and gynecologic care for women of all ages at its OB-GYN centers at 564 Niagara St. and 462 Grider St. The health system said affected patients received letters with information about how to transfer their care to those locations or another provider in the community.
In addition to the planned closure of the Family Planning Center on Main Street, Kaleida closed its Millard Fillmore Surgery Center in Amherst on Oct. 1, and plans to close two Buffalo Therapy Services clinics, located at 705 Maple Road, Suite 100, in Amherst, and at DeGraff Medical Park in North Tonawanda, on Nov. 10.
Dozens of DeGraff Wellness Center patients, employees, union members and elected officials gathered across the street from DeGraff Hospital on Wednesday afternoon to protest planned closures of therapy centers by Kaleida Health.
The health system said the actions fit into a $200 million strategic plan it has been working on since early this year. The plan evolved throughout this year and took into consideration the federal One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which will reduce federal Medicaid spending by about $1 trillion from 2025 to 2034.
While the plan, being rolled out over the next year, includes cutting some services, locations and employees, Kaleida said the $200 million plan also includes commitments to grow through new service offerings, new technology and enhancements to patient care.
“This forward-looking plan will help us build a stronger, more resilient healthcare system – one that can serve our community today and well into the future,” Kaleida President and CEO Don Boyd said in a statement. “We want to ensure that individuals have the right level of care in the right setting. That requires us to look strategically at where and how we offer certain services with the goal of improving access, reducing duplicative services within the healthcare community, enhancing the patient experience, ensuring quality and creating a sustainable financial future for Kaleida Health.”
State Sen. April Baskin, D-Buffalo, pointed out the Family Planning Center’s planned closure is the latest example of an action that will affect a historically underserved community first. But, she warned, the reduction in Medicaid spending will eventually affect other communities, as well, including rural areas that often struggle with health care access.
Baskin and Buffalo Common Council Majority Leader Leah Halton-Pope both spoke about how the clinic means more to its immediate community than just providing health care.
“It provides access, it provides trust, it provides dignity,” Halton-Pope said. “For over 50 years, generations of families have come here for help, not just women, but men, young people, immigrants and people without insurance – people who may not feel safe to be seen anywhere else.”
The clinic has operated since 1972, originally opening as the Deaconess Family Planning Clinic on Riley Street.
“This might be a small clinic, but its feel for this neighborhood, its work in this neighborhood is mighty,” said Denise Abbott, president of the Western New York Area Labor Federation, AFL-CIO.
In a statement Wednesday night, Kaleida Health said its Millard Fillmore Surgery Center, at 215 Klein Road in Amherst, is scheduled to close Oct. 1.
Lipford said the Family Planning Center staff found out in the second week of September about plans to close the clinic. In the first week after news broke, Lipford said staff and patients were often crying together in the exam rooms. Many of the patients who come to the clinic don’t have other doctors. So clinic staff members are able to help connect patients to other specialists if other health concerns arise during visits.
The news is still difficult and confusing for staff. Lipford noted that the clinic is partially subsidized by Kaleida Health and partially grant funded, and she said the center’s grant goes until the end of 2026.
Kaleida spokesperson Jacqueline A. Bett said that while “the grant funding has been instrumental in supporting these services,” it only covered a portion of the center’s total operating costs, with Kaleida covering the vast majority. “Unfortunately,” Bett said, “the remaining expenses have become unsustainable, given reductions in funding and reimbursement and rising costs.”
Still, there is frustration about why Kaleida seems to be in such a rush to close the Family Planning Center. For now, Lipford is hoping the state Health Department denies the application to close the clinic and that something can be done to keep it open in the future.
“We’re running out of time here,” she said.
Jon Harris can be reached at 716-849-3482 or jharris@buffnews.com. Follow him on X at @ByJonHarris.
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