Caught in the gap between working part-time and not being able to afford private insurance on her own, Tammy Franklin Wideman has found a true medical home in every sense of the word at Mercy Care.

“They are a lifesaver for so many of us in this predicament,” Tammy says. “They treat you like a human being and make sure you get what you need. I don’t know what I’d do without them.”

The 48-year-old Fayetteville resident utilizes Mercy Care — and its sliding scale payment system based on income — for everything from vision and dental care to nutrition classes to help her maintain her weight. Health policy experts label such an arrangement a “medical home” and promote it as the best way for doctors to keep their patients healthy and out of the hospital. That’s because Mercy Care has been in the medical home business for years.

Tammy started going to Mercy Care at age 33 when she divorced and no longer had access to her husband’s health insurance. She was astounded when the clinic connected her to a discount plan for her hypertension medicine that costs only $4 a month — much less than the $78 a month she was paying out of her own pocket for it when she had insurance. She’s vigilant about checking her “My Chart” link on the Mercy Care patient portal to keep track of what immunizations and tests she needs during the year.

But the service Tammy relies on most is the yearly mammography screening she gets through the Mercy Care and Emory Saint Joseph’s Hospital.

“I’ve learned through the people at Mercy Care to pay attention to what I need to stay healthy and when it came time for me to start getting yearly mammograms, the people there set me up to visit the mobile van for a complete checkup.”

She’s far from alone. In 2018, the program helped more than 1,000 women. Almost all of them, like Tammy, have no place else to go for the screening process they can’t afford to pay for out of their own pocket.

Tammy is among the lucky ones.

According to the CDC, black women and white women in the United States get breast cancer at about the same rate, but black women are more likely to die from it, especially women diagnosed between the ages of 40 and 60. Routine, yearly screening starting at age 40 and getting women into treatment quickly after a diagnosis is essential to reducing the disparity, the CDC says.

Tammy has become a missionary for the service among her fellow co-workers and women she knows who lack insurance. Many of them, she fears, simply put off the tests because they worry about the costs.

“I’ve sent six friends to Mercy Care to get screened,” she said. “Two of them were diagnosed with breast cancer.” Both were referred for treatment by Mercy Care, she said, and both are now in remission. “I speak with them every week. They both are doing great.”

The key for her — the attribute Tammy most values about the people she encounters at Mercy Care’s cancer screening program and all its services — is customer service and compassion for patients.

“I know that some clinics provide some of these services, but sometimes they do so with an attitude,” she said. “They seem to have anger issues about people who can’t afford to pay, that’s not the case at Mercy Care. They understand every patient has unique circumstances and they are always kind and helpful.”