The Longmont Planned Parenthood health center will close in August.

The Longmont center will be one of six to close in the region. Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains spokeswoman Whitney Phillips said the closures are due to a tough financial landscape in the reproductive health care field, specifically due to the effects of the Affordable Care Act.

“We supported (the ACA) because we love the idea of more people having health insurance and increasing access to the critical services that they need, but a lot of our patients were self-pay,” Phillips said. “They would come in and get a Pap smear and pay out of pocket. Under the ACA, a lot of patients were given the opportunity to be on Medicaid. Again, that’s wonderful, but it meant that rather than bill them directly, we had to bill Medicaid. And Medicaid reimburses at a very low rate.”

Phillips said this changed how Planned Parenthood does business and changed the way the organization was able to get reimbursements from insurance companies.

Planned Parenthood centers in Parker; Casper, Wyo.; Albuquerque, N.M.; Rio Rancho, N.M., and Farmington, N.M., will also close.

The Boulder Planned Parenthood will remain open, and PPRM will add hours and staff there to accommodate more patients. The four staff members at the Longmont health clinic will be offered positions within other Planned Parenthood locations. If they choose, they can also take a severance package, Phillips said.

Susan Buchanan, executive director of the Boulder Valley Women’s Health Center, said their organization saw a similar shift from patients paying out of pocket to being covered under Medicaid after the ACA went into effect, but it hasn’t meant trouble for her organization.

“Historically, we have served a lot of low-income and uninsured people and had to rely on other sources of funding to help offset the cost of providing care,” she said. “Then Medicaid expansion happened and that helped supplement the cost of providing that care. We had a new payer source.”

Buchanan said that her organization receives money through Title X family planning funding from the federal government.

“That helps offset that cost for us but by no means does it do it entirely,” she said. “Planned Parenthood does not participate in that program. Of course, I don’t know anything about their finances but I know that’s one of the things that distinguishes our organization from them.”

With the exception of its New Mexico health centers, Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains does not receive Title X funding, according to its 2016 annual report.

Buchanan said the Boulder Valley Women’s Health Center has worked closely with Planned Parenthood and she hopes that the satellite clinic in Longmont can provide services to residents.

“I certainly hope we can help offset the impact on low-income patients and Medicaid patients when the Planned Parenthood clinic closes in Longmont,” she said. “They have a hard enough time making their way to providers who can meet their needs at a cost they can afford.”

Kelly DeBie, of Longmont, said that her company, Geeks Who Drink, held a fundraiser for the national Planned Parenthood organization in April. DeBie said she was disappointed to hear the local health clinic will close.

“I understand their reasons, but it’s unfortunate, because it will limit the options that women have for services here in town,” she said. “A lot of people think only women go to Planned Parenthood, but they don’t. It’s a lot of people and this will cut down on the availability of services for people without health insurance.”

Phillips said that the decisions were tough to make, but between the Boulder Planned Parenthood and the Boulder Valley Women’s Health Center in Longmont, they are confident that patients will be able to access all the services they need.

“We did an incredibly long evaluation and took a lot of care to look at every single point of the process and do what’s best for patients so we can serve the most amount of people in the best way possible,” she said. “It’s sad and a little disappointing to close down health centers, but we believe that in the long term, it’s the best option so we can serve patients for another 100 years.”

Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains was founded in 1916.

“We’ve contracted and expanded, contracted and expanded in that time, and this is just another part of that,” Phillips said.

Planned Parenthood is a nonprofit organization that relies on grants, donations, patient payments and insurance reimbursements to operate. The health centers provide sex education and preventative care, such as cancer screenings and birth control.

Phillips said that the Longmont health center does not provide abortion services, but does provide referrals. The Boulder health center provides abortion services.

A Longmont woman who asked only to be identified as Diedre because she knows that Planned Parenthood is sometimes politically controversial said that she used the Longmont health center in her teens.

“There was a period of time when my family wasn’t able to afford care like that for me and my grandma, actually, referred me to Planned Parenthood,” said Diedre, who is 24. “I was able to get my yearly exams for free and get birth control.”

She said she wished the Longmont health clinic would stay open.

“I understand that some people don’t have cars and buses are expensive, so hopefully (people in that situation) will be able to find a ride to Boulder,” Diedre said. “Planned Parenthood isn’t just an abortion clinic. People need this. People who are low income and can’t afford health care. It’s just ridiculous that people aren’t seeing this for what it actually is.”

Karen Antonacci: 303-684-5226, antonaccik@times-call.com or twitter.com/ktonacci