Our Lady of Hope Clinic has a heart for the uninsured

As a young physician, Dr. Michael Kloess pushed aside his Catholic Faith, amalgamating it into the culture of medical professionals. But, although he enjoyed his practice, something kept tugging at his heart; he loved medicine and had a genuine heart for patients but wanted to practice in line with Catholic teaching.

After graduating summa cum laude with a Bachelor of Science degree and a Doctor of Medical Degree from Southern Illinois University, he completed his residency through the Siouxland Medical Education Foundation in Sioux City Iowa. He took a position at Wisconsin Richland Center before working at the renowned Marshfield Clinic in Wisconsin. Dr. Kloess is board-certified by the American Academy of Family Physicians and a member of the Catholic Medical Association. His medical interests include natural family planning, women’s healthcare, wilderness medicine, and medical ethics.

“I wanted to practice consistent with my faith and once I got into my practice, I had difficulty being able to do that,” Dr. Kloess explained. “I looked for opportunities that might allow it, but they were few and far between.”

“However,” he said, “I heard about this model for a clinic at a Catholic Medical Association Conference. This guy, named Bob Forrester was doing a talk and I thought it sounded great. He has a practice called St. Luke Family Practice in Modesto, California. I contacted him and he gave me all the stuff I needed to get a clinic going.”

Opening Our Lady of Hope Clinic 

In April 2009, Dr. Kloess took a leap of faith. He left his practice, packed up his stethoscope, and medical bag, and opened Our Lady of Hope Clinic.

His goal was simple: to provide direct primary care for members who pay a small monthly fee and provide free healthcare to the uninsured. Direct primary care is a practice where the physician has a relationship with a patient. It was important for him to be able to practice consistent with the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ “Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services”.

It was also important for the staff to pray together before each day began and to pray with patients and ask them about their relationship with God.

Dr. Kloess’s first clinic was a former dental office on Odena Road in Middleton, Wisconsin.

“It was relatively inexpensive to get started; we had to do some renovations before we opened, but started seeing patients right away,” he explained. “We take no insurance and for those who can’t afford our monthly membership, we ask that they bring letters stating a denial of coverage to the state insurance programs Badgercare or Medicaid.”

As his practice grew, more room was needed. Dr. Kloess moved again, this time in April 2022 to a spacious former University of Wisconsin Podiatry Clinic at 6255 University Avenue in Middleton, where he and other medical professionals could see additional patients.

“This building required some renovations, which we were able to do with a capital campaign a few years ago,” he said. “We are able to offer a lot more services and have more exam rooms here.”

In addition to Dr. Kloess, Elizabeth Larson, MD, practices family medicine with obstetrics. She is a member of the Catholic Medical Association and is a board-certified physician with the American Board of Family Medicine. She practices part-time at Our Lady of Hope Clinic.

Caring for uninsured patients

Blaine Hechimovich, who is the Development Director of Our Lady of Hope, explains that 55 percent of their practice used to cater to uninsured patients, but now that number is upwards of 65-75 percent. The annual fees that Our Lady of Hope collects from member patients help cover free care for the larger number of uninsured patients. Direct funding through individual donors, churches, Knights of Columbus councils, Councils of Catholic Women, Dioceses, and clergy provide the remainder of the funding to keep the clinic operational.

“These are people who cannot get state aid or afford a membership plan, so we have two registration periods each day for them,” he said. “They can come in before 9 a.m. and before 1 p.m. each day. We have a triage which consists of volunteer and staff positions. The recipients will come into our triage area, which opens at 6:30 a.m. Once our shift starts at 9 a.m., our medical assistants will offer appointments. If there is no availability in the morning, we have them come back in the afternoon, or the next day, depending on how many patients we have scheduled.”

Our Lady of Hope Patients offers a Direct Primary Care Program available as an age-generated individual or family plan, a NaPro Fertility Care membership, and the uninsured free plan which offers access to both types of care. Each of the plans includes labs, x-rays, unlimited care, and access to a professional dietician and physical therapist.

Members receive discounted services from other service providers including dentists. Dr. Larson offers labor and delivery services to members as well.

“Each patient is allocated 30 minutes for an appointment, and they have access to Dr. Larson or Dr. Kloess’s email and cell phone numbers,” said Hechimovich. “We have five staff members and three volunteer positions. We are looking for volunteer help such as a physical therapist and Spanish interpreter since 80 to 90 percent of our free care is exclusively Spanish speaking. We are hoping to get a full-time interpreter. We also need a phlebotomist as we do many of our labs here. St. Mary’s Hospital in Madison also does some of our lab work processing for different patients.”

A thoroughly Catholic clinic

Our Lady of Hope Clinic is welcoming, spacious, and decorated with images of Our Lady of Guadalupe, crucifixes, and statues of Mary.

Additionally, as the clinic is decidedly Catholic, signs in the exam rooms indicate they will not violate Catholic doctrine by providing contraceptives or abortion care.

Dr. Kloess serves as a Creighton Model Fertilitycare^® System NFP medical consultant. This is a new women’s health science that monitors and maintains a woman’s reproductive and gynecological health. it can be used to help women delay or achieve pregnancy as well as manage other female health issues.

The clinic, which saw 1945 patients last year, has a pharmacy, where the physicians can provide many medications at much lower costs than traditional pharmacies.

“We are here to provide care, not make money on prescriptions,” said Hechimovich. “Anything we can’t provide; St. Vincent de Paul can help with as they have a pharmacy and can fill prescriptions.”

Services provided by Our Lady of Hope Clinic include:

• Diabetes treatment and education.
• High Blood Pressure and Cholesterol treatment and education.
• Headache, earache, and care for minor ailments.
• Both Women’s health care and Men’s health care services.
• Hypothyroidism.
• Help with Respiratory issues.
• Cardiac risk assessment.
• Routine Eye Screening Exam.
• Skin rashes

Outwardly compassionate and with a warm smile, Dr. Kloess said he is edified by the many volunteers who assist the physicians and staff each day. In addition to Dr. Kloess, Dr. Larson, and Hechimovich, other staff members include Charlotte Wiley, who serves as the medical assistant, and Julia Johnson as the clinic manager.

“We have 30 to 40 volunteer undergrad students come to us from UW-Madison. They are interested in attending medical school or are currently in medical schools and we are one of the sites that are on the pre-health advisors list to volunteer to get clinical experience,” he explained. “They get to see what Catholic healthcare looks like. I get to share with them NFP, NaPro Tech how Catholic healthcare ethics are womb to tomb and how that looks for Catholics. I also don’t have to answer to anyone but God.”

For patients who need more care than Our Lady of Hope can provide, Dr. Kloess has worked out a referral program for patients to the Specialty Care Free Clinic.

“They offer no primary care, but specialists are there to offer specialized care that is referred by primary care physicians, cardiologists, and rheumatologists,” he said. “They have general surgeons at the clinic, and most hospitals offer benevolence programs to help.”

Patients come from all over Wisconsin and neighboring states to Our Lady of Hope, especially to receive the NaPro Technology treatment.

“There are not a whole lot of clinics who use the NaPro Technology,” said Dr. Kloess. “It just isn’t taught. I was fortunate to attend the Saint Paul VI Institute For The Study of Human Reproduction in Omaha for six months, where I received training and became certified in this technology.”

When Dr. Kloess isn’t serving patients at his clinic, he spends time with his wife Laura, and his seven children. They enjoy serving their parish, St. Mary in Pine Bluff, Wisconsin, bike riding, hiking, and skiing. He also participates in medical mission trips to Central America.

“One of the most satisfying things I’ve experienced was not related to this clinic at all, I was on a medical mission trip to El Salvador where I took a team of 40. One of the ladies I saw there (who was dealing with infertility), I had seen a previous year and when I came back, she introduced me to her son,” he said, eyes welling with tears. “That kind of thing happens here too, but for me, being able to understand patients where they are at and where they want to go, instead of like most medicine, fix with medication or push IVF.”