Cheryl Schneider has been many things to Access Health over its 25 years, but few have been such a strong evangelist for an agency that has brought affordable healthcare to the uninsured in Muskegon and so much more.
A certified psychiatric nurse, Cheryl has been so involved in spreading the mission and programs of Access Health that she took pen to paper and wrote a book. In 2016, Cheryl authored “Access Health Plan: The ‘We Can’ Story.”
The story Cheryl tells is that of an agency that struggled early to find its way and the courage of a staff, board and community collaborators to innovate and evolve to develop the entire “health” of uninsured persons to benefit the individual and the community.
“It was new and very challenging,” Cheryl said of following her former boss Jeff Fortenbacher as he headed Access Health in its inception in 1999. Jeff and Cheryl worked together in other mental healthcare settings and formed a strong team that not only supported those working to get out of poverty but one that created a financial model that reduced local healthcare costs at a time of skyrocketing annual increases across the nation.
“The fact that we were able to keep monthly fees down in our early years … we began doing a real good job of being the fiduciary of all of the monies,” Cheryl said, but even more it was the human connections that drove Access Health success. “As we grew our members, they developed an improved quality of life. Our members are not just numbers but people our staff love and care for.”
Cheryl had worked in a wide variety of healthcare settings from hospitals and psychiatric units to an ambulance service and the American Red Cross. The medical direction in the early years with the late Dr. Robert Garrison as medical director and now with Dr. Byron Varnado in that role were critical to bringing the hospital systems and physician networks into the Access Health team, she said.
“The community and Access Health began to grow with an excellent board, the visionary leadership of Jeff without which we would not be where we are at today 25 years later,” said Cheryl, who retired in 2019 but remains a consultant to the agency today. “I want to see our coaching and educational programs go beyond members and into the broader community in primary care offices. It is with that information and support that people can improve their physical and mental health.”