LYNN — U.S. Rep. Seth Moulton and other community leaders broke ground at a ceremony Monday to celebrate his $1 million congressional allocation request for the construction of an on-site pharmacy at the Community Health Center.

The Community Health Center is the largest behavioral health provider in Lynn and serves nearly 42,000 patients annually. Its mission is to provide comprehensive health care “of the highest quality” to everyone in the community, regardless of their ability to pay. To improve the quality of care provided, the Community Health Center will build its own pharmacy to ensure patients can access low-cost, affordable prescription medications, according to Chief Executive Officer Kiame Mahaniah. 

The center serves patients who are uninsured, underinsured, or somehow feel disenfranchised by the mainstream health care system. Mahaniah said about two-thirds of Community Health Center patients are most comfortable speaking in a language other than English.

“Massachusetts understands that the health of the least fortunate in our community directly affects the most fortunate,” Moulton said. “We are all in this together … we recognize that investing in this place will improve lives for all of us.”

At the ceremony, Mayor Jared Nicholson formally proclaimed the week of ​​Aug. 7 – 13 health center week in Lynn, mirroring a federal proclamation. He said pharmacological services are necessary to ensure a community’s health and that he was excited to see the Community Health Center break ground Monday.

Nicholson and Mahaniah were among several who used golden sledgehammers to make holes in a wall that currently occupies space that the center will convert into the new pharmacy.

“I’m really excited with the idea that we will have clinical pharmacists that interact directly with an in-house pharmacy and really enhance patient engagement and patient understanding of how their illness interacts with the medications that they are taking,” Mahaniah said.

Mahaniah added that the center will be better equipped to handle future public health emergencies, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, with the addition of a pharmacy. He said the center will have an enhanced ability to administer vaccines, for example.

“It is so important to improve access to medications for patients in the community and it has such a high impact on disease state management,” said Thomas Siepka, the Community Care Cooperative’s chief pharmacy officer. “Having a pharmacy integrated into the health center will just strengthen their ability to deal with the next crisis that comes down the road.”

Mahaniah cited some pharmaceutical companies’ recent refusal to comply with the 340B drug pricing program as another reason he finds the construction of an on-site pharmacy necessary. The 340B program, named after the 1992 federal law that created it, requires drug companies to offer discounted prices to eligible safety-net providers, such as the Lynn Community Health Center. 

In the name of profit, a growing number of companies have chosen to restrict these required discounts for the last several years, arguing that the rule should not apply when drugs are dispensed to providers’ patients through community or specialty pharmacy partnerships. Mahaniah said the center’s new pharmacy will help its patients avoid this problem.

During the groundbreaking ceremony, Moulton cited Massachusetts’ Community Health Center Movement in the 1960s as the reason why the LCHC first opened its doors in 1971, when it was a small storefront on Chestnut Street. Moulton added that the state has come a long way since then and celebrated the fact that Massachusetts is now the healthiest state in the country, according to a study from Boston University’s School of Public Health and the digital health company Sharecare.

“I remember all the organizing to try to bring awareness to the need for a community health center,” state Rep. Peter Capano said. “I guess if you live long enough, this is what happens. You grow and you expand because the mission is the right mission.”

Rachel Barber can be reached at [email protected].