Bowling Green-area Medicaid recipients now have an information and health care resource close to home, and public officials from Warren County to Frankfort celebrated that fact Friday.

Passport Health Plan by Molina Healthcare held a grand opening for its new One-Stop Help Center at 636 U.S. 31-W By-Pass in Fairview shopping center on Friday, with Gov. Andy Beshear among those on hand to welcome the addition to Bowling Green’s health care system.

“I believe in my core that health care is a basic human right,” Beshear told a crowd of about 60 people gathered for the event. “What will be done here is going to help thousands of people have better access to health care.”

Passport Health Plan, through contracts with state government and its affiliation with parent company Molina Healthcare, serves as a health plan for some 330,000 Medicaid members in Kentucky.

Serving those members better is the goal of the one-stop centers that Passport is establishing around the state.

“Our members rely on us every day,” said Ryan Sadler, CEO of Louisville-based Passport. “We want to make sure the people of Kentucky have access to the health care services they need.”

Toward that end, Passport is establishing six one-stop help centers in Kentucky, providing in-person health care as well as access to telehealth visits, vaccines, educational programming and other services.

The Bowling Green center is joined by centers in Covington, Hazard, Lexington, Louisville and Owensboro in a system that Sadler said will help Passport members and the state’s economy.

Sadler said Passport has 700 employees statewide, with a goal of reaching 1,100 workers who will mostly serve Medicaid recipients.

The Molina website said 88% of Passport’s members are Medicaid patients.

Serving that segment of the population is important, Beshear said.

“Navigating the managed-care system can be complex,” Beshear said. “This center can guide people through that system.”

John Mark Fones, a senior vice president at Bowling Green’s Med Center Health, said he has seen the benefits of having Passport as a resource.

“Our mission is to improve the quality of life for people in this region,” Fones said. “We rely on partners like Passport to help us do that. During the COVID-19 pandemic, they made it easier for us to provide treatment.”

State Rep. Patti Minter, D-Bowling Green, called Passport’s one-stop center “a major step forward for quality health care in our community.”

“Connecting people to the health care they need is critical,” Minter said. “I’m excited to see the impact Passport will have.”

Its affiliation with Molina Healthcare can potentially help Passport have a big impact. Molina, with headquarters in Long Beach, Calif., is a Fortune 500 company that operates in more than a dozen states and boasts annual revenue of more than $19 billion.

– More information about Passport Health Plan by Molina Healthcare can be found at molinahealthcare.com.