Franciscan Health hasn’t decided yet whether to reopen its ExpressCare in Chesterton, although a state senator said he cleared the way legally in recent legislation to support restarting the operation.

The Franciscan Health building at 770 Indian Boundary Road houses the Emergency Department and doctors’ offices.

ExpressCare also operated inside the facility until Jan. 1. The closure occurred because House Bill 1004, passed in 2023, required health care providers to charge ambulatory rates for urgent care services, making it too expensive for Franciscan to continue ExpressCare.

Under the prior arrangement, ExpressCare — the only urgent care facility in Chesterton — operated 24 hours a day and worked closely with the Emergency Department. The setup allowed patients who came to the Emergency Department with nonemergency needs to be seamlessly transferred to ExpressCare within the same facility, said Lauri Keagle, a spokeswoman for Franciscan Health.

Since Franciscan ExpressCare in Chesterton was open around the clock, there were higher operating costs, Keagle said. It had been the only Franciscan Health in Northwest Indiana in which they operated an Emergency Department and ExpressCare at the same site. The ExpressCare signs outside the building are now covered up.

State Sen. Rodney Pol, D-Chesterton, said he worked with Franciscan officials to include language in House Bill 1004, the 2025 version, to fix the issues that caused the closure of ExpressCare.

However, Franciscan hasn’t made a decision yet.

“We are currently evaluating the new language with our legal team and advisors,” said a statement prepared by Keagle.

Pol said he would be surprised if a legal issue is blocking the reopening of ExpressCare. He said there may be another issue involved.

The amendment that Pol was able to include created an exemption to allow for an urgent care facility to operate in a community with less than 20,000 residents, qualifying Chesterton.

“This was an issue I had to fight painstakingly for, fueled in large part from the outcry from the community that did not know it (the closing) was coming,” Pol said.

Pol talked about the issue with the Chesterton Town Council at its May 12 meeting. Councilwoman Erin Collins, D-2nd, called what Pol had done “a significant win for Chesterton and surrounding communities.”

House Bill 1004 in 2025 was “very contentious” because it pitted the intent of lowering costs at nonprofit hospitals versus the impact on hospitals that serve the most Medicaid and Medicare patients and the viability of those facilities, Pol said.

“Trying to get support for an amendment that saves just the Chesterton facility from the prior 2023 legislation was no easy task as the battle raged on within the respective caucuses and out on the Senate floor,” Pol said.

Keagle, in a reply from Franciscan, stated: “We thank Sen. Pol for his tremendous effort to assist both Franciscan and his constituents with this legislation. Due to the complicated nature of the topic, we’re evaluating the legislative language with our legal team and advisors to determine if it allows us to reopen.”

Jim Woods is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.