Brigid’s Path in Kettering is now getting reimbursed by Medicaid for treating babies exposed to addictive substances before they were born.
It is now the only organization of its kind to receive Medicaid.
This comes after more than 11 years of advocacy by the organization’s founder and president, Jill Kingston.
“We started working with the state and soon saw that to get Medicaid for an organization like us that never existed before, we had to create a pathway for that," she said. "So we had to go federally and amend the Social Security Act.”
Their fight faced delays when the pandemic hit in 2020, pushing their pathway to becoming a Medicaid provider out to July of 2025.
Now, the nonprofit said it can receive close to 30% in reimbursement for care with Medicaid.
'It can happen to anybody'
Brigid’s Path took on its first patient at the end of 2017. Since then, the organization has cared for over 300 babies affected by drug use during pregnancy, averaging about 40 babies in their care a year.
"We have a full nursing staff, neonatologists and volunteer cuddlers," said Kingston. "And then moms can room in with babies or dads, caregivers."
One of those moms reffered to Brigid's Path's care team in 2022 is Becca Knisley. She said without the dedicated team at the nonprofit, she does not think her family would be where it is today.
"There's no place Evie would rather be than to be with me," she said. "I get from the other side, if you don't understand addiction, how you can be kind of judgmental —but if you look at Brigid's Path and how many people they've helped, how many babies they've helped, how those babies have went home with their families because of Brigid's Path, these kids didn't go into the foster care system."
In addition to receiving care from the nonprofit, Knisley said she and other families from the organization were part of a volunteer parental advisory committee.
"It can happen to anybody. We're all just one paycheck away from being homeless, from needing benefits, from not having our kids and from something traumatic happening," she aid. "And a lot of people think that can never happen to them or their kids would never do this or that."
Moving forward
Before the recent addition of Medicaid, Brigid's Path's money came entirely from donations or federal, state and private grants.
But just a couple of years after Knisley's daughter left the care of the facility, Kingston said many of those sources shifted to reimbursable grants.
“That was a huge change," she said. "Before we had the money up front and then could use the money to operate and now we have to raise the money, then we can operate. Then the reimbursement comes after that.”
With such a drastic change in funding, Brigid's Path was forced to close one of their nurseries in 2025.
Currently, they can take care of six babies at a time.
"We can only take about half right now as we normally serve," she said. "So hopefully in 2026, we can raise the money to open that second nursery and serve more families."
Kingston says that Medicaid money is vital, but it doesn't cover the full cost. The organization still needs support from donations and other funding sources to continue its services.
"We still need the community support to be able to keep going and so that's a huge piece of us keeping our doors open and getting some of these systems changed so that we can continue to serve the families that need us," she said.
Kingston said the community is in large to thank for closing Brigid's Path's long journey to receiving Medicaid.
Knisley said if people want to make a difference for families struggling with addiction in the future, they must bring awareness to these services and help break stigmas.
"I think it would also help if doctors and nurses in our area went and toured Brigid's Path and see what it was about and talked to some of the parents that had been there," she said. "Because maybe they would get a better understanding and not just immediately judge somebody that's an addict."
