The one-of-a-kind operation is no more.

Libby’s Center for Asbestos Related Disease (CARD) is closed for good.

After more than 25 years in operation, the clinic is permanently shuttered. 

The clinic opened in 2000 under the direction of St. John’s Lutheran Hospital, now known as Cabinet Peaks Medical Center. It separated from the hospital in 2003 and moved to its own location in 2004. 

In 2010, the federal Affordable Care Act provided millions of dollars for asbestos screening and surveillance as well as asbestos-related health-care services. Since then, CARD has received millions in funding from the Centers for Disease Control that allowed it to operate and provide free screenings.

“CARD is no longer providing clinical services and no longer has employees,” former executive director Tracy McNew said in a news release. “The former clinic is closed to the public and the organization’s remaining Board of Directors is continuing only as needed to complete legal, financial and administrative wind down activities. CARD is grateful to the patients, families, employees, healthcare professionals, volunteers, researchers, community organizations and local partners who supported its work over more than two decades.”

The clinic contracted with Clary Document Management to serve as the medical records custodian for former CARD patients, according to the release. Patients may request copies of their own records or authorize records to be sent to a healthcare provider or other authorized third party. 

Medical records requests should be made directly to Clary Document Management, Inc. Their phone number is 763-548-1320. The company may also be reached by fax at  763-548-1325 or email at [email protected].

Their website is located at https://medicalrecordcustodian.com/the-center-for-asbestos-related-disease/.

Clary may require a completed authorization form and proof of identity before releasing records.

Under CARD’s agreement with Clary, electronic and paper medical records will be retained for 10 years. Clary will manage electronic records extracted from CARD’s NextGen electronic health record system and will transport and securely store CARD’s paper patient records. Records will be released directly to patients and appropriately authorized third parties in accordance with applicable privacy and confidentiality requirements, including HIPAA.

In the wake of its closing, the Lincoln County Health Department has hired a resource coordinator, Annamarie Wagner, to help former CARD patients. Her first day on the job was Tuesday.

County Public Health Manager Zach Sherbo said staffing changes in the department opened the door for Wagner to join the county in one of the grant-funded positions.

“Annamarie’s duties will not be limited to assisting former CARD patients,” Sherbo said. “Our goal is to help fill the void in the community and connect people with the proper services, steer people in the right direction. But our focus remains on public health, which covers a wide spectrum.”

Wagner worked at the CARD Clinic for six years, beginning in October 2020.

“I feel fortunate to have this opportunity,” Wagner said.

Wagner, as a clinical manager at CARD, oversaw everyday operations, including scheduling appointments, and answering questions. She also helped with case management of the Pilot Program.

Sherbo said some of his goals include gaining a better understanding of the Medicare Pilot Program and new Medicare requirements. 

He said those with questions are welcome to stop in the Health Department office in the county Annex building on Mineral Avenue in Libby. It is open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday.

Wagner may be reached at 406-283-2463.

The beginning of the end for the clinic occurred in 2019 when BNSF Railroad sued the facility, claiming more than 1,000 fraudulent diagnoses. Ultimately, a federal jury ruled in 2023 that 337 cases were frauds and a $6 million judgment was ordered against the clinic.

Most of the claims at issue in the trial concerned the submission of EHH forms to Medicare, which certified that patients had been diagnosed with an asbestos-related disease and were eligible for coverage under an Affordable Care Act provision created to respond to Libby’s environmental health threat. 

McNew and other CARD officials have argued that Judge Dana Christensen’s legal ruling that any claim based only on an imaging read by an outside “B-reader” radiologist was invalid, making it likely that those certifications constituted a bulk of the 337 claims.

CARD filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in August 2023, allowing it to continue operations. But the United States intervened in the bankruptcy proceeding and determined that the judgment should not be paid, so the bankruptcy was settled and dismissed in spring 2024. In September 2024, CARD lost an appeal to the judgment.

In August 2024, CARD received a new 5-year funding grant from the federal Agency for Toxic Substances Disease Registry (ATSDR), part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. CARD has received previous iterations of this grant, made possible through the Environmental Health Hazards provision of the Affordable Care Act, since 2011.

But when ATSDR notified CARD in June that it wouldn’t continue the grant, that was it. The bulk of CARD’s operations were paid by the grant funding.

The federal government recently began a more stringent review of grants due to the perceived amount of fraud that was occurring.

In an Executive Order by Pres. Donald Trump, titled “Improving Oversight of Federal Grantmaking” and dated Aug. 7, 2025, he explained the reasoning to improve the process of Federal grant making while ending offensive waste of tax dollars.

CARD is also the target of numerous lawsuits filed in district and federal court in the last few years.

A civil suit filed in October 2024 by Thomas Steiger, the personal representative of the estate of Terry L. Steiger, and Thomas J. Matilas, a Libby resident, alleges medical malpractice, wrongful death and claims of disabling Lincoln County residents by prescribing them opioid pain killers following the misdiagnosis of health issues. 

The civil suit alleges medical malpractice against Dr. Charles Brad Black and the clinic, including McNew. The court filing also argues the facility knew or should have known both men didn’t satisfy diagnostic requirements for asbestos-related disease and should not have been giving opioid pain medications in the manner prescribed by the clinic's providers.  

Additional defendants are the Lincoln County City Health Board, Dr. Morrissette, Michelle Boltz, who was a licensed nurse practitioner at the CARD Clinic, Miles Miller, who was a physician’s assistant at the clinic, as well as John Does 1-10, representing board members, directors, officers and employees of CARD. 

About one year ago, two other plaintiffs were added to the suit, Brenda Auge and David Wickwire. That suit is still pending in district court.