STANFORD, Ky. (LEX 18) — As a family nurse practitioner who's been in the medical field for nearly 30 years, Tracy Boller opened Jomon Wellness in Stanford last year. She wanted to offer alternate forms of medical services.
Boller said, "For those patients that are able to take a little bit more control and incentive in their health care and want the holistic approach and the alternative options, then that's what I wanted to provide."
Kentucky's medical marijuana program started in January. Boller is on the list of practitioners. She doesn't keep product in her office but can prescribe it, and she joined the program to help clients.
She explains, "Pharmaceutically, they don't want the side effects then they reach out for this and they do find some solace in the fact that they can be managed on a more natural level and safely."
Boller uses a broker who connected her with Citizens Bank. When a client uses a card it's processed through Citizens and is batched into her business account -- at another bank. Wednesday, Boller’s broker emailed her.
The email stated: "Your account was flagged for review and during the process our team saw the medical marijuana screening part on your website. As of right now, we cannot have anything relating to that on the website or they will not allow the account to continue to process."
The email continued, "We have to have the medical marijuana part removed from the website."
According to the Congressional Research Service, several financial institutions aren't willing to provide common services to state-authorized marijuana businesses -- citing legal risk under federal law.
"It not only impacts my business, it impacts my clients as well," Boller said.
She says it's a more convenient and secure way to pay. More importantly, without the information on her site, she's worried people won't know it's a service she offers.
"And then the fact that I had to scrub my website," Boller said. "That is a huge issue in visibility and access for these patients."
She says bringing on medical marijuana services to her practice has meant answering to a lot of agencies, but she says her banker shouldn't be one of them.
"I have a career to protect, and I have patients to protect and to treat with integrity," she said. "I have nothing less than that goal every day. So, to feel like my business has been halted due to a financial matter, it seems really, really menial."
