Full-court pressure to get uninsured workers
in Washoe County signed up for a discount
healthcare program generated enrollment of
30 people in the project's first week of selling.
But even though that's just a tiny percentage
of the estimated 60,000 uninsured people
in Washoe County and a small percentage
of the 4,000 that the Access to Healthcare
Network needs to thrive Executive Director
Sherri Rice expressed satisfaction.
Those 30 previously uninsured workers
included a cancer patient who will use Access
to Healthcare for a follow-up colonoscopy as
well as a fellow who can afford a hernia-repair
operation that will allow him to return to
work.
Nearly as heartwarming, Rice said,was the
response of employers who were interested in
hearing about a nonprofit that helps their
uninsured workers afford healthcare.
Access to Healthcare Network isn't an
insurance program. Instead, it has negotiated
discounts with Renown Regional Medical
Center and Saint Mary's, doctors and other
heathcare providers for its members. Its members
pay cash upfront for medical service.
Participating employers split the monthly
cost with their workers. It's $40 for an individual
$20 paid by the worker, $20 by the
employer and another $50 a month for an
unlimited number of family members.
Business owners who can't afford the cost
of traditional health insurance are eager to
hear about the new network.
"Most employers want to do something
for their employees," Rice said."They're not
bad people."
The campaign to sign up employers
ranges from the 6,000 companies in Washoe
County that employ one
to four workers to some
big employers who don't
provide health coverage
for part-time or other
workers.
Another target, Rice
said, is employers who
have waiting periods
before workers qualify
for health coverage.
Access to Healthcare can help those employees
cover costs until they're part of a group
plan.
The program is limited to workers who
make no more than two and a half times the
federal poverty rate. For a family of four, the
poverty rate is set at an annual income of less
than $20,650.
And it's not available to workers or
employers who have dropped their health
coverage within the past year.
Along with its own staff of four, the nonprofit
relies heavily on insurance brokers to
spread the word.
"The broker community is very aware of
who can't afford health insurance," Rice said.
Access for Health Network is designed so
that it doesn't depend on government grants
or other unstable sources of income.
The monthly fee paid by participants covers
the organization's overhead $460,000
in this fiscal year, $600,000 next year with a
planned expansion into Carson City and Lyon
County.
Rice hopes a portion of the monthly
enrollment also can be set aside to help
finance a foundation that would help pay for
catastrophic medical bills encountered by its
members.
Participating health-care providers, Rice
said, are motivated largely by a desire to fill
the health-coverage gap for the working poor.
But some also recognize the possibility of
collecting something even a discounted
amount from some
patients who otherwise
might not pay at all.
"We are hoping this
provides bad-debt management
for providers,"
Rice said.
Mike Johnson, director
of mission outreach
and community benefit
for Saint Mary's, says cash payments by
Access for Health Network members mean
that health providers don't face the hassle of
billing, re-billing and ultimately going to collection
when some patients don't pay.
"We collect a very small portion of our
bad debt, so why not be proactive?" he says.
"This is clean."
Some health-care providers also may be
attracted to the network, he says, by the ability
to build volume to fill otherwise slack
times. Providers can specify the number of
Access for Health Network patients they'll
see, and the network's staff will manage that
flow.
The idea of discounted health care isn't
unusual, Johnson says. Health insurance companies
typically negotiate discounts for their
customers, for instance, but the health industry
until recently hasn't figured how to provide
discounts for patients without insurance.
"Most systems aren't well prepared to do
that," he says.
