"Frequent Flyers" Receive Free Preventive Medical Care
Posted by
Bob CarrollOctober 25, 2006 5:22 AMThere is one group of frequent flyers who are receiving free primary medical care. This is a win-win-win for uninsured patients, hospitals and taxpayers.
To Lower Costs, Hospitals Try Free Basic Care for Uninsured
AUSTIN, Tex. -- Unable to afford health insurance, Dee Dee Dodd had for years been mixing occasional doctor visits with clumsy efforts to self-manage her insulin-dependent diabetes, getting sicker all the while. In one 18-month period, Ms. Dodd, 38, was rushed almost monthly to the emergency room, spent weeks in the intensive care unit and accumulated more than $191,000 in unpaid bills.
That is when nurses at the Seton Family of Hospitals tagged her as a "frequent flyer," a repeat visitor whose ailments -- and expenses -- might be curbed with more regular care. The hospital began offering her free primary care through its charity program.
With the number of uninsured Americans reaching a record 46.6 million last year, up by 7 million from 2000, Seton is one of a small number of hospital systems around the country to have done the math and acted on it. Officials decided that for many patients with chronic diseases, it would be cheaper to provide free preventive care than to absorb the high cost of repeated emergencies.
Reaching out to uninsured patients, especially those with chronic conditions like diabetes, hypertension, congestive heart failure or asthma, is a recent tactic of "a handful of visionary hospital systems around the country," said Karen Davis, president of the Commonwealth Fund, a foundation in New York that concentrates on health care. These institutions are searching for ways to fend off disease and large debts by bringing uninsured visitors into continuing basic care.
From the New York Times
There is one group of frequent flyers who are receiving free primary medical care. This is a win-win-win for uninsured patients, hospitals and taxpayers.
To Lower Costs, Hospitals Try Free Basic Care for Uninsured
AUSTIN, Tex. -- Unable to afford health insurance, Dee Dee Dodd had for years been mixing occasional doctor visits with clumsy efforts to self-manage her insulin-dependent diabetes, getting sicker all the while. In one 18-month period, Ms. Dodd, 38, was rushed almost monthly to the emergency room, spent weeks in the intensive care unit and accumulated more than $191,000 in unpaid bills.
That is when nurses at the Seton Family of Hospitals tagged her as a "frequent fiyer," a repeat visitor whose ailments -- and expenses -- might be curbed with more regular care. The hospital began offering her free primary care through its charity program.
With the number of uninsured Americans reaching a record 46.6 million last year, up by 7 million from 2000, Seton is one of a small number of hospital systems around the country to have done the math and acted on it. Officials decided that for many patients with chronic diseases, it would be cheaper to provide free preventive care than to absorb the high cost of repeated emergencies.
Reaching out to uninsured patients, especially those with chronic conditions like diabetes, hypertension, congestive heart failure or asthma, is a recent tactic of "a handful of visionary hospital systems around the country," said Karen Davis, president of the Commonwealth Fund, a foundation in New York that concentrates on health care. These institutions are searching for ways to fend off disease and large debts by bringing uninsured visitors into continuing basic care.
From the New York Times