The challenges of success
Thanks to you, we’ve gone a long way since March 2008 when the first four patients enrolled in Project Access NOW. We have now served 2,535 patients, with cumulative charges for donated services exceeding $7 million. What’s even more encouraging are improvements in our efficiency measures. Our return on community investment increased from 674% last fiscal year to 786% in the first quarter of this fiscal year. In the same period, the cost per enrollment went down from $501 to $340.
Success comes with challenges. As our service gets established in the healthcare community, we get more referrals. For the first time since our inception, we have a patient waiting list – more than 50 low-income uninsured patients are now in line for specialty services. While we know may not reach the capacity to meet all the need in the community, we also know we have a long way to go in engaging the healthcare community.
Under our share the care principle, the care for the uninsured is distributed equitably among providers. We send to our physician volunteers and other health care providers only as many patients as they agree to see. Oncologist Dr. Jeffrey Menashe summarized it best:
“If there are more physicians participating, it benefits patients who can’t afford care, and it benefits other practices, which get to share the responsibility. Wide participation helps create a more fair system of healthcare for which we’re all accountable. I wouldn’t feel good if another physician was accepting more uninsured patients and suffering as a result. All oncology groups agreed to be in the pool to share patients without insurance equally. It’s a very equitable deal, where everyone’s happy to provide care without carrying all the weight.”
Other Project Access NOW physician volunteers and other health care providers have highlighted the ease of participation. Just three voices out of more than 2,200 volunteer physicians and other health care providers participating in Project Access NOW:
- Ophthalmologist Dr. Jennifer Lyons said, “Project Access patients are the cheapest free patients we see. I don’t have to do anything on the back end.”
- Urologist Dr. Thomas Pitre said, “Project Access takes care of all the logistics and allows me to do what I do best: practice urology.”
- Gastroenterologist Dr. Sandra Wilborn said, “I like it that Project Access organizes and structures the care for the uninsured. It’s an easy process. They take care of everything.”
We ask you, physicians and other healthcare providers, to join us in the effort to get the most vulnerable in our community the care they need. Today.
Thank you for your support!
Sincerely,
Linda Nilsen-Solares
Executive Director
(November 2009)
