Uninsured workers signed up for discount plan

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.