Medical group offers free care to uninsured - San Jose Mercury News
When Shelly Hagen's 6-year-old son caught a cold that crept into a persistent cough, she made a trip to Santa Clara Urgent Care. It turned out to be a routine respiratory infection, but the visit was nothing less than extraordinary -- it was free.
Like 250,000 other Santa Clara County residents, Hagen is uninsured. As a self-employed, single mother with a pre-existing condition, she said she can't afford the $850 per month it would cost to have private insurance. And, like other parents, she's apprehensive about her son's health.
"You hear all these horror stories about pneumonia settling in, and I just got worried," Hagen said of her son's cold.
She was both relieved and amazed when a relative told her about the "SafetyNet" program at Santa Clara Urgent Care and the 10 other facilities operated by the Bay Area Surgical Management. The program gives 1,000 uninsured residents free health care, which includes urgent care, imaging services (X-ray, MRI and CT scans), gynecological services and outpatient surgeries.
It couldn't come at a better time. Since 2000, the percentage of uninsured residents in Santa Clara County has jumped from 8 percent to 18 percent, according to the Santa Clara County Health Department.
Hagan, who hasn't had health insurance since 2005, is now a regular patient at Santa Clara Urgent Care and will apply for their "un-insurance" card when the BASM program expands this year.
The uninsured patients
SafetyNet had an unofficial start in 2006, when the company opened the doors to its Urgent Care Center. Some of the 300 BASM employees asked if uninsured friends and family could come by for this or that, and the idea caught on.
Then came the case of a grandmother needing cataract surgery. After her daughter and son-in-law were killed in a car accident, the woman was left to care for her two young grandchildren on her meager wages as a piano teacher.
When cataracts blurred the music notes and threatened to put her out of business, a BASM surgeon suggested they do the surgery for free. Bobby Sarnevesht, BASM marketing executive, thought the program needed to be official.
"It was a really amazing experience," Sarnevesht said. "There is so much more that we can do with our resources. What's a thousand more patients?"
Nationwide, those without health coverage have a 40 percent higher risk of death than those with private health insurance. A Harvard Medical School study found that 45,000 deaths per year in the United States are linked to a lack of health insurance.
"This is about keeping people in our community health," Sarnevesht said.
While working to expand its charitable efforts, BASM has faced accusations from health insurance giant Aetna that it overcharged some patients with coverage. BASM has asked that Aetna's lawsuit be dismissed.
Aetna filed a similar suit against an outpatient clinic in Texas that recently was dismissed.
The cost of the SafetyNet program has been covered by BASM's net profits, but they hope to expand the program this year by setting up a foundation.
The foundation, which will be called the Aryana Foundation after Sarnevesht's daughter, already has private donors lined up.
Once the foundation solidifies, they will formally issue "un-insurance" cards for people to receive regular care and will expand to include much more than 1,000 patients.
"We'll take them as they come," Trolan said. "As long as we can provide quality care, we won't worry about quantity."
Contact Beth Marie Mole at bethmole@mercurynews.com or 408-920-5064.
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percentage of Santa Clara County residents who are uninsured.
deaths per year in the United States linked to lack of health insurance, according to a Harvard Medical School study.
13 May, 2012
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Source: http://www.mercurynews.com/science/ci_20611753/medical-group-offers-free-care-uninsured
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