Albemarle Healthcare Foundation Provides Free Health Care for Uninsured
With health-care and prescription drug costs on the rise nationwide, uninsured patients across America continue to struggle.
To help meet the needs of these patients, the Albemarle Hospital Foundation operates Community Care Clinics in Elizabeth City and Tyner, offering free physician care, screenings and prescription drugs to an uninsured population that is estimated to be around 35,000, says Phil Donahue, vice president of the Albemarle Hospital Foundation.
“Almost all of our patients are working poor or working minimum-wage employees who don’t have health-care benefits,” Donahue says. “The government does a good job with Medicaid and in taking care of the indigent. We’re filling that gap for those who are uninsured. It’s very different than what we saw 20 years ago.”
Two decades ago, community members came together to offer prescription assistance and limited health-care access. In 2003, Donahue became involved, and the Albemarle Hospital Foundation was born. The foundation opened Community Care Clinics to provide more comprehensive care to a six-county area. The now-larger Elizabeth City location serves patients in Pasquotank, Camden and Currituck counties. The remodeled Tyner location serves patients in Chowan, Gates and Perquimans counties.
“In 2003, when we started the foundation, our entire operational costs were about $60,000 a year,” Donahue recalls. “Now having the myriad of services we have and being open five days a week, it’s about $600,000 a year. We’re seeing about 20 times the patients now.”
With dedicated staff members and approximately 50 volunteers, the clinics are able to assist the underserved population in primarily two areas – primary care and prescription services.
Qualified patients receive free physician visits followed by free prescriptions at the clinics’ dispensing pharmacies. When generics aren’t available, Donahue says, the Prescription Assistance Program provides the needed name-brand drug after a brief waiting period. When waiting isn’t an option, the clinics provide vouchers to local pharmacies who carry name-brand pharmaceuticals.
With additional funding from the Kate B. Reynolds Charitable Trust, the clinics are also able to offer preventive health education and case manager services. Case managers at both locations provide patients with a personalized consultation after each visit to explain the care and prescription instructions, and offer nutritional and other relevant resources.
“We mandate that every patient goes through a case manager, and we’re seeing amazing changes,” Donahue says. “It’s really making a difference in the health care of these people.”
