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Ecu-Health Care, one-stop shopping for the uninsured
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Ecu-Health Care, one-stop shopping for the uninsured
By Chip Joffe-Halpern
The staff of Ecu-Health Care, a private non-profit health care access program located on the campus of North Adams Regional Hospital, take their mission of helping uninsured and underinsured residents access health coverage very seriously.
With extensive knowledge of the number and complexity of services available to Massachusetts residents, Ecu-Health Care has become one-stop shopping for individuals of all age groups who need assistance to help cope with the cost of medical care.
A significant part of our mission is helping area seniors access all services that are available to them. Ecu-Health Care has SHINE (Serving the Health Insurance Information Needs of Elders) volunteers on staff who help seniors understand their Medicare benefits, and help individuals access programs including: Prescription Advantage, free care at Massachusetts hospitals to help cover Medicare deductibles, assistance enrolling in medigap plans, Dentistry for All, and all other programs for which seniors are eligible.
For residents under age 65, we have developed a voluntary physician program that has become a statewide model, wherein doctors agree to treat local low-income residents at a significantly reduced fee. Both primary care physicians and specialists have significantly lowered their fees and all area physicians in North Berkshire are participating. We are grateful for their generosity.
A unique aspect of Ecu-Health Care is our ongoing marketing, outreach and enrollment campaign promoting access to all public and private health coverage programs for low to medium income residents. This includes: MassHealth (Medicaid), Insurance Partnership, Children's Medical Security Plan, Prescription Advantage Plan, Medical Security Plan, Medicare Premium Assistance programs, Dentistry for All, Project HEROA (the breast and cervical cancer screening initiative), and all of the free pharmacy programs.
Ecu-Health Care makes extensive use of television, radio and newspaper media to get the word out. U.S. Senator Ted Kennedy, former Governor Jane Swift, State Senator Andrea Nuciforo, State Representative Dan Bosley, and actor Christopher Reeve have all recorded public service announcements on our behalf.
We are proud to have been invited by the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), the Massachusetts Hospital Association, and the national Area Health Education Center program (AHEC) to give presentations about Ecu-Health Care's outreach methods at regional and nationwide conferences.
Currently, staff serves on the Medical Care Advisory Committee to the Massachusetts Medicaid Commissioner, and we have helped four other Massachusetts communities start their own health care access programs based on our model. In 1999 the Berkshire County AHEC gave Ecu-Health Care an Annual Achievement Award for our collaborative efforts to help area residents access health coverage.
In the eight years from August 1995 to August 2003, Ecu-Health Care helped over 6,000 area residents. Our voluntary physicians have provided over $980,000 of health care treatment to 1,790 area residents. We have also referred over 4,500 individuals to Massachusetts public health programs, including MassHealth, the Children's Medical Security Plan, and the state pharmacy programs for seniors and the disabled, including the Prescription Advantage plan.
We encourage all North County residents to contact Ecu-Health Care at 663-8711.
Chip Joffe-Halpern is Executive Director of Ecu-Health Care in North Adams. He and Linda Small, Executive Director of the Community Health Program, will be featured on November's Berkshire Senior TV program "Healthcare for All."