Uninsured have options in Southern Nevada for health care
True or false: Thanks to the Affordable Care Act, everyone in Southern Nevada who wants it has health insurance.
False. Many who work part-time don’t have access to employer-provided health care plans, and even with government assistance, some find that springing for insurance is more than their budget will bear. Add to that people who are undocumented, homeless or waiting for government assistance approval. Even with the act’s implementation, it’s estimated that there are more than 300,000 Nevadans who remain uninsured.
Even without insurance, Southern Nevadans have access to health care.
“We are the safety net to the safety net,” said Volunteers in Medicine of Southern Nevada Administrative Director Amy Schmidt.
The Volunteers in Medicine Clinic opened in 2010 at 4770 Harrison Drive in a converted Clark County Parks & Recreation building in Paradise Park. The mostly volunteer-staffed clinic provides primary care, preventive and acute care, newborn checkups, immunizations, diagnostic tests, cancer screenings, health education, pharmacy services and more to Southern Nevada residents who make 200 percent or less of the poverty level, are not eligible for Medicaid or Medicare and can’t obtain affordable health insurance coverage.
Schmidt said the care patients receive is provided through a collaborative community effort with staffing help provided by medical and nursing students and cash and services coming in from private donors and places such as St. Rose Hospitals, Quest Diagnostics, West Valley Imaging and Radiology Associates of Nevada.
The organization’s efforts are about to double with the addition of the new Ruffin Family Clinic on the corner of Martin Luther King Boulevard and Madison Avenue.
The $2.4 million facility is set for a soft opening in mid-August to determine patient eligibility. Doctors should start seeing patients in September. A grand opening celebration is set for Oct. 8, to be followed by a community fair the following Saturday.
“We’re going to go slow and ease our way into the new clinic,” Schmidt said.
The organization plans to expand offerings at the Ruffin Family Clinic to include assistance with mental health, social services, dental, vision and expanded community education programs. The Paradise Park clinic is expected to remain open.
“This facility will stay,” Schmidt said. “We do not want to abandon the patient population here. We are looking at treating this more as a satellite clinic.”
Schmidt said the services provided are vital to the uninsured.
“If you’ve had insurance all your life, you don’t know how much things cost. You’re used to just putting down your card; but when you’re uninsured, it’s a totally different ball game. With the patient population we see here, they’ve never had insurance, so even when they get it, they don’t know how it works. So we’ve created a patient support services department so we can follow up with people. …. We really try to give them the tools they need and answer the questions that they have in terms of what insurance means to them now: How is that going to change their life, and how are they going to adapt?”
Volunteers in Medicine isn’t alone in assisting the uninsured. Nevada Health Centers operates six clinics in Clark County with a sliding fee scale based on family income. The nonprofit clinics can be found at 3900 Cambridge St., 2212 S. Eastern Ave., 47 W. Owens Ave., 1799 Mount Mariah Drive, 2225 Civic Center Drive and 1312 E. Tonopah Ave. at Squires Elementary School. In addition to its urban reach, the centers serve rural communities and operate mobile medical services such as the Mammovan and the Ronald McDonald Care Mobile Miles for Smiles dental care facility.
Nevada Health Centers representative Carrie Tallman said the organization’s mission is to provide quality people can afford.
“Just because you don’t have a lot of money doesn’t mean quality health care is not attainable,” she said. “We have quality providers out there doing great things.”
She said the Affordable Care Act has increased the number of patients at the centers.
“It has helped get people thinking more about it, thinking, ‘Maybe this is for me.’ ”
In addition to uninsured patients, the centers see people with insurance and people on Medicare or Medicaid. Tallman said the centers’ focus is on being a patient-centered medical home, not just a place to turn for one-time care.
“They’re trying to manage people’s care, so it’s highly coordinated, and it’s long-term,” she said. “It’s really about building a relationship versus a revolving-door scenario.”
Tallman said patients are encouraged to come in before they’re sick.
“There’s no reason to delay until you find you have to break down and make an ER visit,” she said.
For more information on Volunteers in Medicine, visit vmsn.org or call 702-967-0530. For more on Nevada Health Centers, visit nevadahealthcenters.org or call 800-787-2568.
To reach View contributing reporter Ginger Meurer, email gmeurer@viewnews.com. Find her on Twitter: @gingermmm.
