WCMessenger.com: Survey to determine needs of uninsured in county

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Survey to determine needs of uninsured in county

By Brandon Evans | Published Sunday, November 29, 2009

As politicians in Washington battle over details of health care reform, tens of millions of Americans continue to deal with the stresses of having no health insurance.

But local leaders and health care workers continue to find local solutions to the health care crisis.

The Wise County Health Group, with help from Wise Regional Health System, has issued a survey to help determine the numbers and needs of the uninsured and the underinsured in the county.

The survey, based on a Center for Disease Control questionnaire, takes approximately 20 minutes to complete. The results are anonymous. Greg Eastin, of Forsite Consulting, is conducting the survey. He has worked with Wise Regional in the past.

United Way director Martin Woodruff said they need at least 400 complete surveys to have an adequate sample size. Everyone who completes the survey is entered into a drawing for a $100 Walmart gift card. Only one survey can be completed per household.

The survey can be found at the following locations and offices: Wise County Indigent Health Care, WARM, Wise County Council on Aging, Wise Choices, Wise Hope, Hope Chest, Nell's Nook, Department of Health and Human Services, South Wise Services, Senior Care Health and Rehabilitation Center, Wise Regional Health System emergency room, North Texas Community Hospital and Decatur's First United Methodist Church. The deadline for turning in the survey is Dec. 15.

If the need is proved through the survey, it could help the county establish a Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC).

"I haven't talked to anybody who doesn't think this isn't a need," Woodruff said.

FQHCs are community-based organizations that provide comprehensive primary care and preventive care to persons of all ages, regardless of their ability to pay. They are funded by a combination of federal and local dollars and payments for services. Patients are allowed to pay for health services on a sliding scale based on their income.

The hope is to set up an independent clinic in the county or a satellite of the Albert Galvan Health Clinic, an FQHC located in Fort Worth.

Another benefit of the FQHC is that they accept Medicaid. It's very difficult to find a doctor in Wise County willing to accept a patient using Medicaid due to the extra costs it puts on the physician.

Wise Regional and the United Way of Wise County have both set aside funds for such an endeavor. Eventually, the clinic would pay for itself because it is a cost-based program and runs on federal reimbursements.

Wise Regional supports this initiative because its emergency room stays flooded with uninsured patients. Many of whom will be unable to ever pay the exorbitant cost of emergency health care.

"Our emergency room gets a high number of uninsured patients," said Steve Summers, CEO of Wise Regional. "We have uninsured people coming to the emergency room for all kinds of treatments. That's not the appropriate place to treat all the uninsured."

In 2008, a U.S. Census Bureau survey found 20 percent, or 47 million Americans lacking health insurance. A spike in job losses since that time have worsened the situation. The same survey found Texas to have the highest percentage of uninsured of all 50 states, at 25 percent.

But in early 2008, the unemployment rate in Texas and Wise County was approximately 4.5 percent. The unemployment rate in Wise County is now at 10 percent.