Whatcom Project Access Update
November 21, 2007

Welcome to the first edition of Whatcom Project Access Update. For more information about what Whatcom Project Access (WPA) and the Whatcom Alliance for Healthcare Access (WAHA) are doing, please visit our website at www.WhatcomAlliance.org.

Whatcom Project Access (WPA) is a partnership of the Whatcom County Medical Society and WAHA that supports local physicians and ancillary providers who donate care to low-income, uninsured residents of Whatcom County. A physician referral to WPA makes quality care easier because WPA-eligible patients receive care coordination, pharmacy and ancillary support.

“The real innovation of Project Access is that it is simply a way to provide charity care most physicians are already providing. This program does not add to the burden, it eases it.”  Erick Laine, MD

Thanksgiving AD in Bellingham Herald on 11/25: WAHA & WCMS Thank all WPA Participants for their Generosity

This coming Sunday, WPA will place an ad in the Bellingham Herald thanking all participating physicians, medical groups, Interfaith & Sea Mar Community Health Centers, community partners and all who have donated care and/or assisted in the development of the project. Please look for the ad and share with your staff. Thanks again for making this project possible.

WPA is the Winner of a PeaceHealth Exceptional Medicine and Compassionate Care Award

Earlier this month, WPA was one of three projects from PeaceHealth’s Whatcom Region to have won a “PeaceHealth Exceptional Medicine and Compassionate Care Award”!  These awards recognize initiatives that exemplify the PeaceHealth promise: “Every PeaceHealth patient will receive safe, evidence-based compassionate care; every time, every touch.”  WPA won the “Clinician Partnership and Planned Care Award”. 

A Snap Shot of WPA’s First Year      

• 192 physicians have pledged to provide care in 24 specialty areas and supporting ancillary services.
• 126 patients have enrolled in WPA (through the pilot period & onto current program scaling).
• Within three months of enrollment 112 patients (89%) had insurance, primarily through Basic Health.
• WPA providers have donated 168 referrals, 305 appointments, 40 procedures and 24 surgeries.
• $89,295 in specialty care has been donated by physicians submitting HCFA reports*.
• $72,720 in ancillary services has been donated by groups submitting HCFA reports*.
• $4,333 in prescriptions has been provided from the Community Pharmacy Fund. (Most program participants are eligible for discount prescriptions through 340B, a federally-supported pharmacy program.)

*We are currently working to get more HCFA forms submitted.

WAHA has Started an Emergency Department Connection Program

WAHA is now able to connect with uninsured patients who have recently visited the ED. We contact these patients and offer insurance information and assistance, as well as eligibility screening for WPA. By doing so, we hope to help all specialist offices who are taking uninsured patients through the ED on-call process. If a specialist wants to see an uninsured patient beyond the initial visit, they may refer the patient to WPA.

If you would like more information about this program and WAHA can assist your office with ED referrals please contact Felicia Boettger, WPA Administrative Coordinator at 715-6534 or ffboettger@hinet.org.

A Patient’s Story

Whatcom Project Access is based on a nationally-recognized model of organizing, distributing and supporting donated specialty care for low-income, uninsured patients. A key difference between our program and the original model is that WPA focuses on proactively connecting the same target patient population with available, appropriate insurance.  Below is a story of how one patient was recently helped through WPA:

Arnie is a forty-seven year-old male who was referred to Project Access with cancer.  Because of our close working relationship with DSHS, St. Joseph Hospital, and the Community Health Centers, we were able to help the patient secure a DSHS medical coupon for temporary disability in just four days.  We continue to work with the patient to secure permanent disability.  In the meantime, he has also secured Basic Health coverage, just in case his permanent disability application is unsuccessful.

A Patient Thanks his Specialist and WPA

Kevin is a fifty-six year old male who was referred to Whatcom Project Access by his primary care practitioner at Interfaith for a hernia repair. Dr. Keith VanderGriend performed a hernia repair at Parkway Surgery Center.

Kevin is now insured on Basic Health and is back to work.  After his surgery, Kevin called to say, “I don’t know what I would have done without the program. Dr. VanderGriend was absolutely wonderful and I already feel so much better.  My Basic Health has kicked in now. Thank you for all of the work that you do at Project Access.”

An Invitation to Participate

Most physicians in the community are donating care through WPA. If you have not yet pledged, and wish to do so, please contact Felicia Boettger, WPA Administrative Coordinator, at 788-6534 or ffboettger@hinet.org.

Please forward this newsletter to anyone who might be interested!