Compassionate Capitalism - July 2003

Health Access Washoe County

Medical Services for the Working Uninsured

by Stephanie Beck

For most businesses, a call from a nonprofit often means a solicitation for a donation is soon to follow. However, if Health Access Washoe County (HAWC) contacts your business, they probably aren’t asking for money. Rather, they’re seeking to offer your employees comprehensive, affordable healthcare services. In fact, Executive Director Dr. Michael Rodolico is concerned more with getting new patients through the door than anything else.

Health Access Washoe County was started in 1995 by the Washoe County Medical Society and other leaders of the Northern Nevada healthcare community who recognized the need to provide healthcare services to the working uninsured. It receives funding from public and governmental support, including federal, state and city/county grants, which provide 30 percent of its income. Three percent of its income comes from private grants, and the remaining 67 percent is from patient services revenue, contributions and interest income.  

As of the clinic’s eighth anniversary in May, the staff at HAWC has provided over 200,000 clinic visits to many of the working uninsured in the area. In 2002 the clinic provided 42,000 visits to 17,000 individuals, and it expects that number to jump to 50,000 visits in 2003. Additionally, the dental side of the clinic provided 9,145 visits to 5,076 patients in 2002 and anticipates that number will double in 2003.

However, the need for medical services in the Truckee Meadows is still significant, and Rodolico said he isn’t going to be happy until every person in need of affordable healthcare knows about HAWC. With numbers this high, it seems that taking on more patients would be difficult, but Rodolico plans to aggressively grow the business, explaining, "There’s always room for more people who are in need, and as our population grows, so does the number of working uninsured."

How can the clinic afford to take on additional patients when it’s already incredibly busy every single day, including Saturdays? Efficiency is the key, explained Rodolico. "We take very careful measures in our scheduling process. In fact, we could actually handle about 1,000 more walk-in patients per month. While we would prefer them to actually have appointments, we could still accommodate the influx based on our scheduling system. The need is great, and to be able to fill the need we have to be extremely efficient."

Thanks to HAWC’s built-in efficiencies, the clinic’s three doctors (with two more on the way) are able to see an average of 6,200 patients per year. Nationally, the average is 4,200 patients per year in similar clinics. In fact, HAWC currently ranks among the top 20 out of about 3,500 clinics of its kind.

Why is it important for the business community to know about HAWC’s existence and its diverse offering of services? It’s simple. Not all business owners can afford to offer medical benefits to employees. In fact, 35 percent of businesses in Northern Nevada do not offer healthcare insurance. However, they can educate their employees about where to go for affordable healthcare services. By encouraging employees to keep up with preventive care for their families and themselves, employers can actually reduce absenteeism, which contributes directly to the bottom line. Additionally, emergency room visits decrease, which provides a savings to the community as a whole.

"There are a lot of hardworking families out there who simply do not have insurance, but still need healthcare and are willing to pay for it," said Rodolico. "We offer a sliding-fee scale based on the patient’s ability to pay. And for those who can’t afford to pay, we improvise. We had one mother who worked off the cost of her child’s medical care by cleaning the clinic’s parking lot for $10 an hour."

Stated Rodolico, "As a business, we are very solid. We do not owe a single penny. Our challenge is making sure that every person in our target audience knows who we are and how to find us."