Ohio County Seeks Federal Grant to Establish Program to Coordinate Care for Area Uninsured

Commissioners in Ohio's Cuyhahoga County are expected to approve submitting an application for a $992,560 federal grant that would set up a network of volunteer doctors and hospitals to provide free services for the uninsured, the Cleveland Plain Dealer reports. The goal of the program, known as the Cuyahoga Access to a Medical Home Initiative, is to provide the uninsured care through regular visits to doctors' offices rather than the emergency room. According to a Gallup study completed for the Federation for Community Planning, 16.6% of uninsured county residents between ages 18 and 64 listed the emergency room as their usual source of care, compared with 2% of adults with insurance. Sandra Chappelle, healthy policy and program coordinator for Cuyahoga County, said, "If we can begin to change that pattern in our community, we think it will be better for the people who have serious medical problems." In 2002 -- the initiative's first year if the money is received -- as many as 10,000 uninsured residents with annual incomes of up to 200% FPL, or $35,300 for a family of four, would be eligible for the network's free services. The initiative is similar to a five-year-old Asheville, N.C.-based program, in which 86% of the 600 members of the Buncombe County, N.C., Medical Society provide free care for low-income people. In Cuyahoga, the Academy of Medicine of Cleveland/Northern Ohio Medical Association, which represents 2,000 doctors, has passed a resolution endorsing the volunteer network, the Plain Dealer reports. Dr. Ronald Savrin, the association's president, said, "Doctors already volunteer their services. What this program is trying to do is formalize and standardize" that practice. Bev Lozar, COO of the East Cleveland-based Huron Hospital, said that although uninsured people are not "turned away from emergency rooms" or other places that provide charity care, "there is a lack of [services] organization." The federal government is expected to make a decision on the grant by September (Exner, Cleveland Plain Dealer, 5/9).