Clinic Access Difficult for Uninsured in Central Florida, Phone ‘Sting’ Finds

The findings of a recent telephone "sting" in central Florida is creating "serious questions about whether the region's uninsured are able to gain speedy access" to public health clinics, the Orlando Sentinel reports. Matt Zavadsky, executive director for the Local Health Council of East Central Florida, a not-for-profit organization that assists Orange, Seminole, Osceola, and Brevard counties with managing health-care issues, said he conducted the experiment after hearing reports of uninsured residents experiencing "long delays" for care at the region's clinics. In the experiment, Zavadsky and two other people posed as patients with sore throats and called four of the area's 12 health clinics to request appointments. The three called two area health clinics and were given appointments as much as two weeks sooner if they mentioned that they had health insurance. In calling two other clinics, the three were able to schedule appointments up to five weeks later, regardless of what they said their insurance status was.

Resulting Discomfort
Some area health care officials said that Zavadsky's "informal phone poll was underhanded, unscientific and invalid," the Sentinel reports. Larry Jones, director of Orange County's health and family services division, said, "I'm extremely disappointed over this. I think it brings into question the credibility of the local health council and the quality of work that they do." Other area health care officials said they were "upset" Zavadsky did not bring the issue before the Primary Care Access Network, a "loose-knit coalition" of government, hospital and not-for-profit officials that discusses problems faced by the uninsured. Rich Morrison, Florida Hospital's vice president, said, "Even if (the study) were valid, the thing to do is to sit down with the providers and be constructive versus throwing things out there like a grenade. This thing has created some very bad blood." Still, Zavadsky said, "[T]he only way that people will change is if they are uncomfortable with where they are. We need to make our community uncomfortable with where they are" (Groeller, Orlando Sentinel, 2/22).