LEE HEALTH’S UNSUNG HEROES
Financial assistance eases road to recovery
Financial assistance eases road to recovery
top of pain and fear, medical diagnosis or serious injury elicits significant anxiety and stress. Financial hardships compound that stress. But, while health care is expensive, it isn’t completely out of reach for the people of Southwest Florida because financial help and the unsung heroes at Lee Health are available. “Lee Health has a comprehensive Financial Assistance Policy, or FAP, to treat patients residing in Lee, Charlotte, Collier, Glades and Hendry counties,” explains Patti O’Brien, Lee Health director of Receivables Management of Business Operations. “Lee Health is committed to providing emergency medical care and medically necessary care at its hospitals to persons who have health care needs and are unable to pay.”
Financial Assistance Policy eligibility requires patients to be uninsured and meet certain household income levels. Depending on where a patient’s income falls on the federal poverty level, he or she may only hav e to pay 20 percent of the medical expenses. Patients whose gross family income is not more than 200 percent of the federal poverty level usually will not have to pay any of their hospital bills. The FAP also covers Lee Physician Group doctors providing emergency medical services and medically necessary care in Lee Health hospitals.
O’Brien and her unsung hero team of 20 customer service specialists work hard to help patients navigate their options— whether that is financial assistance or establishing payment plans. O’Brien’s office fields an average of 10,000 incoming calls per month, and her team wrote off more than $220 million of care last fiscal year. The team also helps connect patients to other assistance programs available in the community, such as grants to help with chemotherapy expenses or charitable funds that help pay for CAT (computerized axial tomography) scans, MRIs (magnetic resonance imaging) or specialty care for children. “Between Lee Health, Lee Community Healthcare, the United Way, the Healthcare Network of Southwest Florida, the Salvation Army and others,” O’Brien says, “we’re all working together to provide quality health care that is as affordable as possible.
“Personally, I feel very proud to do the work I do every day, and to work with the team I work with. I feel like we really make a difference—we help alleviate some of our patients’ fears, anxieties and stress, and we try to help them focus on getting better.”
O’Brien says it is important for those having received hospital services and needing financial assistance to contact her team. The customer service specialists are available 8 a.m.-4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday, to assist and answer questions. Appointments are also available. Help applying for Medicaid, disability and Affordable Care Act insurance is also available at the hospitals.
For more than 100 years, Lee Health has served the people of Southwest Florida—regardless of their financial or insurance status. Patti O’Brien and her team may not administer the medical treatment, but the care they provide makes a big difference in each patient’s road to recovery.
More information about the Financial Assistance Policy is available online at leehealth.org.