As more Puerto Rican
evacuees arrive in Central Florida, bilingual medical practices step up to help, providing free first visits.
As medical providers across Central Florida handle the recent surge of evacuees from Puerto Rico, a few practices that are well-known in the Hispanic community have become a home-away-from-home for evacuees.
Some are offering free first visits to evacuees and helping them switch their health plans or get coverage through Medicaid or the health insurance marketplace.
“I feel that it’s my obligation to help people that are coming here because I personally lived through that myself,” said Jorge Garcia, a Cuban immigrant who arrived in Miami in the early 1980s and later founded Orlando Family Physicians.
“We’re not really targeting [evacuees],” said Garcia, CEO of Orlando Family Physicians. “We’re not making any money with this. We lose money. But we want to help … if we were all to do our part, it could be very easy.”
With 15 offices and 400 employees, including 50 physicians, the practice is one of the largest independent primary care providers in Central Florida. More than 90 percent of its staff are bilingual; so are all but two of its physicians. The majority are from Puerto Rico.
Roberto Rodriguez Ruiz, 58, is among the nearly 100 evacuees who have visited a doctor for free at the practice during November.
He left his home in Southeastern Puerto Rico at the end of October and first went to New York City, where he had lived years before.
He’s on disability with a bad knee. He tried to see a doctor there, but the first available appointment was two months away. He then came to Orlando, where he has family.
He has Medicare and Medicaid. He has switched his Medicare plan but is waiting on his Medicaid paperwork to go through. In the meantime, he needed to see a doctor to get his prescriptions filled.
He saw an ad for Orlando Family Physicians and found his way to the North John Young Parkway office.
“I talked to a coordinator and got an appointment right away,” he said, sitting at an exam room with Dr. Kriselle Torres, who’s also from Puerto Rico.
Another bilingual practice in Central Florida, The PHCA Medical Group, has been offering free first visits to Medicare beneficiaries and helping them switch to one of the plans the practice carries.
“We want to extend our hand out to the community,” said Ozzie Herrera, a project manager at PHCA.
For Puerto Ricans who have had to evacuate, getting separated from their children and longtime friends, the clinics also provide medicine for the soul.
“I feel at home. Everyone speaks Spanish. I feel like I’m still in Puerto Rico,” said Rodriguez Ruiz.
The activity center at Orlando Family Physicians’ John Young location, where Medicare beneficiaries regularly gather for workshops, potlucks and even Zumba classes, has been a popular hub for older evacuees.
Iris Vidal Duran, 91, left Puerto Rico two weeks ago to join her sister in Kissimmee. She’s already switched her Medicare plan and has a doctor’s appointment later this month, and in the meantime, she’s visited the clinic’s activity center a few times.
“She feels like she’s at home here,” a translator said. “She feels that they’re like her brothers and sisters because they treat you here like they’ve known you forever.”