1/4/2024 0 Comments Solis health plans videoBe sure to differentiate between charges and paid claims or costs. While it says charges, the numbers indicate what the health plan actually paid. The following chart shows Solis' medical bills. (That is of course if the bureaucracy will help you.) Most California counties operate similarly so if you find patient enrolled Medi-Cal or even the county indigent program, it will be easier to get reliable numbers. He had no charges after 2004, which is when he moved into the motel. Solis signed a waver and the health plan produced his medical charges from 2002 to 2006. That meant all of Solis' medical claims were in one place. In Solano County, all Medicaid patients are enrolled in a managed care health plan. Solis qualified for Social Security Disability Income and Medicaid. Relying on the hospital for billing records is tricky because patients can go to more than one hospital. You'll most likely have to get the patient's medical bills, records and other documents from the hospital or health plan (if they are enrolled in one). You need them to be entirely transparent.Ĭalculating one homeless patient's health costs Keep this in mind while searching for people to write about. In addition to the peer-reviewed studies and abstract quotes from experts, you need solid, local data. If you're like I was – filing a story nearly every day – set aside a one or two hours each week to find relevant studies and interview experts. It may take several weeks or months before anyone turns up. Meet with them and the hospital public relations officials early to explain your project and get their buy-in.īe patient. Hospital social workers can also be great resources, but tend to be more cautious about helping because of HIPAA, the federal patient privacy law. They are very busy people, however, so call them once a week to kindly remind them of your project. If the caseworker trusts you, they can be immensely helpful. They know individuals and stories, and if they're good their clients trust them. While it's important to have a good relationship with the directors of these programs to guarantee good access, the caseworkers on the frontlines are your key to finding people. Start by getting to know the advocates who work with the homeless daily at shelters, the county programs, food banks, etc. The work for a project like this can be divided into two broad categories:įinding people: Plant seeds early and be patientįinding homeless people to illustrate these scenarios takes time – lots of it. Focusing on the immense costs of one individual effectively demonstrated the magnitude of the problem. Malcolm Gladwell's piece called " Million-Dollar Murray" in the New Yorker inspired my story on Solis. Second, I wanted to quantify the medical costs for one homeless individual. First, what happens when a homeless person is hospitalized and has no place to finish recuperating after being discharged? What does the hospital do? Where do they go? While conceiving the idea to write about the health care costs of the chronically homeless, two aspects of this problem interested me most. I've also included relevant research, an expert list, and tips I wish someone had given me. Here is some advice on where to start, who to talk to, and how to organize your time to report this story. That's the reason to convince your editor to write about the health care costs of homelessness in your community. Taxpayers and people with private insurance pay for this fruitless care, as hospitals shift costs onto them. They return to the hospital for more costly treatment again and again. Because their cases are so complicated they require expensive treatment and extra time from hospital staff.īut despite receiving repeated rounds of intensive and costly treatment, their health rarely improves when they return to the streets. Many have chronic health problems worsened by living outside, in addition to substance abuse problems and untreated mental illness. Hospital emergency room staffs call these patients frequent fliers. Nearly every community has at least one chronically homeless person like him. Solis' case represents the immense health care costs associated with homelessness. In three years, Solis racked up nearly $1 million in medical charges - paid for by taxpayers. Solis' health never improved it worsened because he slept outside and couldn't properly care for his diabetes or heart disease. Solis would leave the hospital only to return after police found him passed out, again. There, doctors often admitted him to treat his multiple chronic health problems and so he could detoxify safely. Solis frequently passed out drunk in public, and police brought him to the hospital emergency room. Angelo Solis is a chronic alcoholic in his late 60s who was homeless for many years in Solano County, California.
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