A woman walks into La Red Health Center for a visit with her doctor.
After examining her, the doctor tells her that they want to run some blood work to see if they can find out why she hasn’t been feeling well. Her heart drops.
She knows that she will have to go outside of La Red – a center in Georgetown that offers outpatient health care regardless of a patient’s ability to pay – and she won’t be able to cover the costs for that lab work without insurance.
That’s when someone like Yina Mazariegos Diaz steps in.
Working as a health promotion advocate at La Red, Mazariegos Diaz reviews the schedules every day to look for patients without insurance. She then makes an appointment with those patients and asks them a few questions to see if they may qualify for a state program called Health Care Connection or HCC.
This program offers discounted health services so that uninsured people can still access primary care doctors, medical specialists and health promotion and disease prevention services, according to the Department of Health and Social Services’ website. It also helps with prescriptions, labs and radiology services.
A patient’s eligibility is mostly based on income – they have to show that they are uninsured, cannot afford private insurance, and do not qualify for Medicaid or any other state medical assistance. The individual must also be a Delaware resident.
Once the state’s health department verifies the patient’s eligibility, they will be connected with staff from the Voluntary Initiative Program or VIP.
The Voluntary Initiative Program is a network of physicians who take on HCC patients at their practices or provide specialty services. The names of these physicians are not public, and patients can only connect with them through the state’s program.
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Another separate program that the state offers is called Screening for Life.
This helps people pay for exams ranging from mammograms to pap smears to colonoscopies – all screenings that are crucial to identifying and preventing cancers.
While patients should still live in Delaware and not qualify for Medicare or Medicaid, the eligibility requirements for Screening for Life are different than for HCC. Patients can have insurance as long as their insurance does not cover breast, cervical, colorectal, lung and prostate screenings. They’re also eligible if they have an unmet deductible and that deductible is more than 15% of their annual income.
Additionally, patients must meet a specific income requirement: between 139% and 250% of the Federal Poverty Level. The poverty guidelines change based on how many people are in a household. The latest guidelines can be found here: https://aspe.hhs.gov/topics/poverty-economic-mobility/poverty-guidelines.
Multiple health care professionals have said that routine screenings and doctor’s visits are essential to anyone’s overall health and well-being.
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But in Delaware, especially in rural and low-income communities, access to this care remains a challenge.
In 2019, about 8% of people in Delaware were uninsured, according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau. In Sussex County, that number reached more than 10%.
And all three counties had communities where more than 20% of the people lived below the federal poverty level, according to the 2015-2019 American Community Survey 5-year estimates.
Helpful contacts
To check eligibility for Screening for Life or Health Care Connection, call 302-744-1040 or email DHSS_DPH_Healthaccessde@delaware.gov.
People can also call 2-1-1 for free help accessing health care services and other community resources.
La Red Health Center: 302-855-1233 or visit http://www.laredhealthcenter.org.
Beebe Healthcare: 302-645-3278 or visit https://www.beebehealthcare.org.
Bayhealth referral service: 1-866-BAY-DOCS (229-3627) or visit https://www.bayhealth.org.
TidalHealth: 410-543-7700 (for scheduling appointments), or visit https://www.tidalhealth.org.
Emily Lytle covers Sussex County from the inland towns to the beaches. Got a story she should tell? Contact her at elytle@delmarvanow.com or 302-332-0370. Follow her on Twitter at @emily3lytle.
