What you can do to help your uninsured patients.

According to the latest U.S. Census Bureau estimates, 45.7 million people in the United States are uninsured. This exceeds the number enrolled in Medicare (44.8 million) and approaches the number enrolled in Medicaid (58.7 million). After a combined total of 23 years in private practice, we decided to do something to help the growing number of uninsured patients in our own community. In 2004 we founded a novel practice, in which we spend half our time providing primary care to the uninsured (“Recipients”) at no charge and support ourselves by spending the other half of our time providing outstanding access to our paying patients (“Benefactors”) for an annual lump sum. We receive no government funding, and we do not bill any insurance. (To learn more about our practice, see “A New Model of Charitable Care: The Robin Hood Practice,” FPM, February 2008; http://www.aafp.org/fpm/ 20080200/12anew.html.) We’ve now provided more than 10,000 free outpatient visits to uninsured patients in our community and done so on a shoestring budget. As the uninsured population continues to grow, we would like to share what we’ve learned about caring for these patients cost-effectively. There is no one-size-fits-all approach, but perhaps a few of these tips will work in your community too. 1. Confirm that the patient is really uninsured.