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UNC Health Wayne has organized a mobile outreach initiative, visiting patients at home to determine their Medicaid eligibility and walk them through the enrollment process.
Navigating healthcare can be challenging, especially for people without insurance. When someone is sick and receives care, they should be focused on recovering and not worrying about medical bills.
“There’s a multitude of ways that we can assist them in making sure they don’t have that burden of medical bills after they have been seen or treated in the hospital,” said Tonya Reaves, patient access and financial clearance manager at UNC Health Wayne in Goldsboro.
Tonya Reaves saw a need to educate patients about their financial assistance options after being treated at the hospital. While working with UNC Health Johnston, Reaves launched a mobile outreach program involving financial counselors visiting the homes of patients to tell them about their options for Medicaid coverage, charity care and other financial assistance programs.
She brought the initiative to UNC Health Wayne in 2022, launching the Medicaid Enrollment Assistance program. Together, a Medicaid eligibility specialist and the patient discuss options for Medicaid eligibility and enrollment. This process includes an evaluation of the patient’s assets, bank accounts, employment and more.
Through Medicaid, patients may be eligible for retroactive and future coverage for emergency care, preventative care and specialized care. With these at-home visits, the eligibility specialists answer the patient’s questions directly and walk through the required documents.
“A lot of our patients, when they go home, they have a lot of obstacles that causes them to not even make it to the mailbox, or get to the post office to send back necessary forms for their care,” said Reaves. “Being able to go to their homes, to take care of that for them, I think is a great advantage.”
Bilingual specialists connect with Spanish and Creole-speaking patients, gaining their trust through authentic communication rather than speaking with an automated system. UNC Health Wayne’s team finds this community-based approach alleviates some of the anxiety patients may have about accessing the care they need in the future.
Since the expansion of Medicaid in December 2023, the UNC Health Wayne team has noticed an influx of patients seeking information on enrollment and eligibility. They anticipate this demand will grow in the next few years.
For more information about UNC Health Wayne’s Medicaid Enrollment Assistance, click here.
