Medical Network To Start Helping Those Lacking Insurance Coverage

Published: Aug 27, 2007

The Pasco Primary Care Access Network was formed to provide services to the uninsured and underinsured of Pasco County.

About 18 percent of Pasco's residents, about 72,000 individuals, are without insurance.

Even more lack adequate health insurance.

The largest group of those without health insurance, about 38 percent, has income levels between 100 percent and 200 percent of the federal poverty level and do not have the means to independently purchase the services they may require. Many of the uninsured do not qualify for Medicaid, thus the need for expanded medical services to these individuals.

The executive board of the Pasco PCAN includes representatives from Pasco's major hospitals, Pasco County Health Department, Premier Health Care, Pasco County Board of County Commissioners and other community corporate and health care leaders. I am honored to be chairman of the network, which was formed as a result of a report generated by the Pasco County Task Force on Access to Quality Health Care.

In addition to providing needed medical services, one of the goals of PCAN is to offer those services outside of traditional office hours so patients can be seen by a health professional in the evening and on weekends. In east Pasco, Premier Health Care will begin to provide services no later than Sept. 30.

For individuals who do not have a medical "home," the community health centers on both sides of Pasco that will provide these services will become that home. In other words, residents who may have only had emergency rooms to rely on for medical care will now have access to primary health care services.

As chairman of the Senate Transportation & Economic Development Appropriations Committee, I and the members of the Pasco County Legislative Delegation were able to secure $7.7 million to construct a regional hurricane shelter for Pasco that also will serve as a location for PCAN services on the west side of the county. Premier Health Care will share space with the Pasco Health Department to provide medical services so desperately needed by the residents of Pasco.

During the 2007 session of the Legislature, a pilot program was formed which funds a PCAN program in Pasco and a couple of other counties. We appropriated $3.5 million for the counties to use, a portion of which Pasco will be eligible to receive. It is Pasco PCAN's goal to have its medical services available to residents of the west side of the county within the next nine to 12 months.

While the Pasco PCAN will provide the primary care services so many individuals need, it will not have the resources to provide specialized medical care that may be needed by patients. The entire Pasco PCAN board reaches out to the medical community to ask for volunteer medical specialists to offer their support of the network.

The writer, who lives in New Port Richey, represents District 11 in the Florida Senate.