Access to Specialty Care
In collaboration with the Whatcom County Medical Society the Whatcom Alliance
is developing a Specialty Physician Access Network (SPAN) as part of Whatcom Project Access. SPAN will ensure the equitable distribution of lower income, uninsured patient cases among participating ancillary providers and specialists who are willing to donate care for eligible patients. Further, the network will ensure accurate and adequate reporting of all donated care. The value of donated care will be used as leverage to attract additional resources that can be used to ensure program sustainability.
The SPAN Program can be summarized as follows:
- All patients will have an established primary care provider.
- Screening and eligibility determination would be done by Community
Health Center staff or less frequently by the WAHA Access Coordinators.
- Enrollees would have access to specialty care and other identified
ancillary services (e.g. imaging, pharmacy, and labs) for a period
of up to six months before re-enrollment would be required.
- The SPAN coordinator, working with the Medical Society, will maintain the central physician database, schedule appointments,
and make patient reminder calls.
- Co pays and/or other incentives would be used to minimize no shows.
- The value of donated services provided by volunteer health care providers
would be captured through the billing system of an existing health
plan.
- Donated services would be recognized and leveraged to stabilize and
enhance the local health care delivery system.
For more information on the SPAN project, please contact the SPAN Coordinator Felicia Boettger (360) 715-6534
