Our Stories
What happens when someone
can't afford health care?
 Troy with a Kaiser Permanente patient financial advisor. |
Troy and his wife, Eileen, had the kind of October they hope to never repeat. Troy was hospitalized after intestinal surgery, and while he was still recovering, his wife joined him at the Kaiser Permanente Hayward Medical Center following an emergency appendectomy.
The stressful situation was made worse by the troubled economy. As a local truck driver, Tony had been watching his workweek and paycheck shrink. And Eileen was a stay-at-home mom devoted to home-schooling their two children.
So when the $4,000 bill came for their hospital co-payments, Troy and Eileen didn't have the money to pay.
"I felt very frustrated that I couldn't pay the bill like I wanted to," Troy said.
So he went back to the hospital and talked with a Kaiser Permanente patient financial advisor. The financial advisor talked with him about Kaiser Permanente's Medical Financial Assistance Program (MFAP) and processed his paperwork. Troy's application was approved, and his family's hospital bills were paid by the program.
"It was just a relief not to have so much stress about how to pay the bill," Troy said. "And the financial counselor was such a caring person, that in itself relieved me a lot."
About Kaiser Permanente's Medical Financial Assistance Program
MFAP helps qualifying patients pay out-of-pocket medical expenses (excluding insurance premiums) and prescription medications for a limited period of time. The program is open to members and nonmembers who meet federal financial guidelines based on household size and income, and who have exhausted all means of private or public medical coverage.
MFAP is part of Kaiser Permanente's Charity Care program and is funded by Community Benefit. Community Benefit programs such as MFAP are central to our mission as a nonprofit hospital and health plan.
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