We can help you navigate financial stress

By Melida Marin & Megan Benedict
Patient Financial Navigators
Memorial Hospital of Sweetwater County

Are you having trouble maneuvering through medical bills? Do you need a personal financial plan that’s in line with your healthcare needs?

The Patient Financial Navigation Program at Memorial Hospital of Sweetwater County can help. It was created to help patients and their families address financial needs and to help reduce barriers and stress related to healthcare costs, visits, and treatment.

We realize how much stress medical bills cause patients.

Here’s what we do:

• Work with MHSC patients and their families to help reduce stress or hardship related to the financial toxicity tied to treatment and healthcare.
• Help patients find cost-saving methods for treatments, and improve access to healthcare services the patient needs.
• Aim to maximize health insurance benefits, reduce economic barriers to care, and accurately explain insurance coverage.
• Manage, track, and report their interactions to contribute to navigation metrics, ensure providers and staff are aware of ongoing policy requirements, and help to mitigate financial toxicity.
• Assist with a patient’s economic barriers in care and aid in providing any and all available resources.

We work directly with each patient to explain and assess obstacles and needs. We support patients in understanding out-of-pocket expenses, health insurance coverage, understanding Medicaid/Medicare, help in applying for patient assistance programs, and offer additional information and other benefits that might be available.

The program has grown by leaps and bounds over the last few years. It aids every patient – insured and uninsured. Patients, as well as MHSC, have reaped the benefits of this program since it began. Here is what Patient Financial Navigation accomplished from July 1, 2021, to June 30, 2022:

• Free medications sent to patients have amounted to a savings of $818,097.
• Free and replacement medications have saved the hospital $284,032.
• Premium assistance through a foundation has saved patients $1,596,871 and saved the hospital $798,436.
• The navigators find programs which assist in paying a patient’s co-pay, saving the patient $40,644. Usually this is for a specific medication or treatment.
• Other areas of assistance to maximize insurance coverage for patients has saved them $1,070,654. This includes working with Medicaid; Medicare Assistance Part A&B, Supplement Plans, and Part D; Social Security Disability; and the Healthcare Marketplace through the Affordable Care Act.
• Additional community assistance support to the patient amounts to $114,078. This includes connecting and bridging the gap to community resources.
• The total savings and collected revenues to Sweetwater Memorial through June 30, 2022, for fiscal year 2022 is $2,164,856.

For details, 307-352-8202, or email them at patientnavigation@sweetwatermemorial.com.​ To find out more about this and all Sweetwater Memorial has to offer, go to sweetwatermemorial.com.