MyFoxPhilly

Volunteers In Medicine free clinic stopped accepting illegal immigrant patients in September because Martin Memorial officials say the health system no longer can afford to provide medical tests for them.

Martin Memorial Health Systems provides diagnostic services and therapy — everything from blood analysis to body scans — for the Volunteers In Medicine clinic, which provides free care for impoverished, uninsured Martin County residents. Last year, Martin Memorial did $2.3 million in work for the clinic's 1,000 patients.

"We have worked closely with Volunteers In Medicine," Martin Memorial spokesman Scott Samples said. "We both agree that neither of us has the financial resources to continue providing care for undocumented immigrants."

Martin Memorial provided $26.4 million in charity care last year. Insurance reimbursements are falling, and the ranks of un- or under-insured patients are growing. The health system is choosing to focus on caring for legal residents, Samples said.

Providing long-term care for uninsured patients unable to pay their bills never has been a policy at Martin Memorial, Samples said. But the hospital does provide emergency care to anyone.

In at least one case — Luis Alberto Jimenez, an illegal immigrant who called Martin Memorial home for years, at a cost of $1.5 million — emergency care turned into long-term care because the patient had nowhere else to go. That case was rare, Samples said, but does illustrate the larger problem health-care facilities across the country are struggling with — how to treat patients who are in the country illegally.

Since September, Volunteers in Medicine is only treating the 100 undocumented patients already enrolled in their program. Volunteers In Medicine's $550,000 annual budget can't pay the bills Martin Memorial used to, Executive Director Mary Fields said. Without those tests, doctors can't really treat a patient.

"It's very difficult to tell a doctor to look at a chart different for one patient than for another," Fields said. "To tell someone, 'You can get this, but not that.' That's really hard. You can't do that to someone."

Since the new policy went into effect Sept. 12, Volunteers In Medicine still has a month-and-a-half-long waiting list for patient enrollment.

All new patients will have to show proof of citizenship or legal immigration status along with meeting the income, insurance and Martin County residency requirements.

The clinic's medical director, Dr. Howard Voss, said he sympathizes both with patients and Martin Memorial. Word has gotten out among immigrants — even those still in their native countries — that Martin Memorial is a place to get care, Voss said, and the health system can't absorb the cost forever.

"This hospital cannot be the acute care center for a whole nation of Mexicans or Guatemalans," Voss said.

dl425's Blog

STUART FLA STOPS FREE CARE FOR ILLEGALS

dl425

Inside Fox:
Hot List About Us Good Day TV Listings Politics

Write your comment below: Email me when a new comment is added to this entry