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Financial Overview
Direct and In-Kind Community SupportServices for People in Need
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Samaritan physicians, nurses and other staff consistently volunteer their time; and Samaritan hospitals donate lab equipment, lab test services, X-ray exams and prescriptions to three free medical clinics: one in Benton County (Corvallis), and two in Linn County (Albany and Lebanon). Samaritan works with Community Outreach, which provides administrative services for the clinics, in serving people who do not have medical insurance.
Samaritan fills thousands of free prescriptions, valued at hundreds of thousands of dollars each year. Just in the year 2005, for example, Samaritan pharmacies filled 5988 prescriptions for Benton County’s Community Outreach, Inc.; and it filled 2318 prescriptions for Linn County’s InReach Clinic.
Other SHS-related entities, such as the hospital foundations, also help in these efforts. For example, in early 2006, the Albany General Hospital Foundation awarded $52,000 to Albany’s InReach Clinic. The money came from various fund-raising activities, including the foundation’s 2005 Winter Gala.
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The Samaritan Medication Assistance Program provides free prescription medications for qualified patients at all five Samaritan hospitals. The program helps local people who have no medication insurance, do not qualify for Medicaid, Medicare Part D or other government-sponsored program that provides outpatient prescription coverage, have limited resources, and are otherwise unable to afford the cost of their medications.
Begun in 2004, the program immediately attracted hundreds of applicants; and by spring of the following year, it was dispensing more than $250,000 a month of free prescription drugs. Even after May 15, 2006, the date that Medicare’s new drug coverage, known as Part D, took effect, the Samaritan Medication Assistance Program is still vitally important for meeting the community’s needs. Since the beginning of 2006, it continues to dispense more than $100,000 a month of free prescription drug assistance to qualified patients.
The Samaritan Medication Assistance Program operates through a central location at Elm Street Pharmacy in Albany. There, a pharmacy technician coordinator, in collaboration with pharmacy staff, works with drug manufacturers’ patient assistance programs to bring needed medications to often-overlooked populations.
The phone number for the Samaritan Medication Assistance Program is (541) 812-5078.
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In January 2005, Samaritan North Lincoln Hospital began implementation of its updated Prescription Assistance Program, which helps patients who cannot afford their medications. The program is a model for efficient tracking of patients, medications and costs.
The program, which is expected to serve about 350 people a year, owes its efficiency to a database software program that receives input from the hospital’s finance, pharmacy and development departments. The inclusive input makes it possible for the hospital to track transactions more precisely and have real-time information readily available. For example, should questions arise about the amount of seasonal or regional use of the program, or about the value of the charity care allotted thus far in the year, the computer program would be able to give timely answers. In other words, the program allows the hospital to be especially accountable for its prescription assistance.
To assure that the prescription program serves patients compassionately and fairly, new procedures and protocols have been enacted. They include:
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Through a program it calls "Needy Meds," Samaritan Pacific Communities Hospital in Newport helps hundreds of low income people receive the medications they need. The program began in the fall of 2003, and by May of the following year, it already had processed 2300 applications.
Needy Meds works with 187 pharmaceutical companies to obtain free or nominal-cost medications for patients whose incomes fall below federal poverty levels. The program does not apply, however, to generic drugs or narcotics.
From a kiosk set up across from its Education Room, the hospital makes available the individual drug companies' medication-application forms. Should a patient need help filling out a form, hospital staff are available on Monday afternoons (and other times, as needed) to assist in the process.
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Samaritan regularly shares its professional staff—and their expertise —in conducting health education classes, health screenings, support groups and other health promotion activities through the year. In 2003, the value of such staff time was $456,783.
These outreach activities serve thousands of area residents annually and cover health topics such as prenatal parenting education, CPR certification, diabetes management, controlling high blood pressure, and women’s health issues.
Education and screening activities also include collaborations with other major health providers. Samaritan Lebanon Community Hospital, for example, cooperates with the Shriner’s to provide a screening site and physician and staff volunteers to screen local children for the Shriner’s annual orthopedic screening initiative. Good Samaritan Regional Medical Center and Samaritan Pacific Communities Hospital work with the American Cancer Society to provide local “Look Good, Feel Better” seminars for breast cancer patients.
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