New York – New York state health officials have stopped a nonprofit group from providing free medical care to thousands of patients lacking health insurance during a four-day dental conference that started Friday.
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The nonprofit, Remote Area Medical, had raised $3 million and enlisted hundreds of volunteer doctors and other medical workers to offer a range of health services, including dental care, new eyeglasses and other services. The group had planned to treat about 7,000 patients at the New York Sate event.
In September, the New York State Department of Health told the volunteer group, founded in 1985, that it could not treat patients at the conference unless it partnered with an established, state-licensed medical organization.
Despite last-minute efforts, the partnership could not be arranged in time, and the nonprofit group said it found out this week that the state would not waive the requirement.
“This was incredibly disappointing and will mean that thousands of patients won’t get the care they desperately need,” said Stan Brock, the founder of Remote Area Medical.
“In addition, the resources we spent setting up this event in New York City won’t be available to serve other patients in other locations,” he said. “We wasted time and money.”
The Greater New York Dental Meeting, held at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center, is billed by organizers as the largest conference of its kind in the United States with more than 54,000 attendees.
Brock said state health officials told him during negotiations that the free health services his organization provides were not needed.
But Brock said there are tens of thousands of New Yorkers, including homeless people, who are in need of free healthcare.
Nearly 20 percent of adult New Yorkers lack health insurance, according to a 2012 study by the New York City Health Department.
The New York State Department of Health did not respond to calls seeking comment.
A Department of Health representative told the New York Post that the agency attempted to assist Remote Area Medical in setting up the event. “Unfortunately, RAM refused to host the clinic in accordance with New York state law,” the spokesman said, according to the newspaper
Dr. Ian Lerner, one of the conference organizers who invited Remote Area Medical, said the Department of Health’s decision was disappointing but not unexpected.
“They are just doing their job protecting the public,” he said.
I suspect that all the NYS DOH mouth breathers making this decision have good and solid taxpayer provided health insurance coverage.
“Brock said state health officials told him during negotiations that the free health services his organization provides were not needed.”
Yeah, seriously? Said state health official is either a an ill-informed, naive idiot, or a cynical, but very comfortable, non-parasitic nyer. I’m sure his turkey had lots of trimmings and great stuffing, too; after all, in a state where no one requires free or reduced cost health care, there’s much to be thankful for.
if the practitioners were licensed whats the problem?
No doubt some well healed high ranking lobbiest groups are behind this ban on free healthcare they also made sure to put as many obsticles to insure this organization won’t be successful at finding a licensed health care provider to run this for them, after all there’s potential of millions of dollars at risk when a few thousand people receive free healthcare.
Maybe the State was right.
There are ways to provide care, this might not have been right. The standard of care needs to be the same even if there is no payment.
There needs to be records of who renders treatment, making sure they are all licensed. It is hard to imaginne bringing in X-R machines which have to be licensed at the location.
” there are tens of thousands of New Yorkers, including homeless people, who are in need of free healthcare.”
And there are dozens, possibly hundreds, of facilities that provide such healthcare without regard to ability to pay. My wife is a physician at one such clinic.