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Clinic on Board for Plan; Manchin Network Proposal Brainchild of Health Care Provider

Posted on: Thursday, 19 January 2006, 03:00 CST

By KRIS WISE

DAILY MAIL CAPITOL REPORTER

At least one health care provider is ready to sign on to Gov. Joe Manchin's proposal to create a low-cost network of preventive care clinics.

An earlier version of the plan, virtually untried anywhere else on a statewide basis, was the brainchild of Wheeling doctor Vic Wood.

When Wood tried it at his own clinic more than three years ago, it was criticized for blurring the line between low-cost medical treatment and insurance.

Wood said if the Legislature approves the program, he's ready to open it to all of his patients and start publicizing it again.

"It cuts out the middle man and it eliminates all the problems we have now with insurance companies and cost shifting," Wood said Monday. "People know exactly how much they're paying and what they're getting for that money."

Manchin's proposal, unveiled during his State of the State address last week, calls for some private medical centers and health care clinics around the state to offer basic medical care to uninsured patients for a monthly fee as low as $30.

Wood, who already has about 30 patients signed up for a similar program, said the process works because it puts medical care and costs back in the hands of patients.

The Wheeling doctor, who has run an urgent care clinic since 1988, came up with a model for the clinic-based plan in 2003 out of frustration.

"I was frustrated with the insurance-driven model, the way they were paying me and the patients who couldn't afford it," Wood said.

He started advertising in local newspapers, describing a plan that allowed uninsured patients to pay a monthly fee and get all the basic medical services they needed, from preventative annual checkups to proper care for common colds and treatment for more serious problems such as high blood pressure.

The plan worked for a few weeks, until Wood was contacted by the state Insurance Commission and told he had put himself in the business of selling insurance.

He disagreed, and the difference in opinion wound up generating a bill in the state Senate that would have allowed him to continue the program.

Outcry from the insurance industry helped get the bill defeated in the House, but it grabbed the attention of Manchin and a state committee working to find ways to make health care more affordable for West Virginians.

Wood became a member of the committee, along with officials from the state Insurance Commission, and eventually helped develop a workable idea the governor now hopes to see instituted statewide.

Wood charges $83 a month for a single person to get basic services, and $125 a month for a family.

Manchin said last week that two other providers have said they'll offer services in other parts of the state at an even lower rate of about $1 a day. The governor's proposal - aimed at settling the concerns of insurers - limits the number of participating healthcare providers to eight, each of which can have no more than three clinics offering the plan.

Wood said it's easier for some clinics to set lower prices if they're receiving state and federal subsidies. He does not.

If the Legislature latches on to the idea, West Virginia would have a unique model for health care for the uninsured, said Dave Bowman, a spokesman for the federal Health Resources and Services Administration. The administration operates the nation's clinic- based health care system.

Manchin's proposal is unlike any Bowman had heard of for a state because it's not reliant on government subsidies.

It also eliminates the idea of a sliding payment scale for people of different income levels or who have different medical needs.

"In most cases we see, there isn't a subscription-type fee," Bowman said. "They'll pay when they have a problem or when they perceive they have a problem. There are a lot of novel approaches being tried right now to provide better health care, but this might be totally original."

Contact writer Kris Wise at 348-1244.

Source: Charleston Daily Mail

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