I came to the USA from overseas recently. I don t have insurance, I don t have the appropriate budget. How can I go for check ups if I m feeling sick? How can I utilize health services here? Ohio Association of Community Health Centers (OACHC, http://ohiochc.site-ym.com/ ), is a professional association representing Ohio's Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs, or community health centers). OACHC's Mission is to ensure access to high-quality affordable health care for all Ohioans through the growth and development of Ohio's Community Health Centers. OACHC represents Ohio's 51 Community Health Centers at over 280 locations, including multiple mobile units in 65 of Ohio s 88 counties. In 2016, Community Health Centers provided care to over 670,000 Ohioans and recorded over 2.3 million patient visits. Ohio's Community Health Centers are required to provide primary and preventive care to all patients regardless of a person's insurance status or ability to pay. These services can include medical, dental, vision, transportation, translation, pediatrics, behavioral health, substance abuse, health education, and enrollment services. The following represents a breakdown of the patients that Ohio s Community Health Centers serve : % 14.5 uninsured, % 57,7 are on Medicaid, % 9.8' are on Medicare, % 18,1 have private insurance % 32 are between the ages of 0-19; % 34 are between the ages of 20-44 % 62 are Caucasian; 28% are Black/African American; 8% are Latino/Hispanic In many places of Ohio, OACHC member CHCs (community health centers) are the only source of medical care for those on Medicaid and the uninsured. CHCs are Ohio s low-cost and high quality medical care providers. CHCs that work in Ohio, not only provide high quality medical care to their patients, but also fill up their spots to combat the shortage of professionals with a number of professional roles like 259 physicians, 253 NP / PA / CNM providers, 101 dentists, 522 nurses and more than 3.800 staff positions. To find the clinic closest to you click on the link on the link down below; http://ohiochc.site-ym.com/search/custom.asp?id=2238 After you click the link you will be in the website seen above and will have to fill out sections that are marked by asterisks (city, state and zip code).
Before going to these clinics you have to call them for an appointment. On the appointment date you should go to the clinic and tell them about your medical situation and needs, before you can get checked up the clinic will complete the registration(membership) process. Most blood tests and medical examinations are performed in these clinics, after that if you want to move into more advanced medical services like advanced examinations and treatments you will be referred to more advanced clinics. After your check ups and examinations you will be prescribed the appropriate medication and depending on your situation you will be receive medication support. Also these clinics provide translators to those who can t speak or understand english sufficiently. For Cleveland residents http://www.circlehealthservices.org/ clinic provides high quality medical care and takes care of the necessary procedures. In cases of advanced examinations and treatments there are referrals to hospitals.it used to have free clinic in its name but then it was changed to called Circle Health Services.
Also low cost clinics can be found in the addresses below. When you enter the address of your residence and other information of that sort, it shows you the clinics that are the closest to you. In these places you can have your x-ray, examinations, and USG services for very low prices.; https://www.pparx.org/prescription_assistance_programs/free_clinic_finder http://www.nafcclinics.org/find-clinic If you want to move onto more advanced procedures in clinics like advanced examinations and treatments, you will have to get help from hospitals and get through certain procedures and complete certain documents. Aside from private hospitals there are state hospitals and charitable hospitals which provide Financial Assistance in the form of Charity Care for those who are unable to pay. Depending on the situation they will ask for applications before the procedure, or mail a bill after the procedure. For example you can apply for Cleveland Clinic s financial assitance with the form found in this link ( https://my.clevelandclinic.org/ccf/media/files/patients/financial-assistance-app. pdf ).
Or by using the same method you can apply for UH hospital s Financial Assistance program. ( http://www.uhhospitals.org/myuhcare/online-bill-pay/financial-assistance-prog ram ).
Hospitals and dental clinics that offer services this way are found in lists down below. By going to the websites of these hospitals you can find out more about their Financial Assistance services and policies, and get the forms necessary to get through the process faster.
If you are in an emergency situation, then you should apply for the hospital s emergency services with no hesitation. You can apply for Financial Assistance after the treatment, and the services that your receive will take care of it. Also there are many programs in Ohio that help you with check-ups and medical services; *CHAP- Cuyahoga Health Access Partnership (Insurance Assistance) http://cuyahogahealthaccess.org/ *The Cleveland Cuyahoga County Food policy Coalition http://cccfoodpolicy.org/ *The Greater Cleveland Healthy Communities Initiative (through YMCA) https://www.clevelandymca.org/ *Community Health Initiative (Metro Health System) *Ohio Chronic Disease Collaborative (Ohio CDC) https://www.ohiocdc.org/ I have medications that I take regularly, how can I get them prescribed? There are two types of pharmaceutical drugs in America : over the counter -OTC ( Medications that don t require prescription ) and prescription drug ( Medications that are only provided if there is prescription ). ( Pain killers, fever relievers, certain stomach pills, vitamins, etc are OTC drugs ) In most parts of America, doctors have to prescribe medications through the internet(e-prescription). Paper prescriptions are not used that often anymore. Sometimes doctors call pharmacies and prescribe drugs to their patients, and pharmacies accept that. This can be done by some doctors that you know. However, if there is an investigation and the doctor hasn t officially seen you and prescribed the drug to you before that, he can get into trouble because of the lack of documentation that proves it was an official visit.that s why its the best course of action to use one of the options above. The doctor prescribed me medication but it s too expensive, I cannot afford it. How can I buy a drug in a low cost way? 1. Go to www.goodrx.com.
Type the name of your drug on the search bar at the top, click on the blue find the lowest price button 3. As an example above you can see multiple price options for the glipizide drug. if you click the blue prescription settings button under the picture of the drug: you can see the prices of the 5 mg, 60 tablet drug in multiple pharmacies. You can change those settings if you want to. If your drug is 10 mg you can choose it and change it to 30 tablets instead of 60. For example: Glipizide 5 mg 60 tablet costs 13.36 dollars at CVS. 4. Click on the get free coupon button next to whatever pharmacy you want to buy the drug from then print the discount coupon, or show it to the pharmacist through your smartphone.
If it says no coupon necessary next to it, you can get that drug for the low price without needing a coupon. 5. After clicking on the coupon, you can click get card by mail on the top right corner and enter the information, it will mail a GoodRx card for free, you can use it in most of your other pharmaceutical drug purchases and save time by not having to deal with more coupons. 6. Another website for affordable medication http://www.needymeds.org/ When you click on this link and become a member, you get a discount card for the uninsured. 7. Finally there is https://pals-labs.org which gives you access to PALS discount cards that help you get up to 80% discount in 63,000 pharmacies nationwide.
8. Some pharmacies have discounted medications. They have a list of medications and their prices which vary from pharmacy to pharmacy. When you call them, make sure to ask for the discount. If you don t ask they don t tell you about the discount.