County's Medical Assistance Cases Triple

Authorizations for medical assistance from the Highlands County Department of Human Services tripled in the first quarter of this fiscal year over the same period a year ago. The quarter ended Dec. 31.

"Our authorizations are up 300 percent for that period," said Mary Foy, director of human services.

"People have lost their jobs or their hours have been cut so much that they just can't make it," she added. "People who would have never shown up at our door, and are embarrassed to be here, are here now."

About 25 percent of the department's yearly medical assistance budget of $80,782 goes for life-saving prescription medications, Foy said.

Some extra funding for prescription assistance is coming, as the Highlands County commissioners this week approved a marketing contract with Financial Market Concepts, based in Ponte Verde, which will distribute its Coast2Coast discount prescription card free to county residents.

The county has no involvement in marketing the card, except allowing the company to advertise that it will contribute a royalty of 25 cents to the county for every prescription filled with its card by county residents.

All funds from the royalty payments have been earmarked for the human services department's prescription assistance program.

While no estimates on potential income from the deal are available, Foy said, it's bound to help.

"It can only be a plus," she said. "If it generates anything, it's more than we would have had without it."

With its limited budget, Human Services cannot pay for continuing care or prescriptions for clients, who must have incomes at or below 130 percent of federal poverty level.

The department's role, Foy explained, is to fund initial care or purchase a necessary prescription once, while finding other agencies that can meet the longer term medical needs of a client.

"We do a lot of case management, and we really work hard to discover different resources that can help our citizens without out-of-pocket costs," Foy said.

"That's the way we make our little budget work," she added. "We try to do as much partnership as we can. And I think our biggest asset is the knowledge of our employees, who are constantly discovering new resources."

Ruth Colman, one of the department's four human services specialists, said most pharmaceutical companies offer free or extremely low priced prescriptions for low-income people without insurance.

"We go online to pharmaceutical companies, and we'll download the paperwork they need," Colman said. Because the assistance programs of pharmaceutical companies often take six to eight weeks to start, she said, human services can fill the initial prescription.

"We leverage our dollars considerably," Foy said. "If we can do a prescription for a month and the pharmaceutical company does it for the following 11 months, that's a pretty good leveraging of county dollars."

Colman said the county has been able to stretch its limited dollars for emergency prescriptions thanks to many pharmacies in Highlands County, which provide either free or greatly discounted medications. The same holds true for doctors and hospitals providing medical care, she said.

"We have special rates with many doctors and the hospitals in Highlands County, and that says a lot," Colman said. "That shows that they have a heart, they care for the people."

Even so, though, the 300 percent increase in medical assistance cases during the first quarter of the fiscal year could deplete the $80,000 budget before the year's end.

Asked if she expects to request additional funding from the county commissioners, Foy answered, "We've never done it before. We've always been able to manage before. But we've never seen this before.

"We're not ready to do that yet," she added. "It would be premature to speculate on that. We'll have to see the way this plays out."