Issues chairs and crutches. Podiatrists and dentists. Discounts need to be negotiated in advance; otherwise, they need to be negotiated on the spot. Three lab and diagnostic centers — Nevada Imaging Center, LMC Pathology and Primex Lab — have signed on, along with 60 physicians, though Mousel says they need many more. Still, she is upbeat. “We’re doing pretty well getting the pieces in place we need so we can offer our members a full complement of care,” she adds. “We’re building a wall a brick at a time and so far we’re finding most of the bricks that we need.” The program with the county is still being finalized, but Nancy McLane, the director of Clark County Social Service, expects it to be finalized by year’s end. She says the contract with the network will allow the county to offer patients who don’t qualify for county-run programs a viable health care alternative. Some patients who are already in the county’s system will be able to access the network for specialist care that UMC can’t meet, such as dermatology, orthopedics and some radiology. Third, Access to Healthcare Network will treat undocumented workers, which should lower medical costs for the county. “If there’s another way for them to get care before they get sick, it benefits us financially,” McLane says, “and it also keeps the emergency rooms from being backlogged [with patients] who could be treated elsewhere.” Still, Rice has been careful about rolling out the program too quickly. When asked how she plans to get the word out, she cautions that, in a strange way, she doesn’t want the word to get out. For her, quality control is everything, and it’s why, in order to keep the program humming, she and her staff are keeping tight reins on it. In Northern Nevada, Access receives no more than 200 new patients a month; the network won’t take any more than 100 to 150 people for the first year in Southern Nevada. “If we were to be inundated with thousands of people at a time,” says Rice, “which we could be, our quality would go down and then people would say, ‘Access to Healthcare Network sucks.’” The program is stingy, too. There’s no online application; patients must come in person to fill out an application 22
Desert Companion
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