Serving Health Safety Net Patients: Reminders
Some reminders to allay confusion about Health Safety Net (HSN) patients, including their access to health care in our system:
- Free Care hasn't gone away - it's been replaced by HSN. Eligibility is more limited, so there are fewer HSN patients than there were Free Care patients.
- HSN patients can access hospital, health center, and physician services in the same way that Free Care patients could. In fact, there are many HSN patients in primary care at BWH sites like Women's Health Associates, Brookside, and Southern Jamaica Plain, and at MGH Health Center sites.
- HSN patients can receive medically necessary services that are covered by MassHealth Standard. This includes non-urgent scheduled procedures.
- BWPO/MGPO policy is to provide medically necessary services to HSN patients the same way that they would provide medically necessary services to a MassHealth Standard patient.
- Some patients, such as Medicare patients, still have HSN as secondary coverage to cover services that aren't covered by their primary insurance.
-Adapted from “Serving Health Safety Net Patients: REMINDERS”, Kim Simonian, MPH, Community Benefit Programs, Partners HealthCare, November 10, 2008.
11/08