Health Care Resources

Rockledge March 15, 2010- Dr. Dennis Carmody is offering free dental work at his Dentistry From the Heart event beginning at 8AM Friday at his offfice , 130 S. Woods Drive.

Dentistry From The Heart is a national non-profit organization created to aid those in need, including the growing population of under-insured Americans.

Carmody and his volunteers will treat the first 50 patients that day by providing free extractions and fillings for those in need.

For more information , call 631-8088 or visit www.carmodydentist.com or www.dentistryfromtheheart.org

sc4ram wrote:Rockledge March 15, 2010- Dr. Dennis Carmody is offering free dental work at his Dentistry From the Heart event beginning at 8AM Friday at his offfice , 130 S. Woods Drive.

Dentistry From The Heart is a national non-profit organization created to aid those in need, including the growing population of under-insured Americans.

Carmody and his volunteers will treat the first 50 patients that day by providing free extractions and fillings for those in need.

For more information , call 631-8088 or visit www.carmodydentist.com or www.dentistryfromtheheart.org

Thanks for this post sc4ram!

I strongly advise anyone who is going to attend this event to try and get there early!! I spoke to someone in their office and the phone has been ringing all day about it, even people asking if its ok to camp out in the parking lot overnight!!

If you go to the dentistry from the heart website, you can see that there are similar events in Ocala, Pace, Winter Park and Winter Springs Florida in the coming few months.

I wasnt aware of this program but apparently one of its qualifications is that you must of been laid off from a job that provided you with health insurance. FYI



http://www.coverfloridahealthcare.com/

sc4ram wrote:I wasnt aware of this program but apparently one of its qualifications is that you must of been laid off from a job that provided you with health insurance. FYI

http://www.coverfloridahealthcare.com/

Thanks, but no thanks. I printed out all the possible Cover Florida plans over a year ago when I lost my regular coverage. These are nickle and dime plans. Either you get a limited amount of dr's visits in a plan with no provision if you get really sick, or else you get limited coverage for catastrophic with no or almost no preventive care. Insurance companies LOVE these plans, and have been trying to get them out to as many people as possible because they don't cost the companies much.

So for example, at my age I would pay United Healthcare (I had them a while back, pretty good coverage if you are lucky enough to be on an employer plan) over $2000 per year for just about that amount of payment for doctors and other provisions. So why bother with a plan when it is about $1 for every dollar of care used, even if you dont' use it! Might as well get a health savings account, another horrible idea, and one which does absolutely nothing for someone who doesn't have enough to pay to begin with.

Everyone's situation is different of course. If someone is young and healthy and wants a catastrophic plan, this might be an option, if only just to say you have insurance. But for anyone over 50 but too young for Medicare and doesnt' quality for Medicaid, and has any kind of medical need whatsoever, I can't see the point. They even warn that pre-existing conditions may apply.

These plans are not government supported in any way financially by the state. They are merely low-cost (some), low benefit plans that the companies were given some kind of permission or encouragement to market in this state.

Read all the fine print and details to see what you might get or NOT from any of these plans before buying.

Thanks for the insight Nancy, I would argue with your assesment of HSA's. I have one and its worked great for me. Anything I spend on directly Medical/Dental (and over the counter) comes off my taxes.

The only downside I see is that if Health Reform becomes law, the bill is construted to force these accounts to die on the vine.

http://www.floridadiscountdrugcard.com

The above is a link to the FL Discount Drug Card program. I checked the lowest costs for a variety of drugs and ran them by a pharmacist at Publix (best prices where I live by far....). Turns out that Publix charges the exact same prices for the least expensive generics anyway, so you don't need the card or program. The pharmacist said the discount drugs by mail program would save some money, but few people have asked her about this program..

MerryL - We went to Publix, we went to Walgreens and no one knows anything about the Drug Card. Right away we got "it must be some Obama idea" and everyone laughed. i printed everything out too, but it did no good. sad...esp when you have no choice but to get something filled.

surfer wrote:MerryL - We went to Publix, we went to Walgreens and no one knows anything about the Drug Card. Right away we got "it must be some Obama idea" and everyone laughed. i printed everything out too, but it did no good. sad...esp when you have no choice but to get something filled.

You need to use the website locator to find specific pharmacies in your area that are participating. Just put in your zip code:

http://www.floridadiscountdrugcard.com/pharmacy.aspx

Someone else mentioned here somewhere that Publix had lower prices for what they needed anyway. I think it varies a lot with the individual. I tested a few prices for a couple of things I use on the card website and some of them were cheaper than what I've paid. The card site says you get either the card price or the lowest participating pharmacy price, whichever is lower. I did notice that on some things there was a very large savings by using the 3-month mail-order option. Whether a person has an advantage with this card I think really depends on the particular drups he or she needs, the location of the nearest participating pharmacies, and whether the mail-order option is a bigger savings for the 90 day scripts.

This past year I had to buy several prescriptions that I couldn't afford and so really shopped around. I was surprised to find big differences between even the discount pharmacies and between individual drugs. For some things Target was the best bet, for one my doc told me to go to Walmart, but they didn't even carry it, another (an antibiotic) I got free from Publix, for one prescription it was less bother just to go to my regular CVS, for another antibiotic I had to shop elsewhere. These drug prices are far from standard, even within one zipcode.

Thanks Nancy. We did use the locator and many pharmacies around here are listed. It's just that when we tried two, the pharmacists said they had no idea what the program is. The discount program has been available to qualifying seniors for awhile, so I'm surprised. Maybe no one ever used the card at our Publix and walgreens. I didn't expect anything free, just was disappointed that this program seemed like a dud already. An exaggeration of course...

That's weird about Publix and the drug card. I'm curious now, I wonder if the card works something like a coupon with purchases, i.e., the info on the card gives the pharmacist the info for what and where to get their rebate or something like that, but it seems odd. Like you say, maybe there just aren't many people using it. Or maybe there are numerous discount cards people are using and the store doesn't really take much note of which one you use until the point of purchase.

I just wish they'd get rid of the ban on Canadian drugs, so that the price of prescriptions wouldn't be so prohibitive anyway.

By Presidents' Day next year, the national organization Volunteers in Medicine hopes to open its 78th free clinic for the working poor and uninsured, this one in Brevard County.

"We don't accept (health) insurance," said Paul Ringenberger, who will serve as acting executive director of the new clinic, operating under the name Indian River Volunteers in Medicine. "We'll see you the first time, but then we direct you elsewhere."
The nonprofit clinic, still in the planning stages, will provide primary health care services and dental care at no cost to needy residents in Brevard and Indian River counties. Three quarters of the medical staff likely will be retired physicians and dentists, with the rest practicing physicians who donate their time.
"Ours is a different approach" to providing health care, Ringenberger said. "Especially with our retired doctors, this is a labor of love."
In Florida, the Palm Bay clinic, which will operate at an undecided location near Palm Bay Road and Babcock Street, will be the sixth clinic of its type in the state. The national organization, headquartered in Burlington, Vt., opened the first clinic in Hilton Head, S.C., in 1994.
Back then, a retired physician discovered that 1 in 3 residents on the island lacked access to care, Ringenberger said. So he brought together a group of other retired physicians, nurses and dentists to work on a voluntary, part-time basis, to address that gap.
Each state provides a limited license to retired health care professionals who choose to participate. The clinics rely on donations, grants and fundraising events to operate, rather than federal funding.
Volunteers in Medicine estimates there are more than 250,000 retired physicians, 350,000 nurses and 40,000 dentists in the United States today looking for meaningful ways to spend their retirement.
In Brevard County, Ringenberger credited three local physicians with wanting to establish a free clinic in the community: Dr. Gene List, a retired dentist; Dr. Barry Kronman, a retired ear, nose and throat specialist; and Dr. Richard Leong, a Satellite Beach dentist in the area for about 30 years.
He said the organization looked at unemployment rates, now at more than 12 percent, as well as the number of uninsured, before selecting the county as the site for a free clinic. About 24.7 percent, or 77,594 residents younger than 65 lack health insurance coverage in Brevard, according to a recent survey commissioned by the Health Council of East Central Florida.
As to the clinic's hours and days of operation, they have not been decided.
Contact Jenks at 242-3657 or sjenks@floridatoday.com.

I use my card at CVS with no problems what so ever. In fact,the pharmacist(who was WELL versed in the program) told me the Rx would have to be split(the program doesn't pay for 100 pills at a time)....in which I could choose 50/50 or 60/40...which ever worked best for me. The best part was that the overall savings will be about $17.00 and getting on the program was painless and cost free.