Walgreens giving free care to jobless and uninsured

[dcsmart]

NEW YORK – Drugstore operator Walgreens will offer free clinic visits to the unemployed and uninsured for the rest of the year, providing tests and routine treatment for minor ailments through its walk-in clinics — though patients will still pay for precriptions.

Walgreens said patients who lose their job and health insurance after March 31 will be able to get free treatment at its in-store Take Care clinics for respiratory problems, allergies, infections and skin conditions, among other ailments. Typically those treatments cost $59 or more for patients with no insurance.
Text

FULL ARTICLE
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090331/ap_on_bi_ge/walgreen_clinics

[UndertheOcean]

1. Good , anything to help .

[dixiegrrrrl]

2. Couple holes in this plan...

1. Walgreens wants "proof" of unemployment.
How do you "prove" you are unemployed if your unemployment has run out, or you are not eligible for
unemployment?

2. Isn't there a conflict in interest about having a Walgreens doc and a Walgreens paid diagnostic lab
providing treatment for what will surely become Walgreens pharmacy customers?
'Course, you could take the script somewhere else.
Or could you? Wonder if it would be limited to Walgreens.

3."Walgreens said patients who lose their job and health insurance after March 31 will be able to get free treatment at its in-store Take Care clinics for respiratory problems, allergies, infections and skin conditions, among other ailments. "

****Typically those treatments cost $59 or more for patients with no insurance.****

These "treatments" your doc, or their doc, gives for the above conditions are basically telling you what you have and writing a script for something.
We poor slobs, insurance or no insurance, basically pay someone in a white coat 60.00 to write on a piece of paper so we can give it to someone else in a white coat and pay thru the nose for latest pill that a bunch of other people in white coats have created just as the patent for the previous pill has run out, thus making the previous pill eligible for cheaper generic status.

[paulsby]

6. of course you can

"2. Isn't there a conflict in interest about having a Walgreens doc and a Walgreens paid diagnostic lab
providing treatment for what will surely become Walgreens pharmacy customers?
'Course, you could take the script somewhere else.
Or could you? Wonder if it would be limited to Walgreens."

by law, a script can be transferred or taken to ANY licensed pharmacy.

no physician is legally authorized to write a script for a specific PHARMACY, and i have never heard of one trying.

the physician can ASK what pharmacy you want it filled at, and fax it there for you, or you can request it yourself and take it wherever you want.

i have, for example, a script for massage therapy (woohoo!) and can take it to any massage therapist licensed in my state. those that are providers with my insurance company are covered at a 90% rate though, so i make sure to choose one of those.

fwiw, hospitals frequently have pharmacies. it is not a conflict of interest for a physician in a hospital to write a script that can be filled at the hospital's pharmacy. he cannot REQUIRE you fill it at that pharmacy.

[rcrush]

3. I lost my job 6 months ago does this cover me or only after March 31?

Cause I'd love to go to the doctor for a few things. Its still a great idea anyways.

[rsmith6621]

4. Its a PLOY FOLKS

This is a ploy for corporate America to attempt to distract and hijack an Obama health care plan....they will give it away if it keeps government out of their collective pockets..

DON"T FALL FOR THE ICING WITHOUT KNOWING THE FLAVOR OF THE CAKE UNDERNEATH.....There is another motive.

[madrchsod]

5. oh well it sounds good but it`s corporate america

it`s best for these people in need to go to the emergency rooms for treatment or not seek treatment at all.

[paulsby]

7. actually, no

emergency room are supposed to be for... wait for it... emergencies.

it is true that many w/o insurance necessarily often have to use emergency rooms as a way to GET medical treatment, but it greatly burdens the system for them to be used that way.

if clinics etc. are available and it's NOT an emergency, it is vastly preferable for these people to use such locations. this then helps the emergency room by lowering their caseload of NON-emergent conditions, allowing them to offer better and more timely care to those who need it.

i realize the kneejerk here is gonna be "a corporation is doing it therefore there must be a way i can rationalize this as a bad thing", but that is, frankly, prejudice.

not everything corporations do is bad or purely out of self-interest.

and companies that do things like this for the public good should be lauded or at least not reflexively dismissed sans evidence.

[madrchsod]

8. i was being....sarcastic

walgreens has a very good record of community service and helping employees in need.

[paulsby]

9. my bad

and apologies. sarcasm meter must be broken.

i get my scripts at walgreens fwiw. they've always been good to me.

glad to hear they are good citizens as well